Sensational round of 64 strokes by Brooks Koepka (-12) in the second round of the LIV Golf Singapore and victory on track. Not all is said and done, but at least half of it is. The Florida golfer has activated the Valhalla mode, he has got the jota body, with a jota of major. He will start this Sunday with a three-stroke lead. Obviously, nothing is definitive yet, there are still 18 holes left, but Koepka is one of the most reliable players in the world when it comes to managing leads and advantages.
Koepka was regretting having been wasting time in the first four months of the year. Or, at least, that’s the feeling he had in view of the results. Certainly, in the last two weeks, Australia and Singapore, he seems to have recovered everything at once. The reason? Well, as simple as it may seem, the change of putter. He has found the confidence he did not have on the greens and has started to find the hole, the same one that had been lost to him. Today he has put almost everything that had to be put, those that go from two to four meters, and some more, with two important pure ones.
In this way, the American, five-time Grand winner, puts his fourth victory in LIV two weeks away from the PGA Championship, the major he has already won three times and where he will act as defending champion. The jota body. He has a three-stroke lead over Adrian Meronk (-9), Thomas Pieters (-9), Abraham Ancer (-9) and Matthew Wolff (-9). All are very dangerous, all have proven to be capable of going very low, but perhaps the one who should worry Koepka the most is Wolff, a golfer capable of the best and the worst. If he gets the good bull, he is one of those who approaches 60 strokes with astonishing ease. Today he made 65 strokes.
What we can almost rule out is a Spanish victory. We will have to keep waiting. That second Spanish triumph in the LIV Golf is resisting. Eugenio López Chacarra (-6) is the best classified, twelfth place. It does not seem very reasonable to think about cutting six strokes to a Koepka who has only made one bogey in 36 holes. The Madrid player needed something more than the 69 strokes he has made to really give himself a chance of victory.
Even more difficult are Jon Rahm (-5), too inconsistent, capable of signing three consecutive birdies and then making two bogeys and a double bogey. He is alternating good and very good holes with other poor strokes, which we are not very used to seeing in the golfer from Barrika. He made 68 strokes.
Tied with the Biscayan is Sergio García (-5), also too far away to think about a victory tomorrow, while David Puig (-2) will have to fight this Sunday to sign a really low round to recover positions and add a good dowry of points for the ranking.
As for the team classification, for the moment there is a double for Koepka. His Smash lead with one stroke over the Australian Rippers and two over Bubba Watson’s Range Goats. Sergio García’s Fireballs are three strokes away and Legion XIII six. A lot can still happen in this classification.
The second round started with about five hours delay due to storms, but it gave time to finish. Advantages of the LIV Golf shot format and the smaller number of players.
