A Jon Rahm (-7) will need to make a comeback this Sunday if he wants to leave Virginia with his first victory of the season in LIV Golf. The golfer from Barrika, who started brilliantly in a second round where he was co-leader for several holes, ended up frustrated as nothing was going in for him, while his playing partner, Anirban Lahiri (-11), was making everything. In any case, his four-shot deficit is more than recoverable if he can overcome his block and focus on his game, especially improving his accuracy with irons and the putter.
The man from Barrika missed some fairways, not too many, but his biggest deficit was with the irons, leaving himself fewer good birdie opportunities than usual. Even so, he managed to sink some extraordinary putts, like the one on the 2nd hole from over 20 metres, and took advantage of the first two par fives at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club to stay in the fight. His round, in any case, was more focused on trying to recover from his mistakes, something he managed with varying degrees of difficulty, rather than gaining strokes on the course.
The par five on the 14th hole, which became complicated with a ball in the bunker from the tee, began to test the patience of the Spaniard as he saw the leader not miss a single shot. On the 15th, he hit a great putt that just wouldn’t drop. On the 16th, after sending his ball into the rough, he missed a one-and-a-half-metre putt to save par after a great recovery. And on the 17th, when he finally managed to leave it close with an approach, a lip-out left him without a birdie that seemed to be in the bag… Luckily, he managed to close the day with a great birdie on the 18th, keeping some hope alive.
All the frustration that accompanied the man from Barrika, especially on his back nine, was compounded by the birdie festival of the Indian golfer who, in his only major mistake, was forced to take a drop without penalty on the par three 16th after sending his ball into a kind of drain, managed to save the situation by sinking a putt of over 12 metres. His recovery from the tall grass on the 18th seemed like child’s play for Anirban, who will head into Sunday with a couple of strokes as the main favourite for victory in the tournament.
Graeme McDowell (-9), with a great round of 66 strokes this Saturday, Bubba Watson (-9), who shone with a tremendous 65, and Martin Kaymer (-9), with 67 strokes in this second round, present themselves as the main alternatives to Lahiri. But Jon, Joaquín Niemann (-7), Phil Mickelson (-7), and Bryson DeChambeau (-7) are confident they haven’t yet said their last word in this tournament ahead of the US Open and the first of the second half of the LIV Golf season.
Luis Masaveu (-3), with a notable round of 68 strokes, the same as Jon, will start the final round within the top 20 of the leaderboard. He will look to continue climbing to bid farewell, at least for the moment, to LIV Golf, where he will become a reserve in favour of a Josele Ballester (+5) who struggled with 75 strokes to finish tied in 46th place with Sergio García (+5), who was off his game this week. The Crushers GC (-21) led by DeChambeau are ahead by one stroke over the Smash GC (-20) led by Koepka.
