Recital Spanish in Saudi Arabia. Swords held high. Jon Rahm (-9), Sergio García (-8) and David Puig (-8) reach the halfway point of the LIV Golf Riyadh fully engaged in the fight for victory. The man from Barrika is second, one shot behind the leading trio, while Sergio and David are just one more stroke behind.
108 holes have been played among the three, with a tally of 27 birdies and two solitary bogeys, one committed by Rahm in the last third of his round and the other by Puig on his last hole of the day. The Spanish Armada has started the year on a high note and they want to extend the romance also in the Saudi circuit.
The man from Barrika has shone again from the tee. Showing one of the best versions of recent months in this aspect and leaving details that prove the first day was no fluke. He is not being the best in the short game, but he is also leaving great details; if yesterday he almost made an eagle on the 18th thanks to a thirty-meter approach, on the 4th hole of the course he has gone for the basket again, in this case, the flag penalized him excessively and kept him away not only from the eagle but also from the birdie, but the shot was there.
However, on the aforementioned 18th, he hit, once again, his great shot of the day. Despite the poor start, from the left rough, he hit a great shot to a flag that was hidden on the right side. The ball bounced just at the start of the green and rested just over a meter from the hole. Fifth and last birdie of the day. On the 1st hole where he finished, he had a distant birdie chance that he did not convert, among other things, due to a little bounce the ball took on its way to the hole.
To give Jon some homework, which is already splitting hairs, perhaps over the weekend he will need to get more out of the par fives. One birdie each day is not a bad record on this course, but being more incisive on these holes could give him the victory. His only bogey was more due to bad luck than anything else. His shot ended up hitting a palm tree on the left side of the fairway, leaving him without the possibility of going to the green, and he did not recover from there. It cannot be said that he hit poorly from the tee.
Meanwhile, David Puig has worked magic throughout the Riyadh Golf Club. In fact, he probably executed the shot of the day on his seventh hole. The ball got stuck in the bunker slope at the edge with the end of it, protecting the green of the 13th hole, it was not an easy shot. Pure fantasy from the Spaniard who left it a meter and a half from the flag. Puig delivered a scorecard of 66 strokes, no less, only surpassed by an imperial Jason Kokrak who shot 64 on Friday.
David put on a show on the first nine holes with five birdies in that stretch. Then he managed to keep his composure and add another success. Among the many highlights is his solidity from the tee, which perhaps kept him from winning two Sundays ago in Dubai, and above all, how well he played around the green. Four of the birdies came thanks to precise wedges (holes 6, where he started, 9, the mentioned 13, and the 4th hole). A pity about the drive on the last flag of the day, which went to the rough on the right side and he couldn’t complete the recovery on the par 3.
The man from La Garriga debuts this week with the honour of being the best Spaniard in the world ranking (95th), which is anecdotal considering that Rahm has barely added in the last three years, but David wants to fight on the course to maintain that honour and, above all, to win for the first time in LIV and also gain direct access to Majors like the PGA Championship.
The third guest is Mr. Sergio García. What happened in Bahrain was no fluke. The man from Borriol replicated his initial round of 68 strokes to be eighth, just two strokes behind the trio Uhlein, Gooch and Detry who lead the tournament tied at -10. Sergio, who already has two individual wins in LIV Golf, took advantage of the stretch between holes 11 and 14 to squeeze in three almost consecutive birdies. Consistency is the key, and he hasn’t committed a bogey throughout the tournament.
The other two Spaniards, Jose Luis Ballester (-1) and Luis Masaveu (PAR) are further behind. However, the man from Madrid recovered from the initial scorecard of 75 strokes with a great three-under-par in this second round and tied with the course in the aggregate.
