The LIV International Golf Series has arrived and players kicked off at 9:15 a.m. ET (2:15 p.m. local time) in a tee shot to kick off the controversial new tour. We’ll have live updates throughout Day One, so check back for more highlights, news and analysis from Day One of LIV Golf.
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DAY 1 COMPLETE RANKING
Day 1 ends with Schwartzel in the lead
Charl Schwartzel closed his first round with a birdie to take a one-stroke lead. Schwartzel is a former Masters champion and one of 17 current or former PGA Tour members competing in the event. LIV events are 54 holes, so there are two rounds left.
Hennie Du Plessis shot 4 under and is alone in second, one behind.
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson were grouped together and they shot a game under 69 to trail Schwartzel by four shots.
“Other than a few loose shots, I felt like I hit my irons really well. The golf course is tough and the conditions are really tough,” Johnson said afterwards on the show.
Here’s a look at the Day 1 Finals leaders:
Who is Phachara Khongwatmai?
The 48-man field when LIV Golf opens has players familiar to most golf fans, but many more likely aren’t.
One of the latter would be the leader at 4 under par with three holes to go at the Centurion Club, Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai. The 23-year-old is ranked No. 133 in the world and a regular on the Asian Tour.
In 2013, at age 14, he became the youngest winner of a professional tournament when he won the Sing Hua Hin Open on the All Thailand Golf Tour. Three years later, he played at the British Open at 17, missing the cut.
The LIV Golf Invitational series is sanctioned by the Asian Tour. LIV Golf Investments, the company launched last October with the idea of supporting golf around the world, has committed $300 million to the Asian Tour for a series of 10 events a year to help grow the circuit. The Public Investment Fund, an autonomous wealth fund administered by the Saudi government, is the main shareholder of LIV Golf Investments.
Three Thai players are on the pitch as well as three Japanese players.
What the LIV broadcast looks and sounds like
As with any new league, a lot of curiosity surrounded where and how LIV Golf would air.
For the opening outside of London, LIV Golf is streaming on its own website, YouTube and Facebook. And it looks like… a golf tournament.
The presentation includes a constantly updated leaderboard on the left side of the screen, complete with player and team logos. At the top left is the number of holes remaining, because with a shotgun start, all players finish around the same time.
American golf fans who complain about shows with too many commercial breaks, take note – there are no sponsor obligations this week with the new series, so no commercials. During the first round broadcast, there were hardly any features or other segments to take away from golf.
As for commentary, the main stand hosts longtime Premier League football broadcaster Arlo White, who is English, as well as American Jerry Foltz, more recently from Golf Channel and Dom Boulet, from Hong Kong. Kong, the voice of the Asian Tour.
Dustin Double Bogeys the 7th hole
It’s not all smiles at the Centurion Club. On the par-4 7th hole, Dustin Johnson blew his drive out of bounds to the right and threw off his tee in disgust.
He double-bogeyed on the hole to go from 1 under to 1 on the turn, tied for 15th in the event.
Johnson plays alongside Phil Mickelson – LIV Golf brought together its two biggest names and pitched them off the 1st tee – and Mickelson is also 1 in his first professional golf since Saudi International in early February.
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How the team format works
One of LIV Golf’s biggest selling points is its four-man team format. With 12 holes remaining in the round – how LIV tracks time given the shotgun start – Team Crushers GC led by 4 under.
Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand was 4 under, leading the Crushers and the entire event.
Team score is calculated with a team’s top two scores for the first two rounds, and top three scores for the third and final round.
The top three teams earn shares of a $5 million prize pool, with $3 million for first, $1.5 million for second, and $500,000 for third split among the four players. So, in theory, a player could have one bad event but three good teammates and get a good salary.
So what are they wearing?
If you just log in, you’ll notice that most players won’t look any different in clothing than in other tournaments. Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia, for example, are in their usual discussions with the Adidas logo; Garcia with an Adidas cap and Johnson with a TaylorMade logo cap.
Players’ LIV golf teams are represented by caddies, who have team names and logos on their vests.
As for Phil Mickelson, who lost sponsors following his comments in February about the “odious greed” of the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed league, he wears a black hat with his own Jumping-Phil logo and a black waistcoat with the Augusta. National golf club logo.
The game begins at the LIV Golf Opener
Dustin Johnson’s opening shot was broadcast live on the show, and it split the fairway. Phil Mickelson is grouped with DJ, and he also hit the fairway with his opening shot on the No. 1. And so begins a new league of golf.
Phil Mickelson’s tee shot in the new LIV golf league.
The broadcast is live
In the opening moments of the webcast, Greg Norman joins the booth and says, “I’m excited to bring free agency to golf. Shotgun departure is moments away.
Arlo White, Greg Norman and Jerry Foltz in the opening broadcast booth.
A round from the shotgun
As anyone who’s ever attended a charity golf tournament or a big event at their local club knows, transportation for a shotgun tee time is controlled chaos. Usually this involves an army of golf carts all launched at once from the clubhouse.
LIV Golf went one step further by grabbing a fleet of black London cabs to ferry players around the Centurion Club.
LIV Golf also released a hype video on Thursday, narrated by Dennis Quaid.
Tee Times and Groupings for Day 1 at LIV Golf
Here are the groups for Day 1, along with the new team names. Everyone will start at the same time in a shotgun start:
- Hole 1 Dustin Johnson – 4 Ace GC Scott Vincent – Smash GC Phil Mickelson – Hy Flyers GC
- Hole 2 Sergio Garcia – Fireballs GC Talor Gooch – Torque GC Pablo Larrazabal – Cleeks GC
- Hole 3 Charl Schwartzel – Stinger GC Graeme McDowell – Crushers GC Wade Ormsby – Punch GC
- Hole 4 Sam Horsfield – Majesticks GC Sadom Kaewkanjana – Iron Heads GC Andy Ogletree – Torque GC
- hole 5 Richard Bland – Crushers GC Ratchanon Chantananuwat (a) – Hy Flyers GC Ryosuke Kinoshita – Punch GC
- Hole 6 Jediah Morgan – Fireballs GC Ian Snyman – Cleeks GC Oliver Fisher – Niblicks GC
- Hole 7 Chase Koepka – Hy Flyers GC Turk Pettit – Niblicks GC Kevin Yuan – 4 Aces GC
- Hole 8 Itthipat Buranatanyarat – Smash GC Hennie Du Plessis – Stinger GC James Piot (a) – Fireballs GC
- Hole 10 Jinichiro Kozuma – Smash GC Phachara Khongwatmai – Crushers GC JC Ritchie – Cleeks GC
- Hole 12 David Puig (a) – Fireballs GC Oliver Bekker – 4 As GC Viraj Madappa – Iron Heads GC
- Hole 13 Peter Uihlein – Niblicks GC Adrian Otaegui – Torque GC Blake Windred – Punch GC
- Hole 14 Laurie Canter – Majesticks GC Martin Kaymer – Cleeks GC Hudson Swafford – Torque GC
- Hole 15 Shaun Norris – 4 Aces GC Travis Smyth – Crushers GC Hideto Tanihara – Iron Heads GC
- Hole 16 Branden Grace – Stinger GC Sihwan Kim – Smash GC Matt Jones – Punch GC
- Hole 17 Lee Westwood – Majesticks GC Bernd Wiesberger – Niblicks GC Justin Harding – Hy Flyers GC
- Hole 18 Louis Oosthuizen – Stinger GC Kevin Na – Iron Heads GC Ian Poulter – Majesticks GC
What is the LIV Golf 2022 calendar?
LIV Golf is making its debut in London, and there will be seven more events, held in the US and overseas, throughout the year. Here is the full schedule:
- June 9-11, Centurion Club, Hemel Hempstead, St. Albans
- June 30-July 2, Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, North Plains, Oregon.
- July 29-31. Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, New Jersey
- September 2-4, The International, Bolton, Mass.
- September 16-18, Rich Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Illinois.
- October 7-9, Stonehill Golf Club, Bangkok
- October 14-16, Royal Greens Golf Club, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- October 28-30, Trump National Doral, Miami
show me the money
If the show hasn’t made it clear what the players are competing for this week, here’s a quick primer.
Of the 12 competing teams, only the top three will earn shares of the $5 million purse – first place splits $3 million four ways ($750,000 per player), second place splits $1.5 million dollars ($375,000 per player) and third place wins $500,000 ($125,000 per player). player).
Individually, $4 million will go to the winner, followed by $2.125 million (second), $1.5 million (third), and $1.05 million (fourth). Lower, the 12th will win $450,000, the 24th $168,000 and the last $120,000.
At best, a player could earn $4.75 million on Saturday night. At worst, a player walks away with, well, $120,000.
