0
0
A corner was turned at LIV Golf Bangkok for Brooks Koepka last week as he captured his first top-10 finish since becoming a member of the new golf circuit. Carrying that momentum, the 32-year-old was at it again at 2022 LIV Golf Jeddah on Friday and opened with a flawless round of 8-under 62 at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
▶📺🔴LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah 2022 live
Beginning his day on the back nine, Koepka quickly ascended to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on Nos. 16-17. Unable to take advantage of the gettable par-5 18th, the four-time major champion then caught fire on the front nine of Royal Greens making five birdies against zero bogeys.
▶📺🔴LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah 2022 live
Koepka added another on the 10th and murmurs of 59 began to circulate around the broadcast as Koepka saw not only his name, but that of his brother atop the leaderboard. Letting a few scoring opportunities fall by the wayside coming home, Koepka ultimately signed for his 62.
Good for a two-stroke lead over LIV London winner Charl Schwartzel, Koepka is now in position to raise his first trophy since the 2021 WM Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour. His Smash GC team is also primed for its best effort of the season as Koepka’s team owns the top spot on the leaderboard at 15 under.
The leader
1. Brooks Koepka (-8)
Koepka has always been a golfer to play his best golf in the second or third week of a competitive stretch. He mentioned this repeatedly when asked about his preparations for major championship and with the switch to LIV Golf, continuity has been hard to come by. With the tournament schedule spread out, Koepka has visibly struggled up until last week at LIV Golf Bangkok and the first round in LIV Golf Jeddah.
“I think last week was kind of a turning point for me,” Koepka said. “I’ve worked pretty hard with Claude [Harmon], with Pete [Cowen] and Jeff [Pierce] over these last few months, getting back together with Claude and getting to see Pete a bit more. So this is the first time I’ve played back-to-back weeks since February. So tough to build a rhythm. I could see it coming. I’m very pleased with it, pleased with last week, and you know, hopefully just put together two more good rounds.”
Other contenders
2. Charl Schwartzel (-6)
T3. Hideto Tanihara, Peter Uihlein, Patrick Reed (-5)
T6. Turk Petit, James Piot, Carlos Ortiz (-4)
T9. Marc Leishman, Jediah Morgan, Anirban Lahiri, Abraham Ancer, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson (-3)
A possible engagement bump is brewing for Turk Petit who popped the question to his now fiancée Thursday on the Red Sea. The former NCAA individual champion carded five birdies against just on bogey and is tied with his fellow Niblicks teammate James Piot. They are two of the younger competitors on LIV Golf and have struggled throughout their tenure, but perhaps this is the week where the former collegiate studs will finally find their footing much like Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra did at LIV Bangkok.
With the overnight leader heading in the wrong direction in the second round of the 2022 Zozo Championship, the door was swung wide open for a number of candidates to put their claim on this championship. Andrew Putnam was the man who marched through first as the 33-year-old was simply brilliant around Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on Friday.
Signing for an 8-under 62, Putnam secured not only a new course record — which was later bested by John Huh’s 61 — but also a share of the 36-hole lead at 10 under. Beginning the day with two straight birdies, he added birdies on the par-3 fifth and par-4 eighth to turn in 4-under 30. Four additional birdies on his inward half were all he needed to claim the new low score around Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, but it was nearly one less as he experienced a brutal lip-out for eagle on his final hole of the day.
One worse than Putnam on the day was fan-favorite Rickie Fowler who carded a 7-under 63 to share the lead at the halfway point. Coming off a short week at the Shriners Children’s Open, the five-time PGA Tour winner is still clearly working through swing changes, but Friday did mark his first bogey-free effort of the young season.
A big step in the right direction, Fowler will need to continue to play in this manner if he is to overtake Putnam and fend off Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland — all of whom are currently inside the top 10.
The leaders
T1. Andrew Putnam, Rickie Fowler (-10)
The question heading into the weekend is whether Fowler can continue to drive the golf ball the way he currently is. Losing nearly four strokes off-the-tee at TPC Summerlin a week ago, the 33-year-old struggled with a two-way miss and was left scrambling more times than not in the desert.
It has been a completely different story through 36 holes as he ranks 12th in driving accuracy having connected on nearly 66% of the fairways. With a necessity of playing approach shots from the short grass, Fowler understands the importance the big stick holds moving forward.
“I need to drive it well around this place, which like I said, I’ve managed my way with what I’ve had the first two days, but looking forward to a little bit of work and tighten that up,” Fowler said. “Yeah, just continue to have fun on this golf course and hopefully I’m playing from the fairway.”
