Doral’s Blue Monster course lived up to its name on day one of LIV Miami as just nine of the 54-man field ended the opening round in red figures.
Tom McKibbin found himself on +3 after four holes thanks to an opening bogey on the 14th and a double on 17 in the Shotgun Start format. He rallied from there, birdieing three of the next 14 with just the one bogey to post +1 and occupy a share of 16th.
For 17 holes Patrick Reed played perfect golf under difficult scoring conditions before a costly double bogey-five at the last hole – the par-3 eighth. Still, his five-under 67 sees him take a two-shot lead at Trump National Doral. It’s the first time he’s held the solo lead after any round of his 37 career regular-season starts on LIV Golf.
His closest challengers own a combined 10 majors, as HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson, Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau and Reed’s 4Aces Captain Dustin Johnson each shot 69.
“I know how hard this place can get,” said Reed, who won a World Golf Championships event at Doral in 2014. “When the wind blows here, it’s nerve-wracking. … There’s a reason why it’s called the Blue Monster. It’s a beast.”
Mickelson, the six-time major winner who has more experience playing at Doral than anybody else in the field, said the conditions were as difficult as he’s ever seen them.
“I look at what Patrick Reed did and [I’m] just amazed because although we’ve seen low scores here on this course in the past, we haven’t really seen them under these conditions,” Mickelson said. “That was an exceptional round that he played.”
There were 19 rounds of 76 or higher, with 12 of the 13 LIV Golf teams suffering at least one of those high scores. Individual points leader Joaquin Niemann, the Torque GC captain who has won two of the season’s first four events, shot a 78. The only team escaping unharmed was DeChambeau’s Crushers, who shot a collective 2 under that included even-par 72s from Anirban Lahiri and Paul Casey and a 73 from Charles Howell III.
“Love those boys. There’s a reason we won here in 2023,” said DeChambeau, referencing the Crushers’ Team Championship victory. “They like this golf course. They like a tough, challenging golf course where you can strategically play and let everybody else kind of mess up on their own.”
Graeme McDowell was among those to struggle, carding a seven-over 79 to lie tied for 49th.
Leave a comment