SOTOGRANDE, Spain – Dean Burmester and Stinger GC are out in front after a tough scoring first round at LIV Golf Andalucía, but there were plenty more news, notes and stats from Round 1 at Real Club Valderrama.
RELATED: Full first-round recap from LIV Golf Andalucía
RAHM ENJOYS HOME CROWD: Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm made his first appearance as a LIV Golf player in his native Spain on Friday. His first-round 73 didn’t end how he wanted, with a double bogey at the par-5 17th when he found the water with his approach shot, then a missed birdie putt on the 18th. But he was appreciative of the support on every hole.
“It’s always fun to be back home and be with the home crowd,” Rahm said. “It’s always a joy to have this many people supporting me all day. It’s so much fun. Just too bad I couldn’t finish it a little bit better for them. I wanted that last putt to go in so bad. It was a really good putt.”
Rahm has won three team titles and would love nothing more than to celebrate an individual victory at Valderrama.
“Overall, my feeling should be positive and hopefully I can keep doing good,” Rahm said. “It’s not over. I know I’m seven back, but this golf course has some teeth and if I can shoot a low one tomorrow, put myself in position, it will be a fun Sunday.”
SERGIO’S CRAZY HOLE-OUT: Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia chipped in from 30 yards out for birdie at the par-4 seventh. Although he’s holed out plenty of times in his legendary career, he’s never seen a ball spin inside the cup as many times as it did Friday.
“You can try to kind of bounce it off the green a couple of times and hopefully it checks and stuff, and that’s what I tried to do,” Garcia explained about the shot. “It bounced a little harder, but I could see it from down there spinning on the hole. It looked like it spun at least six or seven times. So, it was funny but I’m glad it did it. It would have been seven or eight yards by. I was very pleased to see that happen.”
PREPPING FOR TROON: Stinger GC’s Dean Burmester is one of 16 LIV Golf League full-time players headed to Royal Troon next week for The Open Championship. From that perspective, he was glad to see the difficult wind conditions at Valderrama to help get him prepared for the final major of the season.
“Certainly in conditions like this, links golf, you hit it a little lower, or I tend to kind of flight the ball down a lot more,” Burmester said. “It was nice to have conditions like this because I’ve been working on a shot with my driver, a really straight low stinger, and no pun intended. I’ve been working on that a lot, and I hit it three times – straight down the middle of the fairway every time. That’s good progress for next week.”
CHACARRA’S IMPROVED HEALTH: Eugenio Chacarra battled problems with his left hip for much of the year, but he recently began feeling 100% healthy again. His play is starting to reflect it, as he’s produced two top-20 finishes in his last three LIV Golf starts and tied for third at last week’s International Series Morocco.
Now the young Fireballs star is in contention in his home country after a 3-under 68.
“It’s more fun that I’m healthy and playing good again,” Chacarra said. “I’m not hurt. I can finish 18 holes and be fine and feel fine. I’m just enjoying golf again.”
ROUND 1 STATS LEADERS
Driving accuracy: Dustin Johnson, 85.71% (12 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Bryson DeChambeau, 343.9 yards avg.
Longest drive: Bryson DeChambeau, 386.9 yards, 18th hole
Greens in regulation: Richard Bland, 72.22% (13 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Dean Burmester (8 of 9), Louis Oosthuizen (8 of 9), 88.89%
Putting: Dean Burmester, Anthony Kim, 1.17 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: none