LIV Golf Riyadh: Talor Gooch, Smash GC Lead After Round 2

The second round of ROSHN Group LIV Golf Riyadh brought another day of good scoring for the LIV Golf field, resulting in an incredibly bunched leaderboard. Smash GC Captain Talor Gooch, 4Aces GC’s Thomas Detry, and RangeGoats GC’s Peter Uihlein are all tied atop the leaderboard at 10-under par. Gooch posted back-to-back 5-under 67s on Wednesday and Thursday and attributed his success to his “Rule of 67.” “I keep saying this; the rule is 67,” Gooch said. “I probably should have coined that differently a while back. But you go play good golf, and everything takes care of itself. All the things that I’ve been blessed with have obviously come from the man above, but it doesn’t happen without shooting 67, 66. At the end of the day, birdies take care of all that stuff. As long as I can continue to focus on that and make that the priority, I know all the other business stuff will take care of itself.” Detry and Uihlein, however, took bumpier paths to their 10-under scores through two rounds. After shooting 7-under 65s to share the lead after Thursday, both players had up-and-down performances in Round 2. They made five birdies and two bogeys each to shoot 3-under 69s. Uihlein had the added benefit of seeing just about every inch of Riyadh Golf Club, including the inside of a bush or two, but his elite putting kept him in the round. The trio at the top of the leaderboard will need to keep their foot on the gas, as a quartet of dangerous chasers are lurking at 9-under par, just one shot back. Smash GC’s Jason Kokrak shot the round of the day with an 8-under 64. Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm and Torque GC’s Sebastian Munoz shot 4-under 68s, and the Ripper GC rookie Elvis Smylie shot a 3-under 69. Muñoz, who won the most recent individual LIV Golf title in Indianapolis back in August, will look to double his LIV Golf win total this weekend. “I think I did a really good job of staying patient,” Muñoz said. “Of course the wind picked up big time, and we just picked big targets and tried to hold on. There were some tough pins that we couldn’t really go for it, and hitting the fairway was a premium, which I sometimes did. It worked all right.” A pair of Fireballs GC players in captain Sergio Garcia and David Puig enter the weekend at 8 under, just two shots off the pace. Overall, there are nine players within two shots of the lead. Led by their new captain Gooch, Smash GC leads the team competition at the halfway point, combining for a score of 30-under par, three shots ahead of Torque GC. 4Aces GC are in third place at 23-under par. The overall scoring average for Round 2 was –2.11, which is slightly easier than it played in Roud 1. For the second consecutive day, the fifth hole played the toughest with an average score of +0.16, while the 565-yard par-5 13th played the easiest with an average score of –0.47. LIV Golf Riyadh Scoreboard (Day 2) This piece is courtesy of Matt Vincenzi in partnership with LIV Golf.