Brooks Koepka takes a three-shot lead entering the final round, thanks to a brilliant 7-under 64 in Saturday’s rain-delayed second round at LIV Golf Singapore.
The previous two times the Smash GC captain has held that large of an advantage, he closed the deal in Orlando and Jeddah last year. Given that the five-time major champion has found his form as his PGA Championship title defence looms later this month, it will be a big challenge for his Singapore pursuers to catch him.
His Smash GC teammate Talor Gooch, the defending Singapore champion, described the task succinctly. “Hard,” he said.
But, he added, not impossible. “Winning golf tournaments is never easy,” Gooch said. “We all know that. Hopefully we can make it not easy on him. Hopefully I can make it not easy on him tomorrow.”
Abraham Ancer of Fireballs GC and Cameron Tringale of HyFlyers GC on the fourth green during the second round of LIV Golf Singapore at Sentosa Golf Club. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/LIV Golf)
Koepka is at 12 under for the tournament, with Fireballs GC’s Abraham Ancer, Cleeks GC’s Adrian Meronk and the RangeGoats GC duo of Thomas Pieters and Matthew Wolff tied for second at 9 under. Four other players are another shot back – Gooch, Ripper GC’s Lucas Herbert and Marc Leishman, and HyFlyers GC’s Cameron Tringale.
If Koepka converts the three-shot lead into another victory, he will become the first LIV Golf player to win four individual tournaments. And he also has a chance to lift two trophies on Sunday if his Smash team can convert its one-shot lead over the Rippers into the team title.
Although he’s playing with plenty of confidence, Koepka is not taking anything for granted.
“Anything is possible,” he said. “Gooch is trailing. He plays this place pretty well. I’ve just got to go out and do what I do, and from there, you can get beat. I have no problem with that if I get beat. But I just want to go out and play good golf, and that’s all I want to do, especially leading into the PGA.”
That good golf was evident following the 4-hour, 45 minute weather delay that pushed the shotgun start back to the afternoon. After three pars to start his round, Koepka birdied the par-5 fourth when he threaded his second shot between a row of palm trees, his ball finishing just off the green.
That was the first of three consecutive birdies, and he finished his bogey-free round with four birdies in his last seven holes. A two-shot sequence seemed to epitomise his day – a 53-foot birdie putt on the 13th, then a near-ace on the 14th.
Thomas Pieters of RangeGoats GC. (Photo by Charles Laberge/LIV Golf)
“Brooks was faultless today,” said Pieters, one of his playing partners Saturday with first-round leader Sebastián Muñoz. “I assume he’s going to do the same tomorrow, and it’s going to take a very low one from those of us behind him to win.”
“He’s comfortable being in the lead,” added Wolff, a former Smash teammate who was traded in the offseason to the RangeGoats. “He’s playing good. I think this golf course actually suits him really well. I’ll do what I can control, and other than that, just see what happens.”
Matthew Wolff of RangeGoats GC hits his shot from the seventh tee. (Photo by Chris Trotman/LIV Golf)
Koepka has his wife Jena and 9-month-old son Crew in Singapore with him this week. It’s the third tournament that Crew has attended. The first was at LIV Golf Miami; the second was at the Masters. The father finished T45 both times.
“I was reminded of that on the way over here,” Koepka said. “Hopefully get a little better result.”
Sunday’s final round will begin at 8:05 a.m. local time in hopes of avoiding any potential weather issues in the afternoon. The leaders group of Brooks Koepka, Thomas Pieters and Adrian Meronk will start off the first tee at 8:16 a.m. local.
TEAM COUNTING SCORES
Standings and counting scores for Saturday’s second round of the team competition at LIV Golf Singapore. The three best scores from each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title.
1. SMASH GC -23 (Koepka 64, Gooch 66, Kokrak 71; Rd. 2 score -12)
2. RIPPER GC -22 (Smith 65, Herbert 67, Leishman 67; Rd. 2 score -14)
3. RANGEGOATS GC -21 (Wolff 65, Pieters 67, Uihlein 70; Rd. 2 score -11)
T4. CLEEKS GC -20 (Meronk 66, Bland 68, Kaymer 69; Rd. 2 score -10)
T4. FIREBALLS GC -20 (Ancer 67, Garcia 68, Chacarra 69; Rd. 2 score -9)
6. LEGION XIII -17 (Hatton 68, Rahm 68, Vincent 68; Rd. 2 score – 9)
7. STINGER GC -14 (Oosthuizen 69, Burmester 70, Schwartzel 70; Rd. 2 score -4)
T8. CRUSHERS GC -13 (DeChambeau 66, Howell III 66, Lahiri 69; Rd. 2 score -12)
T8. HYFLYERS GC -13 (Mickelson 68, Tringale 68, Ogletree 71; Rd. 2 score -6)
T8. TORQUE GC -13 (Niemann 69, Muñoz 70, Pereira 70; Rd. 2 score -4)
11. 4ACES GC -12 (Varner III 67, Reed 68, Johnson 70; Rd. 2 score -8)
12. IRON HEADS GC -10 (Vincent 66, Na 70, Kozuma 72; Rd. 2 score -5)
13. MAJESTICKS GC -7 (Poulter 68, Stenson 68, Westwood 71; Rd. 2 score -6)
ROUND 2 NOTES
WOLFF, HIS BROTHER AND SINGAPORE: Eli Wolff is in town to support his younger brother Matthew, and his presence seems to be paying off.
Matthew Wolff will enter Sunday’s final round at LIV Golf Singapore tied for second at 9 under, three shots behind Brooks Koepka.
Eli Wolff was in the gallery when Matthew won for the first time on the PGA Tour five years ago. The RangeGoats GC star is hoping for similar success Sunday. “Maybe he’s my good-luck charm,” Matthew said.
Matthew said his brother has always had Singapore on his bucket list and wanted to attend last year’s tournament, but Matthew was with his fiancée. So, the brothers circled the 2024 tournament as the one for Eli to attend.
In fact, Eli arrived in Singapore earlier than Matthew, and spent Monday walking around the city. “28,000 steps,” Matthew reported.
Perhaps one of the reasons Eli enjoys Singapore is that the heat and humidity have little impact on him. “He doesn’t sweat,” Matthew said. “My shirt is drenched out there and his isn’t.”
SMASH SEEKS SECOND WIN IN 2024: The revamped Smash line-up with offseason acquisitions Talor Gooch and Graeme McDowell won the team title in the chilly weather in Las Vegas. Now the team is one day away from its second win of 2024 in the heat in Singapore.
Nine teams are within 10 shots of the lead, and with all four scores counting this season, that’s not an insurmountable lead. The closest pursuers are Ripper GC, just one shot back and currently in terrific form after winning on home soil at LIV Golf Adelaide in the first team playoff against Stinger GC.
“We’ve had some success this year, but we haven’t clicked really,” Gooch said. “I know that we’ve all at times been searching for our games, and so we know how hard it is to win as a team out here, and you don’t take it for granted. Hopefully we can go get it done tomorrow.”
35 BOGEY-FREE HOLES FOR PIETERS: Thomas Pieters was bogey-free through his first 35 holes at Sentosa, but then he found the water with his tee shot Saturday on the easiest hole on the course, the par-5 18th. It ultimately cost him a bogey and dropped him into a tie for second.
“I just wasn’t focused,” Pieters said. “Usually, I’ll focus on a really tiny spot out there, and I didn’t, and I just hit it and it went left. It was just stupid.”
ALL GOOD WITH WOLFF AND KOEPKA: Plenty of drama played out the previous year regarding Brooks Koepka and his former Smash teammate Matthew Wolff, and it eventually resulted in Wolff being traded to RangeGoats GC for 2023 Individual Champion Talor Gooch.
Sunday will be the first time Koepka and Wolff have been next to each other atop the final-round leaderboard since the trade, although they will not be playing in the same group. Koepka is in the lead group with Thomas Pieters and Adrian Meronk, while Wolff tees off 11 minutes earlier. Both groups will start on hole No. 1.
“I don’t think it really matters” Wolff said when asked if he’d rather be in Koepka’s group. “I think I’m out there focusing on myself, trying to play the best that I can play, and I’m not worried about what other people are doing. Every single tournament, every single round, I just go out there and give it my best, and that’s all I can really do. Like I said, I can’t control what other people are doing. So why focus on him?”
Koepka noted that the two players were in the same group last week in Adelaide, although neither were in contention for the title.
“Look, I have no problem with Matt,” Koepka said. “We just didn’t gel, see eye to eye on how things were or how I thought they should be. I’ve always liked him as a person. I think he’s a great kid. I’ve said that to a bunch of people even behind closed doors during everything last year. It was a good thing for him to leave the team and go to the RangeGoats, and it was a good thing for our team.
“Look, he’s fine. He seems to be playing better, in a better head space, better form, better everything.”
Captain Jon Rahm of Legion XIII. (Photo by Doug DeFelice/LIV Golf)
100 MARK FOR RAHM: Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm became the first player this season to record 100 birdies. Rahm, who joined LIV Golf in the offseason, entered the second round with a league-leading 98 birdies. He opened his round with a birdie at the par-4 fifth, then made a birdie at the par-5 seventh to reach 100.
Rahm made seven birdies in shooting a 4-under 68 on Saturday and now has 105 birdies on the season.
ROUND 2 STATS LEADERS
Driving accuracy: Abraham Ancer, 92.86.% (13 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Matthew Wolff, 337.3 yards avg.
Longest drive: Matthew Wolff, 339.8 yards, 5th hole
Greens in regulation: Adrian Meronk, Marc Leishman, Henrik Stenson, Matt Jones, 88.89% (16 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Richard Bland (5 of 5), Harold Varner III (4 of 4), Dean Burmester (4 of 4), Louis Oosthuizen (4 of 4), Bryson DeChambeau (3 of 3), Brooks Koepka (3 of 3), Adrian Meronk (2 of 2); Marc Leishman (2 of 2), Henrik Stenson (2 of 2), 100%
Putting: Lucas Herbert, 1.33 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: Brooks Koepka (64), Bryson DeChambeau (66), Adrian Meronk (66), Marc Leishman (67), Harold Varner III (67), Richard Bland (68)
