Crushers' DeChambeau, Ripper GC lead after Rd. 2 at LIV Golf Miami

MIAMI – Bryson DeChambeau started his day with a 400-yard drive, and he closed with two birdies late in his round. In between, he showed incredible patience on a Blue Monster course that gets increasingly difficult each day.

As a result, the Crushers GC captain will enter Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf Miami with the lead and a potentially huge momentum boost entering next week’s Masters.

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DeChambeau’s 2-under 70 in Saturday’s second round at Trump National Doral leaves him at 5 under and leading by two shots over Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia. Another stroke back are HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson, 4Aces GC’s Patrick Reed and Ripper GC’s Marc Leishman. Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm and defending champion Dean Burmester of Stinger GC are tied for sixth.

It's a stacked leaderboard, appropriate for a course that’s offering the sternest challenge in LIV Golf’s young history.

“What a test of golf out there,” said DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion who is seeking his third LIV Golf individual title. “This golf course, every single angle just produced the most testing golf shots out there that I’ve seen in a long time.”

Saturday’s field stroke average of 75.111 was more than three strokes above par, making it the second most-difficult round in LIV Golf, exceeded only by the Rd. 1 in 2024 Andalucia (+3.519 over par). Add Friday’s first round at Doral – the third most difficult day in LIV Golf – and the first two rounds this week have been the hardest 36 holes the league has ever seen.

Consider the team leaderboard: Ripper GC leads with a collective 9 over, thanks in large part to Lucas Herbert’s second-round 3-under 69, the only individual score shot in the 60s on Saturday. 4Aces GC is second at 11 over, while the Fireballs and Crushers are at 12 over. The last-place Cleeks GC are at 46 over.

No team has ever won a LIV Golf tournament with an over-par score.

“It’s just a difficult golf course,” said Garcia, whose Fireballs are seeking their fourth consecutive tournament title. “It’s the Blue Monster. That’s just not a name; it comes with something. You have to respect it.”

Players also have to be patient. Certainly, DeChambeau was on Saturday through a stretch of 10 consecutive holes midway through his second round that included nine pars and a bogey.

It was a matter of survival until he reached the drivable par-4 16th, in which he smoked his drive across the water and behind the green, then hit a chip shot from a difficult lie that set up the first of two consecutive birdies that gave him the outright lead.

“There were a few holes where I could’ve lost it and it gone the other way,” DeChambeau said. “You’ve just got to stay patient and make a putt when you have to, and if you don’t, try to steer that ship back on track as quickly as possible.”

Garcia, a winner earlier this season in Hong Kong, played steady golf with three birdies and two bogeys. He made several clutch putts, including an 8-footer to save par at the 14th hole during a stretch of 10 consecutive bogey-free holes.

“I hit a lot of great shots on very challenging conditions, even tougher than yesterday,” he said.

Mickelson, LIV Golf’s most decorated player with six majors and 57 career wins, shot a 1-over 73 despite starting his round with three consecutive bogeys. He would’ve shot even par had he not three-putted his final hole, the par-5 first.

“I started off very poorly; I was 3-over through three and lucky to be that,” said the 54-year-old Hall of Famer. “I was able to hang in there, fight back and had a chance to shoot even par, which was amazing.”

Leishman joins DeChambeau and Garcia as the only player to shoot under par in each of the first two rounds. His second consecutive 1-under 71 was highlighted by an 84-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole.

Reed, the first-round leader after an opening 67, followed with a 3-over 75 that included five bogeys on his front nine. But he still has a chance at his first LIV Golf victory as one of just seven players under par through the first two days.

For now, they’re all chasing DeChambeau, with forecasts of even stronger wind gusts on Sunday.

“I’m up for anything,” DeChambeau said. “Whatever it brings me, I’m up for the challenge. It will be a great test tomorrow.”

TEAM SCORES

LIV Golf’s new scoring format this season now involves all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. (Click here for more on the new format). Here are the results and scores for each team after Saturday’s Rd. 2 of LIV Golf Miami.

1. RIPPER GC +9 (Herbert 69, Leishman 71, Smith 74, Jones 76; Rd. 2 score: +2)

2. 4ACES GC +11 (Pieters 73, Johnson 75, Reed 75, Varner III 76; Rd. 2 score: +11)

T3. FIREBALLS GC +12 (Garcia 71, Puig 71, Masaveu 76, Ancer 77; Rd. 2 score: +7)

T3. CRUSHERS GC +12 (DeChambeau 70, Howell III 74, Casey 79, Lahiri 79; Rd. 2 score: +14)

5. IRON HEADS GC +13 (Lee 71, Na 72 Song 72, Jang 75; Rd. 2 score: +2)

6. LEGION XIII +17 (Rahm 70, McKibbin 73, Hatton 77, Surratt 77; Rd. 2 score: +9)

T7. SMASH GC +20 (Gooch 73, McDowell 73, Koepka 74, Kokrak 75; Rd. 2 score: +7)

T7. HYFLYERS GC +20 (Tringale 72, Mickelson 73, Ogletree 75, Steele 77; Rd. 2 score: +9)

T7. STINGER GC +20 (Burmester 71, Oosthuizen 71, Schwartzel 75, Grace 81; Rd. 2 score: +10)

10. TORQUE GC +27 (Niemann 72, Ortiz 73, Muñoz 79, Pereira 79; Rd. 2 score: +15)

11. MAJESTICKS GC +31 (Poulter 75, Westwood 75, Stenson 76, Horsfield 77; Rd. 2 score: +15)

12. RANGEGOATS GC +33 (Watson 75, Campbell 76, Uihlein 76, Wolff 81; Rd. 2 score: +15

13. CLEEKS GC +46 (Kjettrup 76, Meronk 77, Bland 69, Kaymer 80; Rd. 2 score: +24)

Wild Cards: Kim 83, C. Lee 84

ROUND 2 NOTES

BRYSON’S BIG DRIVES: Bryson DeChambeau’s longest drive of the day was his 400-yarder on the opening hole, the par-5 first. But his most impressive drive came at the 370-yard par-4 16th in which he drove over the water, his ball landing on the back left rough behind the green. At the time, DeChambeau was one shot off the lead held by 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson.

“I took a big sigh,” DeChambeau said. “If that goes into the water, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh, no, now I’m really screwing the pooch.’”

The drive was one of several on Saturday that DeChambeau hit solid but wasn’t always rewarded due to the challenging scoring conditions. He leads this week in driving distance average at 341.6 yards and is tied for 10th in fairway accuracy at 53.57%.

“It just like felt like almost every single hole I hit great drives that didn’t end up in the exact right position,” he said. “… That’s this golf course. It takes a little bit of luck to win, and I’ve got to have a little bit of luck tomorrow but a lot of patience.”

RAHM’S TOP 10 STREAK: Thanks to a stretch of three consecutive birdies midway through his final nine holes, Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm not only fought his way into contention but also into position for another top-10 finish.

Rahm’s 2-under 70 left him at 1 under for the tournament and tied for sixth with defending LIV Golf Miami champion Dean Burmester. Rahm has finished inside the top 10 in every LIV Golf tournament that he’s completed since joining the league prior to the 2024 season.

Rahm bounced back from an opening 1-over 73 that ended his LIV Golf record consecutive under-par streak of 21 rounds.

FIREBALLS’ FOURTH? Fireballs GC are just three shots off the lead as they seek their fourth consecutive team victory. If they pull off the feat Sunday, they will match 4Aces GC for longest win streak by either team or player in LIV Golf history.

Captain Sergio Garcia has been the leader this week with two sub-par rounds to put him at 3 under and in contention for the individual title. David Puig bounced back from an opening 77 to match Garcia’s second-round 1-under 71.

“For four guys to keep it together on this golf course the way it’s playing, it’s very difficult,” Garcia said. “… We’ll give it a shot tomorrow and see what happens.”

STEADY IRON HEADS: Of the 108 individual rounds played by the 54-man field in the first two days, 31 rounds of 5-over 77 or higher have been posted. The only team that has not suffered at least one 77 are Kevin Na’s Iron Heads GC, who entered this week last in the team season-long standings.

On Saturday, the Iron Heads shot a collective 2-over, matching tournament-leading Ripper GC for the low team score of the day. Danny Lee shot a 1-under 71, while Na and reserve player Young-han Song – subbing for injured Jinichiro Kozuma – posted 72s.

“Danny and I were playing really well,” Na said. “Danny lost a few coming in; I bogeyed the last. It was a little bit of a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like we’re doing pretty well.”

The Iron Heads enter Sunday at 13 over and in solo fifth, just five shots off the Rippers’ lead as they seek their first points finish of the season.

DJ’S TOUGH FINISH: 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson held the lead entering his final two holes Saturday. But after a bogey at the par-4 17th, he followed with a wayward drive at the par-4 18th into the water that eventually resulted in a triple bogey and a second-round 75. At even par through 36 holes, he’s still just five shots off the lead.

NO BIRDIES AT 13: The 219-yard par-3 13th did not allow a single birdie on Saturday, with 43 players making par and the other 11 making bogey. It was the third hardest hole on the course with a stroke average of 3.204.

GARCIA’S DAD: Sergio Garcia’s dad Victor is a club professional, and on Saturday, he celebrated a very special accomplishment, as his student Carla Bernat Escuder won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Escuder trained at Victor’s Spanish academy before moving to the U.S. to play collegiately at Tulane University.

“Super proud of Carla,” Garcia said. “To be able to win the Augusta Women’s Amateur, it’s unbelievable.”

ROUND 2 STATS LEADERS

Driving accuracy: Tom McKibbin, 71.43% (10 of 14 fairways hit)

Driving distance: Bryson DeChambeau, 345.6 yards avg.

Longest drive: Bryson DeChambeau, 400.2 yards, 1st hole

Greens in regulation: Kevin Na, 83.33% (14 of 18 greens)

Scrambling: Sergio Garcia, 87.50% (7 of 8)

Putting: Jason Kokrak, 1.11 putts per hole

Bogey-free rounds: none