Meronk holds Rd. 2 lead in Riyadh; Legion XIII dominates

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Jon Rahm and his Legion XIII teammates each enter Saturday’s final round at LIV Golf Riyadh presented by Ma’aden with an outside chance to capture the individual title.

In terms of the team competition, though, Legion XIII already has one collective foot atop the podium.

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Legion XIII extended its team lead to a commanding 11 strokes in Friday night’s second round at Riyadh Golf Club, shooting the field’s best team score for the second consecutive night. Their 18 under total moves them to 42 under for the first two rounds, giving the foursome an 11-stroke advantage over Torque GC.

“Extremely proud,” Rahm said of his team’s dominant start in the season opener. “I don’t know what else to add to that. Obviously yesterday was a fantastic start and it didn’t take very long today, either, for the whole team to get going.”

Individually, Legion XIII players make up 50% of the top eight players on the leaderboard. Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Surratt each shot 5-under 67s on Friday and are tied for fourth at 11 under. Rahm also shot 67 and newcomer Tom McKibbin shot 69, as each finished at 10 under and in a three-way tie for 6th.

Cleeks GC’s Adrian Meronk backed up his opening 10-under 62 with a 6-under 66 to grab a two-shot lead over Torque GC’s Sebastián Muñoz. Ripper GC’s Lucas Herbert is in solo third at 12 under after his 64 on Friday, the low round of the day.

Catching Meronk seems like a tall ask, giving his form the first two days. But Legion XIII will have plenty of chances with four players in contention in the first tournament since a format change to all scores counting on each round. No team has swept the podium since Stinger GC pulled off the feat in the 2022 inaugural LIV Golf event in London.

“I think if we all focus on trying to win individually and give it the best shot we can to do that, I think we can put a strong enough performance where we'd be hard to catch,” Rahm said of his team’s large lead. “But we still have to go out there tomorrow and take care of it. Nothing is guaranteed until the last putt drops.”

Although Meronk didn’t match his flawless performance in the opening round when he hit all 18 greens, the 31-year-old from Poland relied on his putting, needing just 26 putts.

With Muñoz nipping at his heeds, Meronk never surrendered the lead. At the par-3 17th, he extended it to two shots with a 15-foot birdie putt while Muñoz followed by missing a 5-footer for birdie.

“I played quite solid,” said Meronk, whose only bogey this week came at the par-4 11th. “I had a couple of bad swings, but overall, I'm very happy with the result and excited for tomorrow.”

Muñoz matched Meronk’s 66 and has the field’s hottest putter, needing just 51 putts through the first two rounds. “I'm just going to try to shoot as low as possible, make as many birdies as possible like I've been doing the last two days and see what happens on the 18th green,” Muñoz said. “There's no other strategy than that.”

Meronk and Muñoz have each celebrated LIV Golf wins as members of winning teams but not as individuals. That could change on Saturday for one of them.

“It would be special for sure, especially the first of the year,” Meronk said. “But I don’t want to focus on that. My only focus tomorrow will be just one shot at a time and playing my best golf as possible, and we’ll see what happens.”

TEAM SCORES

LIV Golf’s new scoring format made its debut this week, with 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 Friday’s Rd. 2 at Riyadh Golf Club.

1. LEGION XIII -42 (Hatton 67, Rahm 67, Surratt 67, McKibbin 69, Rahm 67; Rd. 2: -18)

2. TORQUE GC -31 (Ortiz 65, Muñoz 66, Pereira 70, Niemann 71; Rd. 2: -16)

T3. RIPPER GC -28 (Herbert 64, Jones 68, Leishman 68, Smith 72; Rd. 2: -16)

T3. RANGEGOATS GC -28 (Wolff 66, Watson 68, Campbell 69, Uihlein 71; Rd. 2: -14)

T3. CRUSHERS GC -28 (DeChambeau 66, Lahiri 67, Casey 69, Howell III 73; Rd. 2: -13)

T6. CLEEKS GC -24 (Meronk 66, Kaymer 69, Kjettrup 70, Bland 72; Rd. 2: -11)

T6. MAJESTICKS GC -17 (Horsfield 69, Poulter 69, Westwood 71, Stenson 73; Rd. 2: -7)

8. FIREBALLS GC -20 (Garcia 68, Ancer 70, Masaveu 71, Puig 71; Rd. 2: -8)

T9. STINGER GC -13 (Oosthuizen 69, Grace 70, Schwartzel 70, Burmester 71; Rd. 2: -8)

T9. 4ACES GC -13 (Varner III 70, Pieters 71, Johnson 73, Reed 74; Rd. 2: Even)

11. SMASH GC -11 (Koepka 67, Kokrak 69, McDowell 70, Gooch 71; Rd. 2: -11)

12. IRON HEADS GC -9 (Jang 72, Na 72, Ormsby 72, Lee 74; Rd. 2: +2)

13. HYFLYERS GC -6 (Schniederjans 69, Tringale 71, Steele 72, Ogletree 73; Rd. 2: -3)

Wild Cards: Lee 71, Kim 73

ROUND 2 NOTES

DESERT CHILL: Friday’s second night of golf under the lights at Riyadh Golf Club was significantly colder than Thursday’s opening round, forcing players to make adjustments with their yardages while also dealing with an increase in wind.

The drop in temperature helps explain the rise in field stroke average, which was a half-stroke higher than Thursday.

“I think the whole round was impacted by the weather because I think it was twice as cold as yesterday,” said tournament leader Adrian Meronk of Cleeks GC. “We had to adjust, obviously, the numbers and how far the ball was flying, and also we had a little bit of the wind today, as well, which I think had a bit of effect, as well.”

Both Meronk and Torque GC’s Sebastián Muñoz, playing in the same group, adjusted just fine, shooting 6-under 66s to remain as the top two on the leaderboard.

“As cold as it gets, the ball will travel less, so just kind of being real in tune with your body, and if you feel like this is a two-yard difference, five-yard difference,” Muñoz explained. “It was just progressive, and I think we did a good job of managing that.”

11-STROKE LEAD: If Torque GC hopes to catch Legion XIII on Saturday, it will require a record-tying performance. For any other team to win, it would require a record-setting effort.

The largest rally to win a LIV Golf team title on the final day came last year at LIV Golf Jeddah, when Crushers GC overcame an 11-stroke deficit to rally past Stinger GC. The Crushers shot 20 under in the final round.

HATTON ON MCKIBBIN: Tyrrell Hatton and Tom McKibbin were partners a month ago at the Team Cup, so the veteran from England is well aware of his new teammate’s talents. On Friday, they were in the same group, with Hatton shooting 67 while the 22-year-old McKibbin from Northern Ireland shot 69.

“He's a fantastic player, and to be honest, he doesn't really look like he has any weaknesses,” Hatton said. “He drives the ball great, hits it a long way, looks very good with the wedges and rolls it nicely …

“I think we all expect him to do pretty well out here. It'll take a little bit of time for him to get used to it with the warm-up situation on the range and finding a rhythm and being ready to go straight away when you get on the golf course, but so far, he's dealt with that really well. I'm sure he'll go out tomorrow and put another good round of golf together.”

NEW GUYS: Six players are making their debuts this week as full-time LIV Golf competitors for 2025. Here is how they fared Friday:

• Tom McKibbin (Legion XIII) shot a 3-under 69 that included a 57-foot birdie putt and is tied for sixth at -10
• Ben Campbell (RangeGoats GC) shot a 3-under 69 and is tied for 15th at -7
• Chieh-Po Lee (Wild Card) shot a 1-under 71 and is tied for 37th at -3
• Yubin Jang (Iron Heads GC) shot an even-par 72 and is tied for 46th at -3
• Luis Masaveu (Fireballs GC) shot a 1-under 71 and is tied for 46th at -3
• Frederik Kjettrup (Cleeks GC) shot a 2-under 70 and is tied for 46th at -3

TWO PENALTIES, ONE HOLE: Majesticks GC Co-Captain Lee Westwood was tied for third at 11 under until he suffered a double bogey at the par-4 16th. Westwood’s tee shot found the water, resulting in one penalty shot. After his caddie pulled a ball out of the water, Westwood played his third shot – and then realized it was not his original ball, resulting in another penalty stroke under the local rules. He was able to get up and down but walked off the hole at 9 under. It was his first bogey-or-worse hole of the tournament

The hole damaged Westwood’s chances of adding to his impressive total of countries in which he’s won. His 44 professional wins have come in 20 different countries but never in Saudi Arabia.

ROUND 2 STATS LEADERS

Driving accuracy: Richard Bland, Branden Grace, Henrik Stenson, 78.57% (11 of 14 fairways hit)

Driving distance: Peter Uihlein, 326.3 yards avg.

Longest drive: Peter Uihlein, 345.5 yards, 10th hole

Greens in regulation: Dean Burmester, 94.44% (17 of 18 greens)

Scrambling: 14 players with 100%, led by Sam Horsfield (7 of 7) and Thomas Pieters (7 of 7)

Putting: Lucas Herbert, 1.33 putts per hole

Bogey-free rounds: Lucas Herbert (64), Carlos Ortiz (65), Sebastián Muñoz (66), Matthew Wolff (66), Caleb Surratt (67), Anirban Lahiri (67), Sam Horsfield (68), Bubba Watson (68), Louis Oosthuizen (69), Dean Burmester (71)