2022 LIV Golf in Jeddah: Brooks Koepka’s 62 is good enough to take a two-stroke lead in Saudi Arabia

A corner was taken at LIV Golf Bangkok for Brooks Koepka last week as he secured his first top 10 finish since becoming a member of the new track. Continuing that momentum, the 32-year-old was once again at the 2022 LIV Golf Jeddah on Friday and opened with a perfect round of eight under 62 at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.

Starting his game day in ninth place, Koepka quickly rose to the top of the leaderboard with a birdie on numbers 16-17. Unable to take advantage of the par-5 18 obtained, the four-time major champion then caught fire before nine of the Royal Greens, making five birdies against no bogey.

Koepka added again on the 10th and whispers of number 59 began to circulate around the broadcast as Koepka saw not only his name but also his brother’s at the top of the charts. Missing a few scoring opportunities when he got home, Koepka ended up signing his number 62.

With a two-stroke win over LIV London winner Charl Schwartzel, Koepka is now in a position to lift her first trophy since the 2021 WM Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour. His Smash GC team is also considered to have given their best effort during the season as Koepka’s team owns the top of the rankings at the bottom 15.

Leader

1. Brooks Koepka (-8)

Koepka is always a golfer at his best in the second or third week of a round. He has mentioned this many times when asked about preparing for the big championship and with the move to LIV Golf, it is difficult to continue. With the schedule spread out, Koepka was in clear trouble until last week at LIV Golf Bangkok and the first round at LIV Golf Jeddah.

“I think last week was a turning point for me,” Koepka said. “I worked quite hard with Claude [Harmon]with Pete [Cowen] and Jeff [Pierce] over the last few months, back with Claude and see Pete a little more. So this is my first time playing consecutive weeks since February. It’s hard to build a rhythm. I can see it coming. I’m very happy with it, happy with last week, and you know, hopefully just put together two more innings. “

Other candidates

2. Charl Schwartzel (-6)

T3. Hideto Tanihara, Peter Uihlein, Patrick Reed (-5)

T6. Turk Petit, James Piot, Carlos Ortiz (-4)

T9. Marc Leishman, Jediah Morgan, Anirban Lahiri, Abraham Ancer, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson (-3)

One possibility could be an engagement to Turk Petit, who questioned his now fiancée on Thursday over the Red Sea. The former NCAA individual champion hit 5 birds only against the bogey and was tied up with his teammate James Piot in the Niblicks. They are two of LIV Golf’s younger competitors and have struggled throughout their tenure, but perhaps this is the week where fellow alumni will finally find their footing like Eugenio Lopez- Chacarra did at LIV Bangkok.

Team leaderboard