Chicago LIV Golf Leaderboard: Dustin Johnson three strokes ahead of Cameron Smith after round 1

news7g09/17/2022

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Chicago LIV Golf Leaderboard: Dustin Johnson three strokes ahead of Cameron Smith after round 1

At the LIV Golf Chicago event on Friday, Dustin Johnson picked up where he left off a few weeks ago at the LIV Golf Boston event, where he won his first title. Shooting the opening lap 63, DJ led Cam Smith by three strokes to enter Round 2 on Saturday. He also helped his team, 4 Aces, with a total of 11 under, which put them in line for the team’s fourth straight win.

Johnson, who started on the first hole on Thursday, was past 30 and missed only one or two shots in his five hours of Round 1 play. With a chance at 59 remaining, he eventually leveled off by one. bit but still satisfied with his performance, despite playing the last six holes with only 1 under 1 left.

“I hit the ball really well obviously…it was really solid all day,” Johnson said. “Very close. I don’t have a lot of long putts, but I’ve made a lot of putts within 10 feet. I hit it really, really well today.”

When the DJ gets hot, this is what he does. He tends to rip multiple events in a row no matter where he’s playing or against whom. This happened most notably in 2017 when he won three tournaments in a row leading to masters before withdrawing from the first pro tournament of the year with an injury. He was asked after his Friday round how he had maintained such a high level of play despite possibly playing less competitive golf than he had ever played in his life (Johnson has played only six times since then). from the PGA Championship in May).

“Right now I feel like I’ve swung into a beautiful trench,” he said. “For me, as long as I hit a few balls a day I can keep it there. Right now, I’m just swinging really well. Luckily, I’m maintaining it.”

In addition to Johnson’s score, the 4 Aces also counted Talor Gooch’s under-2 and led the Punch GC team – which counted Cam Smith’s -6 and Matt Jones’ -4 – by a single stroke to advance to the second round. .

And if Johnson is the hottest LIV player right now, then Smith is the best LIV player all year, though mostly on the PGA Tour and in the major championships. After winning the Tournament of Champions, the Players Championship and the Open Championship at the Old Course in July, Smith switched to LIV Golf and finished T4 in his first event in Boston after DJ and two other players.

While Smith hasn’t had a match as pretty as Johnson when it comes to tackles, he has been a better scorer throughout the year. Whether that will be enough to overcome the three-stroke deficit and the machine-like batting performance that the DJ has put in late stages remains to be seen, but Smith has his Punch GC team at position to finish the mini run that the 4 Aces have entered and got their first win after the PGA Tour at Rich Harvest Farms this weekend.

Regardless of what you think of the LIV, the PGA Tour, or the ongoing feud between the two, we can all agree that a Smith-Johnson battle over the weekend would be an interesting one. The high-stakes, hard-hitting match of the two-time major champion at Johnson against the biggest player “he had that dog in him” alive today in Smith. The battle between the ages in the fifth LIV event of the year? Probably not, but the golf course would still be great.