Brooks Koepka sparks into life at Royal Greens to secure early lead at LIV Golf event in Jeddah
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Published 14/10/2022 at 14:31 GMT
The latest LIV Golf event is underway, with the series making the trip to the source of its funding in Saudi Arabia. Royal Greens Golf Club in Jeddah is playing host this week and the opening day was played in sweltering conditions. Brooks Koepka produced the best golf on the opening day to secure a two-stroke lead over the field heading into the weekend.
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Brooks Koepka found form on the opening day of the LIV Golf event in Jeddah to establish a lead over the field.
The four-time major winner was a huge signing for LIV, being a player in his early 30s and with theoretically lots of good golf still in him.
But his previous performances in LIV events this year were poor, with a ninth-placed finish in Bangkok his best effort from five starts.
The Bangkok event was the most recent, finishing last Sunday, and he carried the form from Thailand to the Royal Greens in Saudi Arabia.
Hip and knee injuries have hampered Koepka since winning the PGA Championship in 2019, but he looked on excellent terms on Friday to get to eight-under.
“I played great and am really happy,” Koepka said. “Very solid today and very pleased.
"I didn't drive it that well but ball striking was good and been working on that a lot with Claude (Harmon, coach)."
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After a par on his opening hole, the 15th, he produced a superb tee shot on the difficult 16th and rolled in the birdie putt to get his round moving.
A further birdie followed one hole later, before going on a run of five birdies in the space of seven holes.
Scoring was easy in hot conditions, 40 of the 48 players finished even-par or better, but Koepka was the only one of the field to make it look simple.
On what is a par-70 layout, a birdie on his 14th raised talk of a 59 being posted. But he went a little cold on the closing holes as he signed for a 62.
First Round Leaderboard
- 1. Brooks Koepka, eight-under
- 2. Charl Schwartzel, six-under
- T3. Hideto Tanihara, five-under
- T3. Peter Uihlein, five-under
- T3. Patrick Reed, five-under
- T6. Turk Pettit, four-under
- T6. James Piot, four-under
- T6. Carlos Ortiz, four-under
Dustin Johnson has been the star of the first year of LV Golf, and wrapped up the individual title last week.
He did not have his best form in Jeddah, and embarrassingly took three attempts to find the green from 10 yards off the putting surface on the eighth.
Johnson recovered to sign for a 68, six shots adrift of Koepka.
Phil Mickelson was the focus of attention after a forthright press conference, but he let his golf do the talking on Friday as he played his way into contention with a round of 67.
Koepka's lead over the field is two shots, as Charl Schwartzel birdied his final hole to get to six-under.
A bunch of players including Hideto Tanihara, Patrick Reed and Peter Uihlein are bunched at five-under, while James Piot who celebrated his 24th birthday on Friday, is at four-under.
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