Jason Kokrak and Paul Casey tie for the first round lead in LIV Golf’s Season 2 Opener, three strokes ahead of Dustin Johnson in Mexico
Jason Kokrak and Englishman Paul Casey are tied for the first round lead at LIV Golf Mayakoba after shooting rounds of 65-under-par on Friday in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
The tournament kicked off the second season of LIV Golf at El Camaleon, a course designed by LIV CEO Greg Norman. It is the LIV’s first foray into Mexico and the first time it has held a tournament at a course that has hosted PGA Tour events.
Kokrak and Casey have a two shot lead over Peter Uihlein, Talor Gooch and Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz, who shot 4-under 67.
Englishman Paul Casey got off to a good start at the first LIV Golf event of the year in Mexico on Friday
Casey and Jason Kokrak tied for the lead with six rounds under par of 65 in the first round
Kokrak and Casey fired their 65s in very different ways. Kokrak hit six birdies, including a chip-in, and was bogey-free.
“With my type of game, I don’t always get a chance to play without bogey,” said Kokrak.
Casey, meanwhile, started his round with a birdie on the par-4 sixth and was 5-under before making a double bogey on the par-4 second hole. He bounced back to finish his round with three consecutive birdies at numbers 3-5.
Gooch was the only other player to run out of bogey on Friday.
Dustin Johnson, last season’s individual champion and captain of the defending champion 4Aces team, is tied for sixth place at 3-under-68s with Charles Howell III, England’s Ian Poulter, Australia’s Marc Leishman and South Africa’s Branden Grace.
The LIV’s highest-ranked player, world No. 5 Cameron Smith of Australia is alone at 11th, 2 short of 69.
Casey and Howell helped Crushers take the team lead at 10-under after a round. Anirban Lahiri from India contributed 1 under 70.
The top three scores for each four-man team count towards each round of team scoring. Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau was the outsider for his team after opening with a 1-over 72 that included a bogey-bogey-bogey double stretch.
The Crushers have a three-stroke lead over Johnson’s 4Aces and Brooks Koepka’s Smash, each 7-under. 4Aces had contributions from Johnson, Uihlein and Pat Perez (par 71), and Smash featured Kokrak, Koepka (par) and Matthew Wolff (1 under).
The pair were three strokes ahead of Dustin Johnson after the first round in Mexico