LIV Golf Day 1 Live Updates: Follow Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson in Debut
The LIV Golf International Series has arrived, and players teed off at 9:15 a.m. ET (2:15 p.m. local) in a shotgun start to kick off the controversial new tour. We’ll have live updates throughout the first day, so check back for more highlights, news and analysis from LIV Golf’s first day.
Day 1 Concludes With Schwartzel in Lead
Charl Schwartzel closed his opening round with a birdie to grab a one-shot lead. Schwartzel is a former Masters champion and one of 17 current or former PGA Tour members competing in this event. LIV events are 54 holes, so two rounds remain.
Hennie Du Plessis shot 4 under and is alone in second place, one back.
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson were grouped together, and they shot matching one-under 69s to trail Schwartzel by four shots.
“Other than a couple loose drives, I felt like I hit my irons really good. The golf course is tough and conditions are really tough,” Johnson said afterward on the broadcast.
Here’s a look at the Day 1 final leaderboard:
Who is Phachara Khongwatmai?
The 48-man field at the LIV Golf opener has some players familiar to most golf fans but many more that likely aren’t.
One of the latter would be the leader at 4 under par with three holes to go at Centurion Club, Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai. The 23-year-old is ranked No. 133 in the world and a regular on the Asian Tour.
In 2013 at age 14, he became the youngest winner of a professional tournament when he won the Sing Hua Hin Open on the All Thailand Golf Tour. Three years later he played in the British Open at age 17, missing the cut.
The LIV Golf Invitational Series is sanctioned by the Asian Tour. LIV Golf Investments, the company launched last October with the idea of supporting golf throughout the world, has committed $300 million to the Asian Tour for a series of 10 events per year meant to help grow the tour. The Public Investment Fund, an autonomous wealth fund administered by the government of Saudi Arabia, is the main shareholder of LIV Golf Investments.
Three players from Thailand are in the field as well as three from Japan.
How the LIV Broadcast Looks and Sounds
As with any new league, plenty of curiosity surrounded where and how LIV Golf would be broadcasted.
For the opener outside London, LIV Golf is broadcasted on its own website, YouTube and Facebook. And it looks like … a golf tournament.
The presentation includes a constantly updating leaderboard on the left side of the screen, with players and their team logos. At the top left is the number of holes remaining, as with a shotgun start all the players finish at roughly the same time.
American golf fans who complain about broadcasts with too many commercial breaks, take note — there are no sponsor obligations this week with the new series, hence no commercials. During the opening-round broadcast there have been virtually no features or other segments to take away from the golf.
As for the commentary, the main booth has longtime Premier League soccer broadcaster Arlo White, who is English, along with American Jerry Foltz, most recently of Golf Channel and Hong Kong native Dom Boulet, the voice of the Asian Tour.
Dustin Double Bogeys the 7th Hole
It’s not all smiles at the…
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