2022 LIV Golf in Jeddah leaderboard: Peter Uihlein grabs one-stroke lead over teammate Brooks Koepka

A rollercoaster second spherical of the 2022 LIV Golf Jeddah noticed Peter Uihlein’s title climb to the highest of the leaderboard. Ultimately signing for a 7-under 63, the previous Oklahoma State Cowboy backed up his spherical of 5-under 67 on Friday and now sits alone on the prime at 12 beneath.

Beginning his day on the second gap, Uihlein shot out of the gates with 4 consecutive birdies and utilized strain on in a single day chief (and staff captain) Brooks Koepka. Another birdie on the tenth noticed the LIV Chicago runner-up attain 10 beneath for the match earlier than discovering the water on the troublesome par-4 thirteenth resulting in a double bogey — his solely mistake of the day.

Needing to recuperate rapidly, Uihlein did simply that with a birdie on the par-4 14th and an eagle-birdie end to his second spherical. At 12 beneath, he finds himself just one stroke away from Koepka and three forward of former Masters champions Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia.

Not solely will Uihlein have to take care of the stress of capturing the person title, however he and his closest pursuer should control the staff portion of the occasion. Currently at 30 beneath, Smash GC instructions a six-stroke lead over the Fireballs, which received final week at LIV Bangkok. With a triumph, Smash GC would ascend to fifth in the staff standings, which might grant it first collection of which staff to face on Day 1 of the Team Championship at Trump National Doral.

The chief

1. Peter Uihlein (-12)

Uihlein’s play each on and off LIV Golf has been sneaky good the previous few months and has continued at LIV Golf Jeddah. Kicking off his LIV Golf marketing campaign with a podium end at LIV Golf London, the 33-year-old has since added a T7 outcome on the Asian Tour, a runner-up effort at LIV Golf Chicago and a top-10 end on the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour.

He sits eighth in the season-long factors race and with a win might conceivably climb into the highest three to earn a large payday. Nothing might be given to Uihlein in the ultimate spherical as he goes up towards Koepka, a four-time main champion with whom he has a historical past. Rooming collectively in Europe whereas each traversed via the Challenge Tour, the 2 grew shut and can certainly make for a cushty ultimate grouping.

Other contenders

2. Brooks Koepka (-11)

T3. Charl Schwartzel, Sergio Garcia (-10)

T5. Abraham Ancer, Paul Casey (-9)

T7. James Piot, Dustin Johnson, Sihwan Kim, Anirban Lahiri (-8)

Following up an 8-under 62 is all the time a troublesome job, however Koepka acquitted himself properly in the second spherical. Signing for a 3-under 67, his largest mistake got here on the par-4 thirteenth. Finding the desert off the tee, he compounded one poor swing with one other and located the water together with his strategy to place a double-bogey on his scorecard. Able to bounce again from this mishap, Koepka added birdies on the par-3 sixteenth and par-5 18th to come back in at 11 beneath for the match. 

Koepka has by no means been a glass half full kind of man and his feedback following his spherical confirms he nonetheless has stuff to work on. He was dissatisfied together with his driving on Friday and Saturday, and it was his putter which fell flat. Still, he is just one stroke off the Uihlein’s tempo, and if he is ready to piece collectively the whole lot of his recreation, a rating much like that of Round 1 could also be in retailer for Sunday.

Team leaderboard

With Kevin Na’s WD, Iron Heads GC should use every staff member’s rating (3) in the ultimate spherical.