LIV Golf Day 3 Live Updates: Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson Chasing Charl Schwartzel
Players teed off at 9:15 a.m. ET (2:15 p.m. local) in a shotgun start for the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational London event. We'll have live updates throughout the day.
Schwartzel Closes Out Win
Charl Schwartzel is the first winner in the new LIV Golf International Series. He took a two-shot lead into the par-5 18th and made a nervy bogey, tapping in for a one-shot victory over fellow South African Hennie Du Plessis. Schwartzel banks $4 million for his win.
Schwartzel Saves Critical Par, Leads by 5 at the Turn
Charl Schwartzel saved a crucial par at the par-4 9th after a birdie at the par-4 8th to maintain a five-shot cushion as the leaders make the turn. Schwartzel is at 10-under, ahead of Hennie Du Plessis, who remains in second place at 5-under. Peter Uihlein, who had been tied with Du Plessis for second, found the water off the tee, which led to a double bogey. Uihlein fell into a tie for third with Sam Horsfield at 3-under.
Schwartzel Leads By 4 with 12 Holes to Play
Charl Schwartzel's lead increased to four shots when Hennie Du Plessis, Schwartzel's closest challenger, made bogey at the par-4 6th, missing a 12-footer for par. Du Plessis' bogey, which dropped him to 5-under for the tournament, made the margin for second place closer, as American Peter Uihlein remains at 4-under.
Day 3 Tee Times for LIV Golf's Final Round
Here are the tee times and starting holes for the final round. It remains a shotgun start, so it's possible the winning putt could be made somewhere other than hole 18.
- Hole 1B: Charl Schwartzel, Hennie Du Plessis, Peter Uihlein
- Hole 1A: Phachara Khongwatmai, Scott Vincent, Oliver Bekker
- Hole 2: Branden Grace, Dustin Johnson, Sam Horsfield
- Hole 3: Talor Gooch, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Adrian Otaegui
- Hole 4: Pablo Larrazabal, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia
- Hole 5: James Piot, Phil Mickelson, JC Ritchie
- Hole 6: Travis Smyth, Martin Kaymer, Kevin Na
- Hole 7: Kevin Yuan, Viraj Madappa, Matt Jones
- Hole 8: Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Shaun Norris
- Hole 10: Shiwan Kim, Richard Bland, Hideto Tanihara
- Hole 12: Bernd Wiesberger, Oliver Fisher, David Puig
- Hole 13: Turk Pettit, Blake Windred, Hudson Swafford
- Hole 14: Andy Ogletree, Itthipat Buranatanyarat, Sadom Kaewkanjana
- Hole 15: Jinichiro Kozuma, Jediah Morgan, Wade Ormsby
- Hole 16: Laurie Canter, Ratchanon Chantananuwat, Ian Snyman
- Hole 17: Chase Koepka, Justin Harding, Ian Poulter
Day 2 Concludes, Schwartzel Still Leads
Charl Schwartzel could go wire-to-wire in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational tournament.
The 37-year-old South African shot 4-under 66 on Friday at the par-70 Centurion Club, and his 9 under total leads by three over fellow countryman Hennie Du Plennis. Peter Uihlein is 4 under in third and Oliver Bekker is fourth at 3 under.
Dustin Johnson shot even for his second round and is tied for fifth at 1 under. Phil Mickelson shot 75 and is 4 over, tied for 26th.
Dustin Johnson Hanging In
The highest-ranked player in the world in LIV Golf, No. 15 Dustin Johnson, is hanging in the top 5 as the second round nears completion on Friday.
Johnson shot 1 under in the first round and is 1 under so far on Friday; 2 under overall has him in a tie for fourth and five shots behind Charl Schwartzel.
Johnson's last win was the 2020 Masters, held in November. He won $2,070,000 along with a green jacket. A win this week ($4 million) or solo second ($2,125,000) would eclipse that payday.
Phil Mickelson Failing to Make a Move
In his second competitive round since February, Phil Mickelson may be showing some rust.
The 51-year-old is 4 over through 12 holes on his round Friday, after an opening round of 1 under, and nine shots behind Charl Schwartzel's lead. He has been in some interesting spots around Centurion Club, though Phil still has his escape skills.
The Quirks of LIV Golf's Broadcast Look
With the new LIV Golf Invitational Series comes a new broadcast look. What do you think of this leaderboard presentation? We have some thoughts.
Good: The most notable part of the LIV Golf format is its shotgun start, and that's represented on screen with the number of holes left to play at the top left. It's the closest thing you'll ever see to a timer on a golf broadcast.
Undecided: With an international field like this, a broadcast would usually have country flags to help identify players, but LIV Golf is in part a team game so there are team logos instead of national flags next to players in the left-side leaderboard.
The logos are simply going to take time for golf fans to learn. The Crushers GC logo, for example, resembles a skull-and-crossbones. The fact that the players don't wear the logos makes the learning curve longer.
Strange: The player name abbreviations are bizarre. The interface only allows for a maximum of four characters, so you get odd shortenings like "D.JSN" and "P.MIK." Not that anyone won't figure out those two headliners, but it's quirky. They can't all be as easy as "K.NA."
Charl Schwartzel's LIV Golf Revival
Charl Schwartzel isn't a headliner in the LIV Golf Invitational Series, but he's a known name. Winning the Masters, as the South African did in 2011, is a lifelong calling card.
Yet after that Masters win, Schwartzel only won one more time on the PGA Tour, at the 2016 Valspar Championship. The 37-year-old hasn't won anywhere else in the world since. His closest shave came at the 2021 Zurich Classic, when he and teammate Louis Oosthuizen lost on the first playoff hole to the team of Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith.
But right now? Schwartzel, the No. 126 player in the world, is 6 under at Centurion Club, leading by three shots after five holes in his second round. A $4 million payday would be nearly one-fifth of his lifetime total on the PGA Tour.
Could anyone have seen this coming? Schwartzel made the cut on the number at the PGA Championship three weeks ago and finished T60. He was eighth the week before at the Byron Nelson.
But before that, outside a T10 in April at familiar Augusta National, he had seven missed cuts in nine other PGA Tour starts in 2022. He's 155th in the FedEx Cup standings, though he'll be scrubbed from the standings after this weekend as a result of the PGA Tour suspending LIV Golf players.
None of that matters as the moment, as Schwartzel is leading the race for the biggest payday in golf history.
Stinger GC Atop Team Leaderboard
The LIV Golf broadcast is heavy on golf shots (and commercial-free), but showed one small feature on Friday of the Stinger GC foursome sitting over breakfast discussing team strategy.
Of course it was a little made-for-TV silliness, there's not rocket science to team golf when it's four players just playing their own ball and having the scores fall where they may. There's no strategy.
So the team of Hennie Du Plessis, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel mostly laughed over sausage and eggs about a good first day. Grace and Schwartzel wore team hats, featuring a scorpion.
And the second day is starting out well too: the top three spots on the leaderboard after three holes are all Stinger GC players, with Schwartzel and Du Plessis at 4 under and Branden Grace at 2 under. The low two scores count in the first two rounds and the three low scores in the final round.
The team payouts are $3 million split among the first-place team, $1.5 million for second and $500,000 for third.
DJ, Phil Together Again, and Other Intriguing Round 2 Groups
The field has been reset for the second round at Centurion Club, based on Round 1 scores.
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, LIV Golf's headliners, were paired yesterday on the 1st hole in the shotgun start, and by virtue of both shooting 1 under, they're together again starting on the 3rd hole. Sam Horsfield rounds out the threesome.
The tournament leaders are going off the 1st: Charl Schwartzel (5 under), Hennie Du Plessis (4 under) and Scott Vincent (3 under). Down the leaderboard on the 2nd tee are Phachara Khongwatmai (3 under) and Justin Harding and Branden Grace (both 2 under).
Elsewhere on the course, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are together after shooting 5 over. Talor Gooch and Sergio Garcia will play together after rounds of 1 over.
Team competition will continue with the two low scores counting; Schwartzel and Du Plessis are teammates on Stinger GC so that team is the one to catch on Friday.
Tee Times and Groupings for Day 2 at LIV Golf
Here are the groups for Day 2, along with the new team names. Everyone will tee off at the same time in a shotgun start:
- Hole 1 Scott Vincent - Smash GC Hennie Du Plessis - Stinger GC Charl Schwartzel - Stinger GC
- Hole 2 Justin Harding - Hy Flyers GC Branden Grace - Stinger GC Phachara Khongwatmai - Crushers GC
- Hole 3 Sam Horsfield - Majesticks GC Phil Mickelson - Hy Flyers GC Dustin Johnson - 4 Aces GC
- Hole 4 Richard Bland - Crushers GC Louis Oosthuizen - Stinger GC Pablo Larrazabal - Cleeks GC
- Hole 5 Jediah Morgan - Fireballs GC Ryosuke Kinoshita - Punch GC Ratchanon Chantananuwat (a) - Hy Flyers GC
- Hole 6 Jinichiro Kozuma - Smash GC Kevin Yuan - 4 Aces GC Oliver Fisher - Niblicks GC
- Hole 7 Kevin Na - Iron Heads GC Shaun Norris - 4 Aces GC JC Ritchie - Cleeks GC
- Hole 8 Martin Kaymer - Cleeks GC David Puig (a) - Fireballs GC Graeme McDowell - Crushers GC
- Hole 10 Travis Smyth - Crushers GC Turk Pettit - Niblicks GC Matt Jones - Punch GC
- Hole 12 Sadom Kaewkanjana - Iron Heads GC Ian Poulter - Majesticks GC Lee Westwood - Majesticks GC
- Hole 13 Bernd Wiesberger - Niblicks GC Hudson Swafford - Torque GC Itthipat Buranatanyarat - Smash GC
- Hole 14 Andy Ogletree - Torque GC Sihwan Kim - Smash GC Blake Windred - Punch GC
- Hole 15 Viraj Madappa - Iron Heads GC James Piot - Fireballs GC Ian Snyman - Cleeks GC
- Hole 16 Wade Ormsby - Punch GC Talor Gooch - Torque GC Sergio Garcia - Fireballs GC
- Hole 17 Hideto Tanihara - Iron Heads Adrian Otaegui - Torque GC Peter Uihlein - Niblicks GC
- Hole 18 Oliver Bekker - 4 Aces GC Chase Koepka - Hy Flyers Laurie Canter - Majesticks GC
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 leaders:
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 Centurion Club. On the par-4 7th hole, Dustin Johnson blew his drive out of bounds to the right and flung his tee in disgust.
He made a double bogey on the hole to fall from 1 under to 1 over on the round, tied for 15th in the event.
Johnson is playing alongside Phil Mickelson — LIV Golf put its two biggest names together and started them on the 1st tee — and Mickelson is also 1 over in his first pro golf since the Saudi International in early February.
How the Team Format Works
One of LIV Golf's major selling points is its four-man team format. With 12 holes remaining in the round — how LIV tracks time given the shotgun start — the Crushers GC team was leading at 4 under.
Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand was at 4 under, leading the Crushers as well as the entire event.
The team score is calculated with the best two scores on a team for the first two rounds, and the three best scores in the third and final round.
The top three teams earn shares of a $5 million prize pool, with $3 million for first, $1.5 million for second and $500,000 for third split between the four players. So, in theory, one player could have a poor event but three good teammates and get a nice payday.
So, What Are They Wearing?
If you’re just tuning in, you'll notice that most of the players won’t look any different sartorially than in other tournaments. Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia, for example, are in their usual threads with the Adidas logo; Garcia with an Adidas hat and Johnson a TaylorMade logo hat.
Players' LIV Golf teams are represented through the caddies, who have team names and logos on their vests.
As for Phil Mickelson, who lost sponsors in the wake of his comments in February about the PGA Tour’s “obnoxious greed” and the Saudi-backed league, he’s wearing a black hat with his own jumping-Phil logo and a black vest with the Augusta National Golf Club logo.
Play Begins at LIV Golf Opener
Dustin Johnson's opening shot was shown live on the broadcast, and he split the fairway. Phil Mickelson is grouped with DJ, and he also hit the fairway with his opening shot on No. 1. And so begins a new golf league.
Phil Mickelson's opening tee shot in the new LIV Golf league.
The Broadcast is Live
In the opening moments of the webcast, Greg Norman joins the booth and says, "I'm excited to bring free agency to golf. The shotgun start is moments away.
Arlo White, Greg Norman and Jerry Foltz in the opening broadcast booth.
A Ride To the Shotgun Start
As anyone who has ever played in a charity golf tournament or big event at their local club knows, the transportation for a shotgun start is controlled chaos. Usually it entails an army of golf carts all launched at once from the clubhouse.
LIV Golf took it a step further by grabbing a fleet of London black cabs to transport players all over Centurion Club.
LIV Golf also dropped a hype video on Thursday, narrated by Dennis Quaid.
Tee Times and Groupings for Day 1 at LIV Golf
Here are the groups for Day 1, along with the new team names. Everyone will tee off at the same time in a shotgun start:
- Hole 1 Dustin Johnson - 4 Aces GC Scott Vincent - Smash GC Phil Mickelson - Hy Flyers GC
- Hole 2 Sergio Garcia - Fireballs GC Talor Gooch - Torque GC Pablo Larrazabal - Cleeks GC
- Hole 3 Charl Schwartzel - Stinger GC Graeme McDowell - Crushers GC Wade Ormsby - Punch GC
- Hole 4 Sam Horsfield - Majesticks GC Sadom Kaewkanjana - Iron Heads GC Andy Ogletree - Torque GC
- Hole 5 Richard Bland - Crushers GC Ratchanon Chantananuwat (a) - Hy Flyers GC Ryosuke Kinoshita - Punch GC
- Hole 6 Jediah Morgan - Fireballs GC Ian Snyman - Cleeks GC Oliver Fisher - Niblicks GC
- Hole 7 Chase Koepka - Hy Flyers GC Turk Pettit - Niblicks GC Kevin Yuan - 4 Aces GC
- Hole 8 Itthipat Buranatanyarat - Smash GC Hennie Du Plessis - Stinger GC James Piot (a) - Fireballs GC
- Hole 10 Jinichiro Kozuma - Smash GC Phachara Khongwatmai - Crushers GC JC Ritchie - Cleeks GC
- Hole 12 David Puig (a) - Fireballs GC Oliver Bekker - 4 Aces GC Viraj Madappa - Iron Heads GC
- Hole 13 Peter Uihlein - Niblicks GC Adrian Otaegui - Torque GC Blake Windred - Punch GC
- Hole 14 Laurie Canter - Majesticks GC Martin Kaymer - Cleeks GC Hudson Swafford - Torque GC
- Hole 15 Shaun Norris - 4 Aces GC Travis Smyth - Crushers GC Hideto Tanihara - Iron Heads GC
- Hole 16 Branden Grace - Stinger GC Sihwan Kim - Smash GC Matt Jones - Punch GC
- Hole 17 Lee Westwood - Majesticks GC Bernd Wiesberger - Niblicks GC Justin Harding - Hy Flyers GC
- Hole 18 Louis Oosthuizen - Stinger GC Kevin Na - Iron Heads GC Ian Poulter - Majesticks GC
What is the LIV Golf 2022 Calendar?
LIV Golf debuts in London, and there will be seven more events, staged in both the U.S. and abroad, through the rest of the year. Here's the full lineup:
- June 9-11, Centurion Club, Hemel Hempstead, St. Albans
- June 30-July 2, Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, North Plains, Ore.
- July 29-31. Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, N.J.
- Sept. 2-4, The International, Bolton, Mass.
- Sept. 16-18, Rich Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Ill.
- Oct. 7-9, Stonehill Golf Club, Bangkok
- Oct. 14-16, Royal Greens Golf Club, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Oct. 28-30, Trump National Doral, Miami
Show Me the Money
If the broadcast has not made it abundantly clear what the players are competing for this week, here's a quick primer.
Of the 12 teams competing, only the top three will earn shares of the $5 million purse — first place splits $3 million four ways ($750,000 per player), second place splits $1.5 million ($375,000 per player) and third place earns $500,000 ($125,000 per player).
Individually, $4 million will go to the winner, followed by $2.125 million (second), $1.5 million (third) and $1.05 million (fourth). Further down, 12th will earn $450,000, 24th gets $168,000 and dead last earns $120,000.
At best, a player could earn $4.75 million come Saturday evening. At worst, a player leaves with, well, $120,000.