A rollercoaster second round of the 2022 LIV Golf Jeddah saw Peter Uihlein's name climb to the top of the leaderboard. Ultimately signing for a 7-under 63, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy backed up his round of 5-under 67 on Friday and now sits alone at the top at 12 under.
Beginning his day on the second hole, Uihlein shot out of the gates with four consecutive birdies and applied pressure on overnight leader (and team captain) Brooks Koepka. Another birdie on the 10th saw the LIV Chicago runner-up reach 10 under for the tournament before finding the water on the difficult par-4 13th leading to a double bogey -- his only mistake of the day.
Needing to recover quickly, Uihlein did just that with a birdie on the par-4 14th and an eagle-birdie finish to his second round. At 12 under, he finds himself only one stroke clear of Koepka and three ahead of former Masters champions Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia.
Not only will Uihlein need to deal with the stress of capturing the individual title, but he and his closest pursuer must keep an eye on the team portion of the event. Currently at 30 under, Smash GC commands a six-stroke lead over the Fireballs, which won last week at LIV Bangkok. With a triumph, Smash GC would ascend to fifth in the team standings, which would grant it first selection of which team to face on Day 1 of the Team Championship at Trump National Doral.
The leader
1. Peter Uihlein (-12)
Uihlein's play both on and off LIV Golf has been sneaky good the past few months and has continued at LIV Golf Jeddah. Kicking off his LIV Golf campaign with a podium finish at LIV Golf London, the 33-year-old has since added a T7 result on the Asian Tour, a runner-up effort at LIV Golf Chicago and a top-10 finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour.
He sits eighth in the season-long points race and with a win could conceivably climb into the top three to earn a massive payday. Nothing will be given to Uihlein in the final round as he goes up against Koepka, a four-time major champion with whom he has a history. Rooming together in Europe while both traversed through the Challenge Tour, the two grew close and will surely make for a comfortable final grouping.
Setting up to take the lead...@PeterUihlein
— LIV Golf (@LIVGolfInv) October 15, 2022
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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 always a difficult task, but Koepka acquitted himself nicely in the second round. Signing for a 3-under 67, his biggest mistake came on the par-4 13th. Finding the desert off the tee, he compounded one poor swing with another and found the water with his approach to put a double-bogey on his scorecard. Able to bounce back from this mishap, Koepka added birdies on the par-3 16th and par-5 18th to come in at 11 under for the tournament.
Koepka has never been a glass half full type of guy and his comments following his round confirms he still has stuff to work on. He was disappointed with his driving on Friday and Saturday, and it was his putter which fell flat. Still, he is only one stroke off the Uihlein's pace, and if he is able to piece together the entirety of his game, a score similar to that of Round 1 may be in store for Sunday.
Going for it from 264 yards 💪
— LIV Golf (@LIVGolfInv) October 15, 2022
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Team leaderboard
| Place | Team | Players | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Smash | Chase Koepka, Peter Uihlein, Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak | -30 |
2 | Fireballs | Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra | -24 |
3 | 4 Aces | Talor Gooch, Dustin Johnson, Pat Perez, Patrick Reed | -19 |
4 | Crushers | Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri | -18 |
5 | Hy Flyers | Bernd Wiesberger, Phil Mickelson, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Tringale | -16 |
6 | Torque | Jediah Morgan, Hideto Tanihara, Scott Vincent, Joaquin Niemann | -15 |
T7 | Stinger | Branden Grace, Shaun Norris, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel | -14 |
T7 | Niblicks | Turk Petit, James Piot, Hudson Swafford, Harold Varner III | -14 |
9 | Cleeks | Richard Bland, Laurie Canter, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell | -12 |
T10 | Iron Heads | Sadom Kaewkanjana, Phacara Khongwatmai, Sihwan Kim, Kevin Na (WD) | -10 |
T10 | Majesticks | Sam Horsfield, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson | -10 |
12 | Punch | Matt Jones, Wade Ormsby, Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman | -9 |
With Kevin Na's WD, Iron Heads GC must use each team member's score (3) in the final round.
