South African Dean Burmester, with 5 under par, has become the first leader of the LIV Golf Andalucia, which returns for the second year to the fantastic Real Club Valderrama, in a day in which Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra and Sergio Garcia have come to lead the standings to finally finish two and three strokes, respectively, Burmester. Danny Lee is ahead of them, in second place, with -4.
On an extremely hot day, with temperatures peaking at around 40 degrees, and with strong gusts of Levante wind, only 7 of the 54 players were able to finish under par at the always complicated and admired Valderrama.
Jon Rahm was not one of them, finishing the round with +2 after making a double bogey on the 17th, nor was David Puig, who came out really bad in his duel against the emblematic course and sealed his performance with a +10.
Chacarra took the lead on his twelfth hole, having made two birdies that knocked Louis Oosthuizen from a lead that the South African held for most of the round.
However, the Spaniard lost the first place two holes later, when he made the third bogey of his round. He is third in the standings, one place ahead of Garcia.
The Spaniard, the only player to win three times at Valderrama, also led the day ephemerally by holing two consecutive birdies on the 13th and 14th.
On the fearsome and eye-catching 17th hole, Garcia twice got tangled in the bunkers before making a bogey and dropping slightly in the provisional final standings.
His party mate Rahm suffered even more on the 17th hole, sending his ball into the bunker and then into the water in front of the green, which resulted in a double bogey in a tense day for the Basque, who had chained two birdies on holes 4 and 5 and holed another on the 11th. He starts today in sixteenth place in the standings with +2, tied with Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and six other players.
The fourth Spanish component of the LIV Golf Tour, Olympian David Puig, did not find the right path at any time, accumulating a growing drama that led to a lacerating 10 over par.
Two of the great favorites, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, did not have their best day. The former was another of those who wrecked on the 17th with a double bogey and finished his round with +3 in 24th place, while Koepka, with a double bogey on the 18th, totaled +4 and occupies 29th place in the standings.
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