Anirban Lahiri carded a 7-under-par 64, just three shots off the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club tournament record, to vault into the lead by two strokes after the second round of LIV Golf Virginia Saturday.
“I’m not going out there to prove anything to anyone,” Lahiri said after his round. “I just want to go out there and just play freely, play like a kid.”
Lahiri made six birdies, including three consecutive on holes 6-8, and did not card a bogey, nearly equaling Troy Merritt’s third-round 61 from the 2015 Quicken Loans National. He stands at 11-under for the tournament, two clear of Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell and day one co-leader Martin Kaymer, who are all at -9 headed into the final day of play Sunday. The final round will go off nearly two hours earlier than originally scheduled — 8:05 a.m. instead of 9:54 — due to expected early afternoon thunderstorms in the area.
“I think I’ve been guilty of playing a bit defensively, especially when I’ve gotten close, and I think tomorrow with this golf course being the way it is, I think it’s a great opportunity because you cannot be defensive,” Lahiri said. “You have to go and attack and make as many birdies as you can.”
In LIV’s shotgun format, Lahiri played in the first group off of No. 1 with Joaquin Niemann, and their trajectories for the round would intersect at the par-3 11th.
Niemann had put together a birdie run on holes 5-8, and had just birdied the 10th as he stepped up to 11, playing at 190 yards, with the tournament lead.
His tee shot, however, was too short, hitting the front of the hillside green across Lake Manassas before tumbling down into the water.
“I just keep my blinkers on, I stick to my guns and I do what I need to do,” Lahiri said of Niemann’s miss. “I wasn’t really thinking about what Joaco was doing … this field is so good that you blink and you look up and someone is 9-under par. It’s happened plenty of times.”
Niemann would take a penalty and card a double bogey, finishing his round at -3, four strokes back and in a four-way tie for fifth with Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson and the other day one co-leader, Bryson DeChambeau.
Lahiri indeed did what he needed to do, striking his ball to within 10 feet of the hole. He’d make the comeback birdie to move into the solo lead at 9-under.
“I think 9, 10, 11 played really tricky because just the wind around that corner was not what it was for the first nine holes,” Lahiri said. “So you saw a lot of people misjudge yardages in that stretch. I think all credit for that hole goes to Tim, my caddie, because it was right between [an] 8 [iron] and 7, and he said, ’Look, you’ve got room, just commit to it.’ I made a good swing. I got a good look from Jon’s putt, as well.”
Watson expressed similar struggles in figuring out the three holes that begin the stretch along the lake, which more acutely affected play there than elsewhere.
“For some reason on 9, 10 and 11, those greens, I left them all short,” said Watson, who nearly drove the length of the short par-4 10th, but ended up with a bogey before making an 8-foot putt for par on 11. “The greens are lightning fast out there, so for me to leave those three short, it didn’t make sense.”
“Obviously I babied it or something, but Patrick Reed on 9 ran it past the hole so I thought mine was going to be a little speedy, but I left it way short, made it. Then on 10, I saw Peter Uihlein putt it past, so I thought it was going to be speedy again. I left it short.”
Rahm, the third member of the group that started at the first with Lahiri and Niemann, could’ve just as easily been in the lead.
His 2-under round of 69 was nothing to sneeze at. But the Spaniard left at least five strokes out on the course, including a 34-foot putt for birdie at the par-5 15th, dropping his putter to the turf in frustration.
DeChambeau and Lahiri’s efforts led their Crushers team to the top of the team standings by a stroke over the Brooks Kopeka-led Smash GC. The Crushers took the margin and the cumulative -21 lead after DeChambeau birdied his last, No. 18. Koepka recorded seven birdies, but also four bogeys, including doubles on two par 3s — Nos. 4 and 11.
Rain overnight Friday and early Saturday made for a more receptive course. Sunday’s forecasted rain, however, will likely impede more than it helps, with expected intermittent showers in the morning and the potential for more severe thunderstorms in the afternoon — the final competitive round for 14 LIV golfers headed to Oakmont for next week’s U.S. Open.
“It’s just a tough golf course and you’ve got to be willing to grind it out,” Watson said. “They could easily hold a U.S. Open here.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.