{"id":406055,"date":"2026-01-11T10:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T10:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406055\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T10:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T10:55:18","slug":"lee-leads-race-for-wildcard-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406055\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Leads Race For Wildcard Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s Richard T. Lee heads into the final round of LIV Golf Promotions in control after posting his second bogey-free 6-under 64 of the week at Black Diamond Ranch. Lee holds a two-shot lead as the field plays Sunday\u2019s final 18 holes, with three 2026 LIV Golf wild-card spots on the line.<br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PROM_01_10_26_MSA_2345.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>      Richard T. Lee leads heading into the final round of LIV Promotions<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Kim surged into contention with a bogey-free 4-under 66, highlighted by a strong back nine, to sit tied for second alongside South Africa\u2019s Oliver Bekker and Thailand\u2019s Jazz Janewattananond. Denmark\u2019s Lucas Bjerregaard is solo fifth, with several players still within striking distance.<\/p>\n<p>Lee, who has recorded two eagles, 13 birdies and just one bogey through 54 holes, is seeking to become the first Canadian to earn a LIV Golf spot. Kim, the only American to reach the weekend, is aiming to regain full-time status after narrowly making the cut on Friday.<br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PROM_01_10_26_MSA_2550.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>      Anthony Kim reads his putt on the 12th green at Black Diamond Ranch<\/p>\n<p>The top three finishers will earn guaranteed LIV Golf wild cards for 2026, while the top 10 and ties will secure exemptions into the Asian Tour\u2019s International Series, setting up a high-stakes final round.<\/p>\n<p>LEADERBOARD<\/p>\n<p>The top three players after Sunday\u2019s final round of the 36-hole weekend shootout at Black Diamond Ranch will claim the three available LIV Golf wild card spots for 2026. The top 10 players and ties earn exemption into The International Series on the Asian Tour. The leaderboard after Saturday\u2019s first 18 holes:<\/p>\n<p>Richard T. Lee, Canada \u2013 64<br \/>Oliver Bekker, South Africa \u2013 66<br \/>Jazz Janewattananond, Thailand \u2013 66<br \/>Anthony Kim, USA \u2013 66<br \/>\u00a0Lucas Bjerregaard, Denmark \u2013 67<br \/>Max Kennedy, Ireland \u2013 69<br \/>Takanori Konishi, Japan \u2013 69<br \/>Joe Pagdin, England \u2013 69<br \/>Sarit Suwannarut, Thailand \u2013 69<br \/>\u00a0Jeunghun Wang, South Korea \u2013 69<br \/>Bjorn Hellegren, Sweden \u2013 70<br \/>Matt Jones, Australia \u2013 70<br \/>\u00a0Julian Perico, Peru \u2013 70<br \/>Kieran Vincent, Zimbabwe \u2013 70<br \/>Rattanon Wannasrichan, Thailand \u2013 70<br \/>\u00a0Cory Crawford, Australia \u2013 71<br \/>Travis Smyth, Australia \u2013 71<br \/>Christopher Wood, Australia \u2013 71<br \/>Jose Islas, Mexico \u2013 72<br \/>Miguel Tabuena, Philippines \u2013 72<br \/>Sadom Kaewkanjana, Thailand \u2013 73<br \/>\u00a0Danthai Boonma, Thailand \u2013 76<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s Richard T. Lee heads into the final round of LIV Golf Promotions in control after posting his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-406055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}