\n\tHONG KONG: Carlos Ortiz\u2019s approach shot from 152 meters on his final hole Thursday at HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong was headed directly toward the flag. Despite the long odds of holing out, for a brief moment, shooting 59 was a possibility.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ball finished inside 60 centimeters, leaving Ortiz with a tap-in birdie for a 10-under 60 and a two-shot lead over Dean Burmester after the opening round at the Hong Kong Golf Club.<\/p>\n
\n\tNot only was it Ortiz\u2019s lowest round in his professional tournament career, it was the third time in LIV Golf history that a player has shot 60.<\/p>\n
\n\tJust three rounds have been lower: Bryson DeChambeau\u2019s historic 58, and the two 59s by Ortiz\u2019s Torque GC teammates Joaquin Niemann and Sebastian Munoz.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was a great round \u2026 I think I hit it very close, like four or five times I just tapped it in. That doesn\u2019t happen much, so it\u2019s awesome when you don\u2019t even have to get the putter out. Very pleased,\u201d said Ortiz.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was certainly the best round of a multitude of low scores at Fanling. Burmester\u2019s 62 matches his score the previous round he played here, when the Southern Guards\u2019 star finished second last season to the Fireballs GC\u2019s captain Sergio Garcia.<\/p>\n
\n\tGarcia, meanwhile, shot 63 while extending his streak of bogey-free holes at Hong Kong Golf Club to 63. He is tied for third with Smash GC captain Talor Gooch along with Scott Vincent, who shot the lowest round ever for a wild card player.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn all, 28 players shot 67 or better on a course that was soft due to rain leading up to the opening round. Included in that group was Anthony Kim, who shot 67 in his first start since winning LIV Golf Adelaide last month.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAs you can see by the scoring, it\u2019s playing softer and a lot easier than it generally is,\u201d Burmester said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut I know Saturday and Sunday the wind is going to come up, so I think that\u2019ll toughen the course up. It\u2019ll dry out and then we\u2019ll get the true experience of Fanling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOrtiz was just two-under through his first nine holes and coming off a bogey at the par-four eighth. But he saved par at the ninth, then followed with three straight birdies on holes 10 to 12, including a chip-in at 11. He then eagled the par-five 13th after hitting his second shot to 155 centimeters.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cObviously I played great coming in,\u201d said Ortiz, seeking his second individual LIV Golf victory. Fueled by his 60, Torque also has the team lead at 21-under, two shots ahead of Smash GC.<\/p>\n
\n\tBurmester called his round \u201cpretty flawless\u201d other than an error on the ninth when he chose the wrong club off the tee. Having come close last year, he can now chase his third LIV Golf title over the final 54 holes.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the way I kind of just hung together and kept pushing in birdies,\u201d Burmester said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI saw a lot of guys making birdies, and I managed to do the same. Normally when that happens you feel like you\u2019ve got to chase, and I never felt like I was doing that. I just felt like I was within myself, so it\u2019s one of those good in-the-zone days for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGarcia always seems to be in the zone at Fanling. He has not suffered a bogey at Fanling since his ninth hole in the opening round last year, and on Thursday, he hit all 18 greens in regulation.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always said it, that I\u2019ve always enjoyed the courses that make you think, not the courses that you get on the tee and you know you have to hit driver as hard as you can and there\u2019s nothing else to do,\u201d said Garcia.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe is now seeking the 39th victory of his legendary career. \u201cObviously these are the kind of courses that I enjoy playing. These are the kind of courses that I feel most comfortable on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG: Carlos Ortiz\u2019s approach shot from 152 meters on his final hole Thursday at HSBC LIV Golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-522284","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\/522284","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=522284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}