\n\tSAN ROQUE: Tyrrell Hatton is looking to make a statement in his first start since becoming a father, carding a second-round 69 to move to 6-under par and take sole possession of the lead at the halfway stage at LIV Golf Andaluc\u00eda 2026.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Englishman, who missed last week\u2019s event in Korea following the birth of his first child, went out in 36 before a more productive back nine of 33. He sits two shots clear of Thomas Detry heading into the weekend at Real Club Valderrama.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was a day that belonged in no small part to Legion XIII. While Hatton was building his lead at the top, teammate Jon Rahm was producing one of the more eye-catching rounds on the course. The Spaniard, who had cut a frustrated figure after a 2-over opening round in front of his home crowd, came out swinging on Friday with a 4-under 67, tying for low round of the day. Rahm moved to 2-under for the tournament and sits T7, in prime position for a weekend charge.<\/p>\n
\n\tDefending champion Taylor Gooch also announced himself emphatically. Gooch, who has won two of the last three LIV Golf tournaments at Valderrama, made his move on Friday with a 4-under 67 that featured four birdies on the back nine and moved him all the way to a tie for third at 3-under. Gooch has a habit of finding his best golf when it matters most at this venue, and the field would be wise to keep a close eye on him this weekend.<\/p>\n
\n\tHarold Varner III matched Rahm and Gooch with his own 67, making it three players who shared the low round of the day. It was quietly impressive from a player who had also opened with a 73 on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Open Championship qualifying picture sharpened considerably on Friday. Detry followed his opening 68 with a steady 70 to sit alone in second at 4-under, two back from Hatton. The Belgian continues to widen the gap on Joaquin Niemann in the race for that coveted exemption, and two more rounds in this form could make it very difficult for Niemann to hold on heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n
\n\tSharing third with Gooch are Cameron Smith and Sergio Garcia, both at 3-under after matching 70s on Friday. Smith\u2019s continued solidity keeps the Ripper GC captain firmly in the conversation as he builds momentum under new swing coach Claude Harmon III. Garcia, meanwhile, is looking to add yet another chapter to his remarkable Valderrama story. Three Spanish players now sit in the top seven: Garcia, Rahm, and David Puig at T7.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe day also produced a moment of brilliance from Lucas Herbert. The Ripper GC man aced the 15th \u2014 the first hole-in-one at Andalucia in LIV Golf\u2019s four visits to the venue. It was the 17th ace in league history, the fifth of 2026, and the second longest in LIV Golf history, trailing only John Catlin\u2019s 220-yard ace at LIV Golf UK in 2024.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the team competition, Crushers GC, fresh off their victory in Korea last week, are bidding to go back-to-back and carry the team lead into the weekend. For the second consecutive day, however, no team managed to finish the round under par cumulatively, a reminder that Real Club Valderrama demands everything from every player, on every hole. With two rounds remaining, that is unlikely to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ROQUE: Tyrrell Hatton is looking to make a statement in his first start since becoming a father,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-719123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}