{"id":72387,"date":"2025-08-10T13:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72387\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T13:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:15:08","slug":"hyflyers-have-plenty-to-play-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72387\/","title":{"rendered":"HyFlyers have plenty to play for"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. \u2013 Sergio Garcia<\/a> and Dustin Johnson<\/a> share the individual lead after the first round of LIV Golf Chicago, while Stinger GC<\/a> is on top of the team leaderboard. Here are some other news, notes and stats from the first round.<\/p>\n

Related: Leaderboard<\/a> | Round 1 recap<\/a> | Full Round 1 highlights<\/a>
\nLIV GOLF CHICAGO ROUND 1 NOTES
\nHYFLYERS POSSIBILITIES<\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson<\/a>\u2019s HyFlyers GC<\/a> are among the many teams that are juggling lots of different goals down the stretch this season.<\/p>\n

Mickelson wants to finish inside the top 10 in the season-long points race for the first time in his LIV Golf career. Cameron Tringale<\/a> is currently 25th in points; he wants to finish inside the top 24, which would move him into the Lock Zone and guarantee his spot for next year.<\/p>\n

Brendan Steele<\/a> and Andy Ogletree<\/a> are dangerously close to the Drop Zone, which involves relegation for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is feeling a little bit of pressure,\u201d Mickelson said. \u201cEverybody is in pursuit of something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, and the HyFlyers as a team are hoping to finish strong and make an impact at the season-ending team Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re all pursuing our own personal goals,\u201d Mickelson said, \u201cbut as a team, we would really like to get our first win.\u201d<\/p>\n

LONG-SHOT BRYSON<\/p>\n

Crushers GC<\/a> Captain Bryson DeChambeau<\/a> has a longshot mathematical chance to win the Individual Championship that will require winning each of the last two regular-season events while points leader Joaquin Niemann<\/a> and his closest pursuer Jon Rahm<\/a> struggle down the stretch.<\/p>\n

DeChambeau shot a 3-under 68 and is just one shot off the lead. He\u2019s in a six-way tie that also includes Rahm, while Niemann is tied for 45th.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoaco has played pretty bad golf before in the first round and come back and almost won tournaments,\u201d DeChambeau said. \u201cHe’s incredible out here. I think he’ll do fine the next couple days.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I’m just going to focus on playing the best golf I can. \u2026 Going to continue to work hard to keep that ball in play and make some good putts when I need to. If I win this week, I’m one step closer to getting that title. But I want to win for the Crushers as well and see where our team stacks up.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeChambeau was the only player in the field to successfully scramble 100% of the time, as he was nine for nine in that category. DeChambeau leads the league in scrambling this season at 65.75%.<\/p>\n

STINGERS\u2019 BIG DAY<\/p>\n

Stinger GC had a tremendous day off the tee, gaining nearly a stroke on the rest of the teams as the South Africans shot a cumulative 6 under. Dean Burmester<\/a> led the way with a 3-under 68, while Branden Grace<\/a> and Charl Schwartzel<\/a> contributed 69s. Captain Louis Oosthuizen<\/a> shot a 72.<\/p>\n

DJ AND AUSTIN<\/p>\n

After missing the week at LIV Golf UK by JCB, Dustin Johnson<\/a> ‘s brother and caddie, Austin, made his return to the 4Aces GC<\/a>‘s Captain’s bag. After shooting a 4-under 67 to share the first-round lead, Dustin Johnson expressed how happy he was to have his brother back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been on the bag for a long time now, so when he’s not on the bag, it’s a little bit different,\u201d Johnson said. \u201c[Gareth Lord] did a good job but prefer having A.J. on the bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

SERGIO\u2019S PUTTER<\/p>\n

Sergio Garcia<\/a> has experimented with a handful of putters this season, but this week at Bolingbrook, he’s gone back to a putter he first debuted in the late 1990s. The Titleist-Scotty Cameron Del Mar 3.5 engraved with the name “Sergio Garcia” is also engraved with “J.A.T” which stands for “Just A Thought” and was commonly found on that line of putters from Scotty Cameron.<\/p>\n

“I do like those putters that Scotty made for me in the late ’90s, early 2000s,” Garcia said after shooting a 67 to tie for the lead.<\/p>\n

Garcia also revealed that he’d be debuting a new putter within the next three weeks. “I have a putter coming soon that I’m working with a company in Switzerland, Golfyr, that I should be able to have it within the next probably three weeks or so, and I’m excited about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI like the way it feels, and I like the way it looks.”<\/p>\n

PEREIRA\u2019S MOVE<\/p>\n

Torque GC<\/a>\u2019s Mito Pereira<\/a> has been in the Drop Zone all season, but an opening 2-under 69 leaves him in a tie for ninth. He\u2019s now projected to move into the Open Zone \u2013 and avoid relegation. The Chilean is projected to move to 46th in the standings. That would push Majesticks GC<\/a> Co-Captain Henrik Stenson<\/a> into the Drop Zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOLINGBROOK, Ill. \u2013 Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson share the individual lead after the first round of LIV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-72387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}