LIV Golf made its debut in Hong Kong Friday with a dragon dance on the 1st tee and electronic music thumping, but after 18 holes it was Dean Burmester and Abraham Ancer who shut out the noise to top a stacked leaderboard.
The South African and Mexican both shot seven-under-par rounds of 63 to be stroke clear of a six-way tie for second.
After 18 holes, 25 of the 54-player field were within four strokes of the lead.
Hong Kong Golf Club celebrates its 135th anniversary in 2024 but has never witnessed anything like Friday’s “golf but louder”, the slogan of Saudi-backed LIV, the game’s brashest new circuit.
Big galleries lapped up the action from the 54-player field.
Around the “party hole”, the par-four 10th, spectators became more boisterous as the afternoon wore on.
Large video screens adorned the classic layout, giving a new look to a course that has hosted the Hong Kong Open continuously for more than 60 years.
Drones buzzed overhead as players bounced down the fairway in shorts flanked by TV cameramen as the action unfolded quickly.
On the course, players took advantage of benign conditions with winds forecast to increase over the weekend.
“It was really solid,” said Ancer after his bogey-free round. “I feel like I did pretty much everything really good. I felt very comfortable out here off the tee, which you need to be. If you’re in the fairway, you have a lot of chances to make birdies.”
Burmester picked up six shots in a dream five-hole stretch from the 11th.
“I had a slow start, and then went through a stretch there on the back nine where I think I went birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie,” he said. “That eagle putt just caught the right edge perfectly and beautifully.”
Double Major winner Martin Kaymer was one of the slew of players tied for third on six-under 64.
“I had a very good start. I think I started on fairly tricky holes, 8 and 9 and I hit both to two feet,” said the German.
US Masters champion Jon Rahm was LIV’s biggest coup when he defected from the PGA Tour in December.
He was going along serenely and leading with six birdies on his card until a triple-bogey at the treacherous 18th meant he finished on three-under 67.
He was clearly not used to the noise yet in just his fourth LIV start.
The Spaniard stepped off a 20-foot birdie attempt on the 17th after raucous shouts from a spectator in the greenside bar.
He recomposed to sink the putt and move to six under and then launched a second glare in the fan’s direction.
It proved enough to put him off his stride on the next tee where a drive into trouble way left did the damage to his card.
“You never feel totally comfortable around this golf course,” said Louis Oosthuizen, who was another tied for third on six under par.
Rahm will have one more LIV tournament, in Miami a week before The Masters, as a final tune-up before defending the green jacket from 11-14 April.
LIV’s 54-hole tournaments have a “shotgun start” where 18 groups of three players tee off on different holes, condensing a day’s play to a little over four hours on Hong Kong’s par 70 layout.
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Getty Images
