Charl Schwartzel IMAGE ahmad fadali
10 JUNE, 2022 - LIV GOLF: Charl Schwartzel leads the individual stroke-play competition by three strokes at the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational London event. His four-man team, Stinger GC, leads the team competition by seven shots.
It’s been a productive first two rounds. But there are 18 holes left in the 54-hour event at Centurion Golf Club. Nothing is set in stone.
“We’ve been around this game a long time,” Schwartzel said. “There’s a lot of things that can happen.”
Schwartzel’s 4-under 66 on Friday moved him to 9 under for the tournament. That gives him a 3-stroke lead over Hennie du Plessis, his teammate on the all-South African Stinger team.
The next two closest pursuers are Peter Uihlein, captain of Crushers GC, who matched Schwartzel’s 66 to move to 4 under; and Oliver Bekker, a member of the 4 Aces GC, who shot a 67 and is now at 3 under.
On the team leaderboard, Stinger GC has a 7-shot lead over Crushers GC, with the all-England Majesticks another two strokes back.
Uihlein knows it will be difficult to catch Schwartzel in the individual competition and Stinger in the team competition. But with the top three scores counting for each team in the final round, hot rounds by multiple players could produce a huge move.
“There’s three scores, so anything can happen,” Uihlein said. “… It’ll still be tough to mount a comeback, but it’ll be fun.
“We have no idea what will happen tomorrow because it’s the first time we’re doing it, so it should be cool.”
Louis Oosthuizen, the captain of Stinger GC, has yet to contribute one of the counting scores for his team, since Schwartzel and du Plessis have been playing so well.
“I’m the one at the moment who’s not really playing great,” Oosthuizen said. “But yeah, it’s nice to see the boys playing well.”
Schwartzel is just hoping to see more of the same from the Stingers.
Winning the team competition will mean a $3 million prize split among the four team members. First prize in the individual stroke-play competition is $4 million. So if Schwartzel and Stringer GC both win, his payday would be $4.75 million.
“Solid golf will take care of that,” Schwartzel said.
15-YEAR-OLD AMATEUR SHOOTS 1-UNDER 69
Ratchanon “TK” Chantananuwat, the 15-year-old amateur who last month became the youngest player to win an Official World Golf Ranking event, shot a 1-under 69 on Friday. It was the best round among the four players on his Hy Flyers GC team, which includes World Golf Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson, who shot 75.
The Thailand teen opened with birdies in two of his first four holes. He was 3 under for his round until bogeys on two of his last four holes.
“The last four holes didn’t go my way,” he said.
Even so, he has enjoyed the week and being part of Mickelson’s team. He currently is tied for 17th in the 48-man field.
Asked what his takeaway will be this week, Chantananuwat replied, “I need to practice a lot more. I’m still pretty terrible at the game. I could be doing a lot better.”
