Anirban Lahiri keeps a clean slate in LIV Golf Chicago title push

An eagle and three birdies powered Anirban Lahiri’s error-free second round at LIV Golf Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms and helped him hold sole second place on 10 under par 132 behind Sebastian Munoz of Colombia on Saturday.

Munoz stroked a brilliant 8-under 63, three better than India’s sole LIV Golf star and it gave the Torque GC golfer a three-shot lead entering Sunday’s final round with the team also heading the overall standings.

Lahiri has been in solid form of late and in two days of action at Chicago, he has dropped just one shot while piling up nine birdies and an eagle three on Saturday. But he knows that Sunday is the performance to look at most, given that he last won a title in February of 2015.

Since joining LIV Golf last year, Lahiri has gone close twice.

In his very first outing at Boston, he lost in a three-way playoff to former world number one Dustin Johnson. This year he has two more runner-up finishes as well, taking second place behind Talor Gooch in Adelaide and then behind 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith last month in Bedminster.

“I've had a few too many seconds,” said Lahiri, who opened with an eagle on Saturday en route to his bogey-free round. “… I can't control what Sebastián or anyone else does, so I'm just going to focus on my process and what I'm trying to do on the golf course.”

For his team too, Lahiri has been the biggest contributor with successive founds of 5 under par 67, though he did receive support from skipper Bryson DeChambeau (69) on an otherwise slack day for the Crushers.

While DeChambeau has not been able to convert scoring opportunities, he topped the day’s driving average distance (338.0 yards) and also hit the longest drive at 381.2 yards on the 10th hole. For his part, Lahiri, along with Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stanson were the only ones in the field of 48 to bring in bogey-free rounds.

At the top of the leaderboard, Munoz faces a similar situation. Since joining the league, the best the 30-year-old from Colombia, has managed was was a second place in Orlando. “I don't want to take care of the lead because I don't have good experiences with that in the past,” said the Colombian, whose last professional win came in 2019. “… It's going to be tough. It's going to be challenging, especially me talking about it now. But I’m going to do what I’ve been doing.”

One of five first day co-leaders, Muñoz opened on Saturday with three birdies before holing his second shot at the par-4 fifth hole from 123 yards for eagle. It was the first of two eagles in his round, the other coming at the par-5 10th.

Fireded by Muñoz’s card, Torque moved into a tie for the team lead at 22 under, with David Puig (68) and Mito Pereira (70) also supplying counting scores. Fireballs GC also are at 22 under after counting scores from Mexican star Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz (68) and Eugenio Chacarra (69). The Aces and Crushers share third at 18 under.

Behind the two leaders, three players – 4Aces GC skipper Dustin Johnson, Ancer and RangeGoats GC’s Thomas Pieters – are five strokes back on 8 under.

Johnson took a five-week break from golf after LIV Golf’s last tournament in Bedminsterx. It seems to have served him well. “Hitting it better than I thought I would probably this week, to be honest,” said the 39-year-old. “I rested a lot the last five weeks. I'm getting old, though; I've got to do that.”

Johnson shot 68 on Friday and 66 on Saturday, a score that could’ve been much better were it not for at least four lip-outs.

“If they're lipping out, I'm hitting good putts, that's fine,” Johnson said. “At least they've got a chance to go in or at least I'm watching them the whole time. The worst is when as soon as you hit it, you're walking after it. I hit a lot of nice putts. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow and instead of lipping out, they'll lip in.”

Torque will be seeking its fifth team victory of the season. If that happens and the Aces finish no better than third, then Torque will assume the lead in the season-long team standings. Muñoz is also looking to deliver the team’s first individual trophy. “It’s time for an individual win for us,” he said.

Of the top five players on the leaderboard, three still have a chance to finish the season-long individual race inside the bonus-paying top three. Johnson, individual champion from last year is currently eighth in points, while Muñoz is 12th and Lahiri 15th.

Four rounds are left in the ongoing season – Sunday’s final 18 holes in Chicago and next month’s LIV Golf Jeddah, which will be followed by the team championship in Miami.

Round 2 scores

T1. Torque GC (-22): Sebastián Muñoz 63, David Puig 68, Mito Pereira 70

T1. Fireballs GC (-22): Abraham Ancer 66, Carlos Ortiz 68, Eugenio Chacarra 69

T3. 4Aces GC (-18): Dustin Johnson 66, Peter Uihlein 69, Pat Perez 70

T3. Crushers GC (-18): Anirban Lahiri 66, Bryson DeChambeau 69, Paul Casey 72

5. RangeGoats GC (-17): Talor Gooch 67, Thomas Pieters 67, Harold Varner III 71

T6. Majesticks GC (-16): Ian Poulter 67, Henrik Stenson 67, Lee Westwood 69

T6. Stinger GC (-16): Dean Burmester 69, Louis Oosthuizen 70, Charl Schwartzel 71

8. Ripper GC (-15): Marc Leishman 68, Matt Jones 70, Cameron Smith 71

9. Smash GC (-11): Brooks Koepka 69, Jason Kokrak 71, Chase Koepka 72

T10. Cleeks GC (-10): Richard Bland 66, Martin Kaymer 69, Graeme McDowell 69

T10. Hyflyers GC (-10): Phil Mickelson 68, Brendan Steele 68, James Piot 69

12. Iron Heads GC (-4): Scott Vincent 69, Kevin Na 70, Sihwan Kim 73