Mexico’s Abraham Ancer lines up a shot at LIV Golf Hong King title

Abraham Ancer demonstrated just why he is so highly regarded by his Fireballs GC team and the wider fraternity by opening a five-shot lead in the second round of LIV Golf Hong Kong on Saturday that was built on a bogey-free 8 under par 62.

Hitting all 19 greens in regulation at the historic Hong Kong Golf Club, Ancer totals 15 under par over the first 36 holes going into Sunday’s final round five ahead of Fireballs teammate Eugenio Chacarra, with Harold Varner III of the 4Aces. Australian star Cameron Smith, 2022 Masters winner Jon Rahm and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson sharing fourth place six shots adrift.

In the team event the Fireballs – powered by Ancer and Chacarra led the way on 28 under par but all eyes were on the Crushers lineup of captain Bryson DeChambeau, Anirban Lahiri, Paul Casey and Charles Howell III currently well down the order but now riding a reputation of being Sunday chargers. On Saturday, the all-Australian Ripper GC were second and Cleeks GC third, but all bets are off as to Sunday’s outcome.

Ancer will take a 36-hole lead into Sunday for the first time at LIV Golf tournament and it mirrors his run at the 2018 Australian Open where too he took a five-stroke lead into the final day and cruised to the title.

“I’m not going to be thinking about leading the tournament,” said the 33-year-old, whose best result is a tie for third last season at LIV Golf Bedminster. “I’m just going to go out there and stay in the present, go about my routine, and just keep doing the same thing. Try to focus on the shot that I’ve got in front of me. “I did what I wanted to do – keep it in the fairway and give myself chances,” said Ancer, whose round included four consecutive birdies to start the round. “I feel like I hit the ball really nicely today and rolled it really good as well. No complaints.” “Obviously Abe is playing tremendous golf,” said Chacarra, who had a 66 to total 10 under 130 with a closing birdie that out him into Sunday’s lead group. “Five shots is a lot of shots – I’m not going to lie. But you never know.”

Down the order, Legion XIII captain Rahm, who had a triple bogey late on Friday, bounced back with a 6-under 64 on Saturday to stay within striking distance of Ancer. “Yesterday and today, I hit the ball extremely well,” said Rahm on the LIV Golf website.

“Maybe not great with the driver today but everything else has been firing about as good as I want it to be. One bad swing. one unfortunate moment of bad luck that cost maybe two extra shots. Hopefully I can keep doing what I’m doing,” he added. “Post a low score tomorrow and give Abraham a little bit of a scare.”

Day two scores

1. Fireballs GC -28 (Ancer 62, Garcia 66, Puig 66) 2. Ripper GC -25 (Herbert 64, Smith 64, Jones 68) 3. Cleeks GC -22 (Meronk 64, Bland 68, Samooja 68) T4. Torque GC -21 (Ortiz 64, Muñoz 66, Niemann 68) T4. Crushers GC -21 (Casey 67, DeChambeau 68, Howell III 69) T6. Majesticks GC -20 (Stenson 65, Horsfield 66, Poulter 66) T6. 4Aces GC -20 (Perez 65, Varner III 66, Reed 69) 8. Stinger GC -19 (Schwartzel 68, Burmester 69, Oosthuizen 70) 9. Smash GC -17 (McDowell 64, Koepka 68, Gooch 68) 10. Legion XIII -16 (Rahm 64, Hatton 65, Surratt 71) 11. RangeGoats GC -14 (Uihlein 65, Watson 67, Pieters 68) T12. HyFlyers GC -12 (Ogletree 66, Mickelson 68, Steele 69) T12. Iron Heads GC -12 (Kozuma 68, Lee 68, Vincent 68)