Valderrama wind forces a first early halt to play at LIV Golf Andalucia

Blustering winds strong enough to send balls rolling across the green forced an untimely end to day one of LIV Golf Andalucia at the Real Club Valderrama in San Roque, with Australia’s Cameron Smith sharing the lead in the incomplete round with Talor Gooch of the US.

Only five players were under par at that point, reflecting the conditions as they stood with Lee Westwood of England, South African Branden Grace and league leader Joaquin Neimann being the others.

Smith found the fairway with his first tee shot and thereafter missed with his next eight drives, but it was still good enough for the shared lead alongside 2023 Valderrama winner Gooch. 

“I hit a lot of good drives that just landed in the fairway and scuttled into the first cut or maybe the first bit of rough,” the Ripper GC captain, who is looking for his first LIV Golf win since 2023, said. 

“The fairways are so tight around here, too. If you try to play aggressively and take on those corners, they're pretty hard to hit anyway. I felt like I hit a few more shots that should have been on the fairway but were still in a pretty nice spot. Although I was off the fairway, I was in a pretty good position most of the time.”

The severe winds affected almost the entire field and finally forced a suspension of play, the first time in LIV Golf that a round could not be completed in a single day, and the field had between three and five holes to complete on day two before the start of the second round..

Further down the order, Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau and Legion XIII skipper Jon Rahm were the only other players behind the leading five who did not leave the course with an over-par score.

In the team event, the Crushers, seeking a fourth consecutive win, were tied at the top with Legion XIII and Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC on 5 over par, again, an indication of just how tough conditions were on the day, though the day had started on a more sedate note.

“Terribly unfortunate situation to be in for anybody out here,” said Brad Ullman, LIV Golf’s rules vice president. “These Poniente winds of southern Spain are no joke. The balls were moving a little bit too much for our liking. It was the right thing to bring them off the golf course.”