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BANGKOK — Richard Bland, Branden Grace and Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra upstaged their extra illustrious opponents Friday to shoot 7-under 65s and share the lead after the primary spherical of the LIV Golf Invitational-Bangkok.
Marc Leishman and Ian Poulter have been a stroke behind and Sihwan Kim, Brooks Koepka and Jediah Morgan have been amongst these 2 behind within the 54-hole occasion.
The event is being performed on the brand new Stonehill Golf Membership north of downtown Bangkok. The course, created by American designer Kyle Phillips, opened this yr.
Dustin Johnson, who leads the cash listing with simply over $12.5 million in 5 occasions, shot 70. British Open champion Cameron Smith — who gained the final LIV occasion, in Chicago in mid-September — shot 72.
It is the primary time LIV Golf is being performed outdoors the USA since its inaugural occasion in early June close to London.
Earlier than the beginning of play, gamers discovered that they nonetheless will not accrue world rating factors on the LIV collection. The Official World Golf Rating mentioned by way of an announcement Thursday that it had denied the MENA Tour’s request to instantly add the Saudi-funded collection to its schedule.
The OWGR mentioned that the MENA Tour didn’t give it enough discover and that there wouldn’t be time to complete the evaluation forward of the Bangkok event or subsequent week’s occasion in Saudi Arabia.
LIV Golf created an alliance with the little-known MENA Tour, which hasn’t run a event of its personal since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MENA stands for Center East and North Africa, and the MENA Tour is a developmental tour that has been getting the naked minimal of world rating factors since 2016. It has 54-hole occasions with a 36-hole lower, providing a $75,000 purse.
“I do not assume it actually was a lot of a response. I simply hate if you sit on the fence. Simply decide a facet,” Koepka mentioned Friday. “If it is sure or no, simply decide one. So I am not a giant fan of that.”
Bryson DeChambeau, who shot 69 Friday, mentioned the choice by the rankings group was solely “delaying the inevitable.”
“We have hit each mark of their standards, so for us to not get factors is type of loopy with having the highest — no less than I imagine we’ve the highest — gamers on the earth,” DeChambeau mentioned. “We definitely imagine that there is sufficient which are within the high 50, and we need to be getting world rating factors. Once they maintain holding it again, they will simply maintain enjoying a ready recreation.”
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