Smith sets early pace at LIV Golf London as Open title defence nears

Anirban Lahiri was five shots behind the leader but inside the top 10 even as Cameron Smith warmed up to defend his Open Championship title in two weeks time with a bogey-free 8 under par 63 on day one of LIV Golf London at the Centurion Club on Friday.

Lahiri dropped a shot early in his round but played clean golf thereafter to return a 3 under 68 that gave him a share of seventh place alongside three others. For his part, Smith showed that he seemed to be peaking in time for Royal Liverpool, venue of The Open 2023.

Smith led Ripper GC teammate Marc Leishman by one shot as LIV Golf returned to its host course for last year’s inaugural tournament.

Thomas Pieters of the RangeGoats was sole third three strokes behind Smith while his in-form teammate Talor Gooch was tied for fourth along with HyFlyers GC’s Cameron Tringale and Laurie Canter of the Majesticks.

With Smith and Leishman on fire, the all-Australian Rippers led the team race on 13 under par, with the RangeGoats on 10 under and the England-dominated Majesticks in third place on 8 under. Lahiri’s Crushers GC were in a tie for sixth place and already some way behind the leaders.

While Smith led the way with a clean card, Gooch dropped three shots but still was only four shots adrift having started with a chip-in birdie from the greenside bunker. He then went on to pick up three more shots in his opening five holes.

“When those things are happening,” Gooch said, “you just want to ride the wave.” Added teammate Thomas Pieters, “He keeps winning. We’re nothing but happy for him. He’s killing it … He could win three or four more. It’s really cool and obviously it’s good for the team.”

For his part, Smith was pleased with the way things had gone on Friday. “Wasn’t much bad stuff in there, to be honest. I feel like I’ve been on this kind of trend for a few months now.”

Smith has gone 12th place or better in his last seven starts, including top 10s at the PGA Championship and US Open. Although he’s yet to win in 2023, Smith is building good momentum going into Royal Liverpool.

“I think any tournament that Cam enters, he’s certainly a strong contender,” Leishman said. “Playing this week is going to help him. The wind is very different, I feel like, in England and Scotland. It’s a lot heavier. Getting used to that is pretty important.”

Smith navigated the first six holes, the most difficult stretch at Centurion, in 1 under. Starting with the ninth hole, he birdied seven of the next nine holes before settling for par on the par-5 18th. He later said the big difference Friday was getting more in sync with caddie Sam Pinfold.

“Sam and I worked really nice today, which is probably the first time in a long time where we really stuck it out and actually talked through some shots. Probably something that had kind of

been a missing piece to the puzzle. It was nice to figure that stuff out before another big tournament coming up.”

Leishman has struggled this season but started well on Friday, birdieing six of his first eight holes before dropping gis only shot for the day. “Happy to finally get a score on the board,” said the burly Aussie. “It’s been a while.”

Smith and Leishman will be in the lead group on Saturday along with Pieters. Asked about the dymanic between them, Smith said: “I think we both want to play the best we can play, and whoever wins, wins. It’s kind of a bit of an interesting dynamic, with the team stuff and the individual stuff, but we’ve still got a team tournament that we want to win as well.”

Added Leishman: “On a Saturday, we’re obviously friends. Sunday afternoon, we both want to win. Yeah, your competitive juices kick in, but always at the end of the day we’re mates.”

Day 1 team scores

1. Ripper GC (-13): Cameron Smith 63, Marc Leishman 64, Matt Jones 73

2. RangeGoats GC (-10): Thomas Pieters 66, Talor Gooch 67, Bubba Watson 70

3. Majesticks GC (-8): Laurie Canter 67, Ian Poulter 69, Henrik Stenson 69

4. HyFlyers GC (-6): Cameron Tringale 67, James Piot 69, Brendan Steele 71

5. Stinger GC (-5): Branden Grace 68, Dean Burmester 70, Louis Oosthuizen 70

T6. Crushers GC (-4): Anirban Lahiri 68, Bryson DeChambeau 70, Paul Casey 73

T6. Fireballs GC (-4): Abraham Ancer 68, Sergio Garcia 69, Eugenio Chacarra 72

8. 4Aces GC (-3): Patrick Reed 70, Peter Uihlein 70, Pat Perez 70

T9. Smash GC (-2): Jason Kokrak 69, Chase Koepka 70, Brooks Koepka 72

T9. Cleeks GC (-2): Richard Bland 68, Martin Kaymer 71, Bernd Wiesberger 72

11. Torque GC (E): Joaquin Niemann 69, Mito Pereira 71, David Puig 73

12. Iron Heads GC (+6): Kevin Na 72, Sihwan Kim 73, Danny Lee 74