Another fantastic day from The Grove in Nashville covering LIV Golf. Day 3 meant the tournament kicked off and we saw some of the best golfers tee off ready to take home the big cash prize. Abraham Ancer fired off an incredible bogey free first round and is at the top of the leader board after one with Tyrell Hatton and John Catlin in 2nd and 3rd. Ancer representing the Fireballs, who have a four shot lead in the team standings.

TEAM COUNTING SCORES
Standings and counting scores for Friday’s opening round of the team competition at LIV Golf Nashville. The three best scores from each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title.

1. FIREBALLS GC -14 (Ancer 64, Chacarra 67, Garcia 68)

2. CRUSHERS GC -10 (Catlin 66, DeChambeau 67, Casey 70)

3. TORQUE GC -9 (Muñoz 67, Ortiz 68, Pereira 69)

4. LEGION XIII -8 (Hatton 65, Rahm 70, Surratt 70)

5. MAJESTICKS GC -7 (Horsfield 67, Westwood 69, Stenson 70)

T6. STINGER GC -4 (Schwartzel 69, Burmester 70, Oosthuizen 70)

T6. RIPPER GC -4 (Leishman 69, Smith 69, Jones 71)

T6. CLEEKS GC -4 (Kaymer 68, Bland 70, Samooja 71)

9. IRON HEADS GC -3 (Na 69, Vincent 69, Kozuma 72)

10. SMASH GC -2 (Koepka 69, Kokrak 71, Gooch 71)

11. HYFLYERS GC E (Mickelson 70, Steele 71, Ogletree 72)

12. RANGEGOATS GC +1 (Watson 70, Wolff 72, Uihlein 72)

13. 4ACES GC +2 (Varner III 71, Reed 72, Perez 72)

Ancer talks about the first round and thoughts heading into round two.

ROUND 1 STATS LEADERS
Driving accuracy: Kevin Na, 100% (14 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Jon Rahm, 338.4 yards avg.
Longest drive: Joaquin Niemann, 346.1 yards, 18th hole
Greens in regulation: Louis Oosthuizen, 94.44% (17 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Carlos Ortiz (5 of 5), Lee Westwood (5 of 5), Abraham Ancer (4 of 4), Louis Oosthuizen (1 of 1), 100%
Putting: Eugenio Chacarra, 1.22 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: Abraham Ancer (64), Carlos Ortiz (68), Lee Westwood (69)

DeChambeau talks fighting fatigue:

“The crowd have given me a lot of energy,” he said. “Very gracious to have that happen. Man, they’re just pushing me forward. I can’t thank them enough.”

Even so, he said there were moments when he stood over putts as the crowd hushed, and he began losing focus.

“My head was starting to bob a little bit,” he said. “I’m like ‘Come on, come on.’ I started looking around the crowd and seeing how many people were them and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to go.’ It was really fun to get back in that mindset and focus super-hard, but there was a few moments out there, for sure.”

DeChambeau on 15, the party hole:

“I wanted to make that putt for the crowd,” he said. “When I saw it about a foot away, I’m like, oh, that’s going in. So I just tried to pump the crowd up again.”

The party at 15 is a sight to see, if you are coming out either Saturday or Sunday, you must check it out. Not only do you get to hear your favorite golfers walk up music but the crowd amps up the atmosphere to feel even more electric. On 15, US Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau birdie the hole and fired up the crowd. However, when he tossed the ball into the stands, he missed and we got to ask him about his throw and he shared a funny story behind the miss you can listen to here.

Nashville Crowd

Being as this is the first major golf tournament to hit Nashville, the crowd showed up big time to support LIV Golf. Even within the heat, the crowd was loud for the entire first round with a round two crowd expect to be even larger. LIV Golf’s slogan is “Golf.. But Louder,” and they truly mean it as this experience is completely different from your typical tournament feel.

footage from the event shot by Ricky Valero and Chris Clarkson along with press conference material coming from us and LIV Golf.