Staff WriterThe old Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, has seen its fair share of drama over the decades, but on Friday, it played host to a script even the Bard couldn’t have penned.
A 107-minute rain delay – Mother Nature’s little gut check – turned the opening round of LIV Golf Virginia into a showcase of both dogged resolve and showboating flair.
When play resumed, Bryson DeChambeau was standing over a chip shot at the par-5 14th that looked as welcoming as a mid-summer mint julep.
His eagle chip-in was a thing of beauty: clean, confident, and downright inevitable. “You come back from a rain delay and usually think you’re going to try and slowly get into a flow,” DeChambeau said.
“I came out hot.” Hot? He was sizzling. A birdie on the 15th and another chip-in birdie at the 16th capped a 5-under 66 that tied him with Cleeks GC’s Martin Kaymer.
DeChambeau’s form has been as consistent as an Augusta azalea this year, with a win in Korea and top-5s in every outing since.
Next week, he’ll defend his U.S. Open title, and if he carries this form, it’ll be must-watch television. His playing partner? The course itself.
Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s design isn’t one to give up birdies easily – fairways here are tighter than a Scotsman’s wallet, and the greens run like freshly ironed linen.
But when the rain softened them up, DeChambeau’s approach game went from brute force to butter-knife precision.
Martin Kaymer, that wily German fox with two majors to his name, found some long-lost magic, carding a 66 of his own.
“I know I’m good enough. I know I can play good golf,” he said, and he proved it with two separate hat-tricks of birdies.
Fairway-finding was the trick – he split 50% of them, enough to keep the big numbers at bay and putt his way to the top of the leaderboard.
If the day belonged to DeChambeau, though, the moment of the round belonged to Ollie Schniederjans.
A last-minute stand-in for the injured Matthew Wolff of RangeGoats GC, Ollie was thrust into the lineup and immediately dropped a birdie at the 18th.
He kept his foot on the gas, adding two more birdies and an eagle for a sparkling 67. His efforts don’t count in the individual standings, but they propped the RangeGoats to a two-shot lead at 9 under in the team standings.
As for the rest of the chasers, Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell, Marc Leishman, and Anirban Lahiri all lurked at 4 under, ready to pounce on moving day.
Rahm, last year’s overall champion, said, “I think I should be pleased with how comfortable and how well I played today.”
And Mickelson? At 54, the man’s short game is finally behaving again. “It’s always been the best part of my game,” he admitted. “Last few years I’ve really struggled with it. … I figured it out, and it feels great.”
The old master’s scrambling was vintage – four of six up-and-downs, none better than a cheeky save from 43 yards out to start his day.
The course itself was a character in this story. The 14th was the stage for DeChambeau’s chip-in eagle, but the 16th was the heartbreak hole for Kaymer’s poor tee shot turned lucky bounce to 6 feet.
That’s how it goes at RTJ – play it safe and you’ll find yourself with a chance to shine. Take on the hazards, and you might be reaching for another ball faster than you can say “fried egg.”
The leaderboard is packed tighter than a RangeGoats team bus, and the forecast says we’re in for more fireworks tomorrow.
If you’ve got even half an eye for the drama of LIV’s sprint-style shootouts and the kind of form that’s got DeChambeau ready to defend at Pinehurst, clear your Saturday plans.
Between Bryson’s bombs, Schniederjans’ pinch-hit heroics, and Mickelson’s old dog short game, this is absolutely worth your seat on Saturday.
