Five players, three teams tied for lead before suspension of play in Rd. 1 at LIV Golf Andalucía

SAN ROQUE, Spain – With his Australian heritage and Open Championship pedigree, Ripper GC GC Captain Cameron Smith knows a thing or two about playing golf in blustery conditions.

Rarely has he experienced an afternoon like Friday’s first round of LIV Golf Andalucía at Real Club Valderrama.

Severe winds reduced scoring opportunities and eventually forced a suspension of play due to unplayable conditions – the first time in league history that a round could not be completed in a single day.

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“You can play this golf course with no wind and it’s brutal,” Smith said. “When you get 30 mile-an-hour gusts, it’s definitely not an easy place to get around.”

Play will resume Saturday at 8 a.m. local time, with the second round expected to start at 10:30 a.m. once all players complete their first rounds. Players have between three and five holes remaining in their opening rounds.

Smith was one of just five players under par when the horn blew to suspend play. He shares the overnight lead at 1 under with Smash GC’s Talor Gooch, the individual winner at Valderrama in 2023; Majesticks GC Co-Captain Lee Westwood; Stinger GC’s Branden Grace and Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann, the current Individual points leader seeking his fifth win of the season.

Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau and Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm are one stroke back – the only other players who did not leave the course Friday over par.

The Crushers, seeking their fourth consecutive team title, are tied for first with Legion XIII and Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC on the team leaderboard at 5 over.

Friday’s round started under breezy but manageable conditions, but the wind speed increased throughout the afternoon as the direction changed.

At 5:07 p.m. local time, just over four hours after the shotgun start, the horn blew. Tournament officials were hopeful for a resumption, but the forecast was not favorable and included the potential of dangerous conditions.

“Terribly unfortunate situation to be in for anybody out here,” said Brad Ullman, LIV Golf Vice President, Rules. “These Poniente winds of southern Spain are no joke.”

From a competition standpoint, the biggest issues came on the greens. A combination of dry putting surfaces and high-impact wind gusts prevented putts from stopping and golf balls from remaining still at address. At the most exposed parts of the course, particularly the greens on the 11th and 14th holes, putting was near-impossible.

“Ultimately the balls were moving a little bit too much for our liking,” Ullman said. “It was the right thing to bring them off the golf course.”

No surprise that Niemann, who has won every event this season on even-numbered weeks, is among the leaders on the 10th event of the 2025 schedule. He birdied his third hole of the day, the par-5 fourth, and made par on his other 14 holes – the only player without a bogey Friday.

Westwood, who last week won a final qualifying tournament to earn exemption into next week’s Open, was the early leader after birdies in four of his first seven holes. A double bogey derailed his momentum, but he finished the day with four consecutive pars.

Gooch has good vibes at Valderrama, having won LIV Golf Andalucía in 2023 en route to the Individual Championship. He endured a rollercoaster seven-hole stretch that included three birdies and three bogeys, then ended his round by knocking his approach shot to 2 feet at the par-4 10th to end with a birdie.

Grace, battling the potential of relegation for the second consecutive season, is on pace for his best first-round position this season. He was a bogey-free 1 under through his first 10 holes and then responded to his two bogeys with two birdies.

Smith was bogey-free through his first 13 holes and leading by three shots at 4 under. It was one of his best stretches of golf this year, but it ended with a double bogey and bogey before play ended.

“It's easy to feel frustrated, particularly when I doubled 15 and then bogeyed 16 as well,” Smith said. “I was trotting along pretty good before that.

“But it's golf. Golf isn't fair, at the end of the day. Were the conditions fair? Probably not for a little bit, but it is what it is. We'll get on with it. I'm sure we'll make a good tournament out of it.”

TEAM SCORES

LIV Golf’s new scoring format this season now involves all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. (Click here for more on the new format). Here are the partial scores with play suspended late in Friday’s Rd. 1 of LIV Golf Andalucía:

T1. SMASH GC +5 (Gooch -1, Kokrak +1, McDowell +2, Koepka +3)

T1. CRUSHERS GC +5 (DeChambeau E, Casey +1, Howell III +2, Lahiri +2)

T1. LEGION XIII +5 (Rahm E, Hatton +1, Surratt +1, McKibbin +3)

4. 4ACES GC +8 (Reed +1, Johnson +2, Pieters +2, Varner III +3)

T5. HYFLYERS GC +9 (Mickelson +1, Tringale +2, Ogletree +3, Steele +3)

T5. MAJESTICKS GC +9 (Westwood -1, Poulter +1, Horsfield +4, Stenson +5)

7. CLEEKS GC +10 (Bland +1, Meronk +1, Kaymer +4, Kjettrup +4)

T8. RIPPER GC +11 (Smith -1, Jones +2, Leishman +4, Herbert +6)

T8. RANGEGOATS GC +11 (Watson +1, Campbell +2, Uihlein +3, Masaveu +5)

T8. FIREBALLS GC +11 (Ancer +2, Garcia +2, Ballester +3, Puig +4)

11. TORQUE GC +14 (Niemann +1, Muñoz +3, Pereira +4, Ortiz +8)

12. STINGER GC +15 (Grace -1, Oosthuizen +5, Schwartzel +5, Burmester +6)

13. IRON HEADS GC +16 (Kozuma +2, Na +2, Jang +5, Lee +7)

Wild Cards: C. Lee +2, Kim +6

ROUND 1 NOTES

SMITH OFF THE TEE: Cameron Smith found the fairway with his first tee shot Friday – and then missed the fairway with his next eight drives. Ultimately, he hit just 2 of his first 11 fairways, but it wasn’t as costly as expected.

In fact, Smith – who entered this week ranked 50th in driving accuracy – was pleased with his performance off the tee.

“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,” said the Ripper GC captain, looking for his first LIV Golf win since 2023. “The fairways are so tight around here, too. If you try and play aggressive and you try 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.”

BOGEY-FREE ROUNDS: If Joaquin Niemann completes his first round bogey-free, it would be just the second bogey-free round in LIV Golf Andalucía history. Bryson DeChambeau shot a bogey-free 63 in the second round in 2023.

CRUSHERS IN ROUND 1: If the Crushers maintain at least a share of the lead once the first round is completed, it would be the fourth time this season they’ve enjoyed at least a share of the leader after 18 holes.

Surprisingly, during the Crushers’ current three-tournament win streak, they did not lead after any of the first rounds.

WESTWOOD AT VALDERRAMA: Don’t be surprised that co-leader Lee Westwood is in contention at Valderrama. Even though he’s never won on the iconic Spanish course, he’s shown a knack for strong results. Of his 14 stroke-play starts in various tournaments at Valderrama since 1994, he’s finished inside the top 10 nine times, including a couple of runner-ups. Westwood also made his Ryder Cup debut at Valderrama in 1997.

FIELD SCORING AVERAGE: The field scoring average when play was suspended Friday was 74.05. or +3.05 strokes over par. The highest average in relation to par in any LIV Golf round is +3.57 in the final round earlier this season at LIV Golf Miami.