WHILE stars were fighting for first round supremacy, Miguel Tabuena was working hard to avoid the cellar in another struggling performance at LIV Golf South Africa where the league is making its first appearance since its establishment four years ago.
Tabuena, 31, the first Filipino to play full time in LIV Golf where he is a wild card, shot a 1-over-par 72 and was tied in 50th place with three others in the 56-player field that included Phil Mickelson, who was seeing action for the first time this season.
Tabuena played better than Mickelson, who shot 4-over 75 and was in last place, the rust evident from the long absence. His card showed a triple and a double.
The Filipino star, starting on the 14th in the shotgun-style format, didn’t do much better.
Two holes after starting his round, he posted a double bogey when he hit his drive into the rough and then the water on his second shot. He managed to recover with birdies on the 18th – a 651-yard par 5 which he reached in two – and fifth holes.
But a bogey on the seventh, when he failed to go up-and-down from a greenside bunker, put him over par for the round.
At 1 over, he is nine shots behind co-leaders Bryson DeChambeau and Charles Howell III who each scored 8-under 63.
Two players were tied at 7 under, including Sergio Garcia, while one stroke back was Jon Rahm, tied for fifth with Talor Gooch.
This is LIV’s fifth tournament of the season and the first time it is played on the African continent.
South African fans got a treat when local stars Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Dean Burmester and Branden Grace, representing the Southern Guards Golf Club, took the team lead at 18 under, one better than Smash GC, led by Gooch.
Yuka Saso shoots season-best 69 in LPGA Fortinet Founders Cup
Finally, some good news for those following Yuka Saso. The 24-year-old has shown signs -- small it may be -- that her mystifying slump might be over.
The Filipino-Japanese star shot a 3-under-par 69 in the first round of the LPGA’s Fortinet Founders Cup Thursday and was tied for 12th place, the first time she has been in that position this season.
It’s early to complete a prognosis, but it’s a healthy sign for the moment on the state of Yuka’s game which, for the whole of last season and early this year, had been a total wreck.
Last year, she played 18 events and made just five cuts. This year, she made four-of-four but all the events she played in had no cuts and limited field.
With her opening 69, the once mercurial Filipino-now-Japanese star shot a score in the 60s for the first time after 22 events, counting last year’s and only the second time that she shot a round below par since shooting a 2-under-par 70 in the second round of the Honda LPGA Championship in Thailand last month.
But it’s a long way to go for Yuka who stunned the golf world by winning the US Open in 2021 and then in 2025, to become the youngest two-time winner in history.
She trails opening-round leader Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea, who shot a 9-under-par 63 to lead by two strokes. Between her and Kim are 10 other players trailing the leader, all ready to make a move in Friday’s second round at the Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in California.
Hopefully, Yuka will be among those to make a charge. Or at least make the cut comfortably. It’s been a long while since she’s done that.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
