HONG KONG – Paul Casey enjoys being a global golfer, and in his professional career, he’s won 21 events in 13 different countries. But he’s never won in Hong Kong.
That could change this weekend after Casey grabbed the first-round lead at LIV Golf Hong Kong, firing a bogey-free 7-under 63 while leading the defending tournament champion Crushers GC to a share of the team leaderboard with Torque GC at Hong Kong Golf Club.
[Read more: How to watch LIV Golf Hong Kong 2025: Date, time, TV channels, streaming]
“I’ve always been a global traveler and enjoyed the challenge of trying to tick another country off on the win list,” said the 47-year-old Englishman. “It’s something that always kind of excited me, to win around golf courses with history that are iconic. So, you can be assured that I’m trying very hard this week because I’d love to add this one to the list.”
Casey almost added it last year, making the three-man playoff eventually won by Fireballs GC’s Abraham Ancer. Casey was knocked out after making a bogey on the par-4 18th playoff hole, and he was staring at bogey on that hole again Friday after finding the water with his approach shot.
But after saving par by holing his chip shot, he finished his round with three birdies in his last seven holes.
“It’s got our full respect every time we play it,” Casey said about the 18th. “So to find the water, take a drop and chip in for par was huge.”
Casey enters Saturday’s second round with a two-shot lead over six players: captains Sergio Garcia (Fireballs GC) and Martin Kaymer (Cleeks GC), along with Peter Uihlein (RangeGoats GC), Luis Masaveu (Fireballs), Sebastián Muñoz (Torque) and Wild Card player Chieh-Po Lee, the LIV Golf Promotions winner from Chinese Taipei.
The two Wild Card spots were added to the LIV Golf League lineup last season. Lee’s position on the leaderboard is the best position for a Wild Card player after any round.
Lee failed to finish inside the top 40 in either of his first two LIV Golf starts, but he returned home and told himself that he needed a change in mindset going into this week. It helps that Hong Kong Golf Club is a familiar course to him as a previous member of the Asian Tour.
“Today, I just felt more comfortable, not like the first two events,” Lee said.
Muñoz nearly grabbed the first LIV Golf individual win of his career in the season opener in Riyadh. He eventually tied for second but did not maintain that form the following week in Adelaide, finishing 45th.
He started Friday’s round with a bogey on the 15th hole before reeling off five consecutive birdies starting with the par-4 17th.
“Even though I started with a bogey, with a three-putt, I didn’t let it bother me,” Muñoz said. “I just gave myself chances and made the first one on 17, and then just kind of went on a roll for a little bit there.”
[Read more: 2025 LIV Golf Hong Kong odds, predictions: Favorites, picks from the field]
Among the six players tied for eighth at 4 under is Casey’s captain Bryson DeChambeau, who is seeking his first professional win on a course under 6,900 yards. Hong Kong Golf Club played at 6,691 yards on Friday. He’s not surprised to see Casey atop the leaderboard.
“Paul, just being the ball-striker he is, the Popeye forearms and great iron player, he loves this place,” DeChambeau said. “It’s an iron player’s paradise.”
Still, DeChambeau wasn’t willing to concede the tournament to his teammate just yet. “I’m happy for Paul being at 7 under, but I’m going to come kick his ass here by the end of the week,” he said with a smile.
Don’t expect Casey to back down as he chases another checkmark on his global list. “I’ll not lie – there’s an element where you’re like, I want to beat him,” Casey said. “So, I think he feels that, too.”
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 results and scores for each team after Friday’s Rd. 1 of LIV Golf Hong Kong.
T1. CRUSHERS GC -12 (Casey 63, DeChambeau 66, Howell III 67, Lahiri 72)
T1. TORQUE GC -12 (Muñoz 65, Niemann 67, Ortiz 68, Pereira 68)
3. FIREBALLS GC -11 (Garcia 65, Masaveu 65, Puig 68, Ancer 71)
T4. HYFLYERS GC -9 (Mickelson 67, Ogletree 67, Steele 68, Tringale 69)
T4. IRON HEADS GC -9 (Jang 66, Lee 66, Na 70, Schniederjans 70)
6. MAJESTICKS GC -8 (Horsfield 66, Stenson 66, Poulter 69, Westwood 71)
7. RANGEGOATS GC -7 (Uihlein 65, Watson 67, Campbell 69, Wolff 72)
8. RIPPER GC -5 (Herbert 67, Jones 69, Smith 69, Leishman 70)
9. STINGER GC -4 (Burmester 66, Schwartzel 69, Grace 70, Oosthuizen 71)
T10. LEGION XIII -2 (Hatton 67, McKibbin 67, Rahm 69, Surratt 75)
T10. CLEEKS GC -2 (Kaymer 65, Kjettrup 70, Bland 71, Meronk 72)
12. 4ACES GC -1 (Pieters 67, Varner III 68, Reed 69, Johnson 75)
13. SMASH GC +3 (McDowell 68, Gooch 70, Koepka 72, Kokrak 73)
Wild Cards: Lee 65, Kim 75
ROUND 1 NOTES
BRYSON’S WEDGE ISSUES: Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau’s attempt to win on a short course like Hong Kong Golf Club will come down to whether he can dial in his wedges. DeChambeau shot a 4-under 66 Friday but knows there is work left to do.
“My wedges are not great right now,” DeChambeau said. “I’ve got to figure that out. I think this golf course is really unique and cool. There’s a lot of holes you can get after it, but you’ve got to have your iron play just on point. If it’s not, you’re going to get penalized.
[Read more: LIV Golf Hong Kong preview: Can Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC repeat?]
“It wasn’t terrible, obviously, but I just have higher expectations for myself. I just continue to work. I’ve got to keep working. It’s obviously not fully there yet.”
NEW YOUNG GUNS: Two of LIV Golf’s new young signees this season are in the top 10 after the first round. Fireballs GC’s Luis Masaveu is tied for second after his 5-under 65 while Iron Heads GC’s Yubin Jang is tied for eighth at 4 under.
Both players are 22 years old and part of LIV Golf’s youth movement that also includes another new player, Legion XIII’s Tom McKibbin, who shot a 3-under 67 and is tied for 14th.
SOLID KAYMER: Cleeks GC Captain Martin Kaymer’s first two results this season have left him little to celebrate – a tie for 44th in Riyadh and a solo 49th in Adelaide. A return to Hong Kong Golf Club, a course on which he’s competed on since 2007, may be just what he needs to turn around his season. Kaymer’s bogey-free 5-under 65 on Friday leaves him tied for second and feeling much better about the state of his game.
“It has been a while ago that I had a really solid round the way I played today without many mistakes, making a few putts,” Kaymer said. “I could have played another nine holes because I was in good shape. It’s one of those venues that I’ve always enjoyed. Maybe I can switch to the forward gear now.”
[Read more: As he Masters team golf, Bubba Watson calls LIV ‘the greatest thing I’ve ever done’]
CASEY LOVES THE VIBES: First-round leader Paul Casey played a practice round Thursday with Hong Kong Golf Club Captain Andy Kwok. The two spoke at length about the course’s history and architecture. But there’s another element that Casey enjoys about this week.
“Hong Kong is one of those cities where I would come back here in a heartbeat just to visit and travel to and experience,” Casey said. “That’s part of it. Sometimes you need the whole package to kind of give you that vibe for the week.”
PHIL’S PUTTING: HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson posted a solid 3-under 67 and walked off the course Friday pleased with his putting. Not only did he switch putters this week, he’s also leaning heavily on caddie Jon Yarbrough’s knowledge of AimPoint to help read greens.
“He’s really helped me on these greens to get a better visual of what the ball is going to do,” said Mickelson, whose 28 putts left him tied for 15th in the field for first-round putting. “These greens have always been challenging for me, and I feel like we got pretty dialed in.”
ROUND 1 STATS LEADERS
Driving accuracy: Sebastián Muñoz, Danny Lee, 92.86% (13 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: David Puig, 345.4 yards avg.
Longest drive: David Puig, 357.2 yards, 13th hole
Greens in regulation: Luis Masaveu, Sam Horsfield, Harold Varner III, 88.89% (16 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: 11 players at 100%, led by Cameron Tringale, 7 of 7
Putting: Andy Ogletree, 1.22 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: Paul Casey (63), Martin Kaymer (65), Danny Lee (66), Henrik Stenson (66), Thomas Pieters (67), Tyrrell Hatton (67), Cameron Tringale (69)
This piece is courtesy of Mike McAllister in partnership with LIV Golf.
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