Adrian Meronk of Poland remains two shots ahead of Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz to stay atop the leaderboard after both carded rounds of 6-under 66 on the second day of LIV Golf Riyadh on Friday in Saudi Arabia.
Munoz kept pace with Meronk, who fired a 62 in the first round and sits at 16-under par heading into the final day. Lucas Herbert of Australia shot an 8-under 64 to climb into third place alone at 12 under.
Legion XIII continues to dominate the team standings. Tyrrell Hatton of England and Caleb Surratt are tied for fourth at 11 under after both shooting 67, while captain Jon Rahm of Spain (67) and debutant Tom McKibbin (69) of Northern Ireland are in a tie for sixth at 10 under with Matthew Wolff (66).
That brought Legion XIII’s team score to 42 under through two days. Second-place Torque GC is a distant 11 shots behind.
Meronk, 31, has won four times on the DP World Tour but is in position for his first LIV title after joining the circuit ahead of the 2024 season.
“It would be special (to win) for sure, especially the first event of the year, as well,” Meronk said. “But I don’t want to focus on that. My only focus (Saturday) will be just one shot at a time and playing my best golf as possible, and we’ll see what happens.”
Munoz, 32, hasn’t earned a professional win since the 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA Tour.
“It would mean a lot,” he said. “I’ve been putting in some good work in the offseason and just practicing really hard, and I think it’s beginning to show. I’ve just got to keep in my lane and see if things happen for me.”
There wasn’t much separating their Friday rounds. Munoz was bogey-free with six birdies, while Meronk converted seven birdies and limited himself to one bogey.
They won’t alter their strategies when they play together in the final round.
“Nothing changes,” Meronk said. “I’m just going to try to shoot as low as possible, make as many birdies as possible like I’ve been doing the last two days and see what happens on the 18th green.”
The field is playing under the lights for the first time in order to fit the broadcast window for LIV Golf’s new U.S. TV partner, Fox Sports.
“It has its moments where it’s pretty challenging,” Hatton said of playing at night. “There’s times where it’s quite hard to see the back of the ball and judging the lie and how that’s going to come out. Sometimes maybe in daylight you might read it coming out as a flier, and at nighttime it’s a little bit harder.
“But I think ultimately we’ve adjusted to it pretty well. I think the fact that the scoring is so low shows that everyone is able to get on with it just fine.”
–Field Level Media
