One day after LIV Golf’s CEO publicly addressed the league’s uncertain financial future, Laurie Canter attempted to put the focus back on the golf course as he fired an 8-under-par 62 to take the early lead at LIV Golf Indianapolis on Thursday in Westfield, Ind.
The Englishman finds himself one shot ahead of Australian Cam Smith and Canadian Richard T. Lee after the first round at The Club at Chatham Hills.
A massive knot at 6-under 64 features Dustin Johnson, Brendan Steele, Caleb Surratt, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia of Spain, Lee Westwood of England, Joaquin Niemann of Chile and Dean Burmester of South Africa. And Bryson DeChambeau sits alone at 5-under 65.
“I mean, I didn’t get off to the best of starts,” said Canter, who teed off on No. 6 and was 1 over after three holes. “I think I bogeyed 8, hit it in the right trap but it still got me going. I think I had three birdies off the back of that.
“Drove the ball great. I hit a lot of fairways, and kind of the way the golf course is playing with no wind and you have to take it at pretty much all the pins, I stayed aggressive for the day and made a lot of birdies.”
Canter is an interesting case who doubled down on LIV Golf after having an opportunity to join the PGA Tour. Part of the original group of players to join the Saudi-backed breakaway league in 2022, Canter soon found himself out of a roster spot and spent most of 2024 and all of 2025 on the DP World Tour.
He earned a PGA Tour card courtesy of his top-10 finish in the DP World Tour’s season-long standings last year, but he spurned that opportunity to re-sign with LIV Golf — which now must move forward without the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s financing.
“My experience of LIV has overwhelmingly been positive since 2022,” Canter said. “Coming back here, I knew what to expect. Things have changed. The team is like a ton more, I’m going to say, kind of professional, like the back outfit and the support we get has changed and evolved, and it really feels like a team. That’s kind of been my biggest — the thing I’ve noticed most.”
The league chose to cancel its season finale, LIV Golf Michigan, which would have served as the team championship. Instead, Indianapolis is serving as both the regular-season finale and the team championship this year.
Canter and Westwood have put Majesticks GC in a strong spot after one day, as at 17 under they lead the team standings by two shots over Ripper GC and Legion XIII.
“It would mean a lot” to win, Westwood said. “Our best finish and our only podium finish was in the very first event, a third, so we’d bookend that pretty well, wouldn’t we, with a win this week.
“Yeah, it’s a strange situation because we’ve not played great as a team throughout most of the year. Obviously we’ve just hit a bit of form recently. But to have a great chance to do something this week is obviously something we didn’t expect to happen.”
DeChambeau has been one of the most prominent advocates for the league to continue and was asked Thursday about how he compartmentalizes once he is out on the course. He brought up the “economic impact” he believes LIV has made in locations around the world.
“Look, it’s tough. It’s not easy. We definitely have a lot against us,” DeChambeau said. “But I think behind the scenes we’ve got a lot of people that are working hard to make this possible for not only all the players that are out here but all the fans that have come out to these events and the economic impact that we’ve made in all these places, whether it’s South Africa, here in Indy or Australia, numerous places across the world …
“I think we just have a bit of a responsibility to continue to show this. If it works, it works; awesome. If it doesn’t, we’ll figure things out. Time will move on, and I would say that time heals things. I hope people can see that we actually bring value to the game of golf. My wish is that people give us one more shot and be open-minded.”
–Field Level Media
