While LIV Golf Indianapolis will double as the team championship for 2026, the player atop the individual leaderboard is an unaffiliated wild card.
Richard T. Lee of Canada moved in front after 36 holes thanks to his second-round, 4-under-par 66 on Friday at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Ind.
Lee is 11 under par at the halfway mark and holds a one-shot lead over Dustin Johnson (66), Belgium’s Thomas Detry (64) and first-round leader Laurie Canter of England (68).
Lee, 35, is in his first season with LIV Golf after he won the league’s promotions event in Florida last winter. Lee called the season “a dream come true” Friday, despite LIV’s uncertain future in the wake of the Saudi Public Investment Fund withdrawing their backing after this year.
“Coming out here, just having everything I want and everything I need. The courses are spectacular, and the conditions are amazing,” Lee said. “People are nice. Just being on a tour like this is just a dream come true.”
Lee shot a 7-under 63 in the first round, putting him one behind Canter. He birdied three of his first five holes and four of his first seven on Friday to surge in front. After consecutive bogeys at Nos. 9-10, he regained those two strokes with birdies at Nos. 13 and 14.
“I don’t want to think too ahead for myself, but yeah, definitely a victory would be amazing,” said Lee, a journeyman who has only won on the Asian and Korean tours. “It’s always been a dream to play with these guys and have a big victory out there.”
Johnson hasn’t won a LIV event since February 2024 in Las Vegas. That could change come Sunday after he finished with three birdies in his last five holes Friday to put himself in the tie for second.
“I felt like I’ve been swinging it well, like, throughout the year. Just hadn’t really put anything together,” Johnson said. “I’m starting to drive it well, and I’m hitting my irons good. The game has always been close, now just got a little more confidence in the game, and I’m playing nicely.”
Johnson has another goal to chase. The team he captains, 4Aces GC, holds a five-shot lead at 31 under par over two rounds. Torque GC, captained by Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, is second at 26 under.
Due to the cancellation of the LIV Golf Team Championship in Michigan, the winning squad this week will take home the season-long team title.
“Obviously we’ve got a really good team,” Johnson said. “… We’ve got one more event left, two more days, so a lot can happen. But we’re in a good position right now.”
Detry, one of Johnson’s teammates, helped lift 4Aces with a 64 that featured seven birdies. Another Belgian, Thomas Pieters, shot 65 Friday for 4Aces and is tied for fifth at 9 under.
Also tied for fifth at 9 under is Michael La Sasso, a 22-year-old rookie who fired a 10-under-par 60 on Friday. La Sasso started his round on No. 15 and birdied nine of his first 14 holes to make a sub-60 round a distinct possibility. After three straight pars, he settled for a closing birdie at the par-5 14th.
Asked whether there was a point he sensed it would be a special round, La Sasso replied, “Yeah, and then I started leaving (putts) short. It’s funny how that works.
“No, just kind of sticking to what we were talking about. I definitely thought about it a little bit, and then a couple more putts started to drop, and it was like, ‘Wow, this could be real.'”
–Field Level Media
