LIV Golf Adelaide Round 2: Ancer, Ortiz and Horsfield Share the Lead as Majesticks Surge

The wind showed up at The Grange on Saturday, and the leaderboard folded into a three-way knot.

Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Sam Horsfield share the lead at 9-under 135 after the second round of LIV Golf Adelaide, three shots clear of the rest of the field. Ancer posted a 5-under 67, the low round of the day. Ortiz shot 68 and Horsfield, the overnight leader, ground out a 69. Joaquin Niemann is alone in fourth at 6 under after a 71, Jon Rahm is fifth at 5 under, and Henrik Stenson, David Puig and Brooks Koepka are tied for sixth at 4 under.

The team race flipped completely. Majesticks GC posted 8 under as a team on Saturday to jump from seventh to first at 10 under, one shot ahead of Fireballs GC and Legion XIII. Friday's leader, Torque GC, went 5 over and slid to fifth.

A Different Golf Course

Friday rewarded patience. Saturday demanded it. Swirling winds pushed the field average up to 72.611, nearly a stroke higher than the opening round, and the 437-yard par-4 second played brutally, averaging 4.435 without surrendering a single birdie all day.

That is the context for the three 9-unders. None of the co-leaders lit it up, and none of them needed to. The winners on Saturday were the players who kept the big number off the card.

The Mexican Connection

Ancer and Ortiz share a history that gives Sunday an extra layer. Both represented Mexico at the Olympics, and they were Fireballs GC teammates until Ortiz moved to Torque GC before last season. Now they are tied at the top with 18 holes to go, wearing different colors.

Ancer's 67 was the best card of the day, built on six birdies against one bogey. Ortiz's 68 was all about defense: five birdies, one bogey, three of those birdies coming in a four-hole stretch, and a perfect 7-for-7 in scrambling. Ortiz also led the field in driving accuracy at 85.71 percent. Ortiz said afterward that The Grange demanded respect in the wind and that playing a little defensively was the right approach.

Ancer, for one, sounded happy to see the wind, saying it was exactly the kind of golf that suits the Mexican.

Horsfield Hangs On

Horsfield's 69 was a test of nerve. The overnight leader bogeyed the opening hole of the round, the first blemish after a bogey-free Friday, and had to work to stay in front. The Englishman steadied and birdied the final hole of the day to get back to 9 under and keep a share of the lead.

"It was a real tough test," Horsfield said.

Majesticks Wake Up

The biggest move of the day was not an individual one. Majesticks GC, which sat at 2 under after Friday thanks to big numbers from Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, flipped the script. Poulter and Westwood each shot 70, Horsfield added 69 and Stenson 71 for a team score of 8 under, four shots better than any other team on Saturday.

"I call them crafty veterans," Horsfield said of the co-captains.

The stakes are real for this group. LIV Golf noted that Majesticks GC has not finished in the top three of a team event since LIV Golf Boston in 2022, a stretch of 33 tournaments, and the franchise's only trophy is Stenson's individual win at Bedminster in 2022.

Fireballs GC and Legion XIII each went 3 under on the day to sit one back. Ancer and Puig lead the way for Fireballs GC, while Rahm's 69 led Legion XIII. Rahm closed with birdies on the final two holes of the round, per Field Level Media, one of them a chip-in from a bunker.

Movers and Fallers

Niemann's 71 kept the Torque GC captain in range at three back, but the rest of the team struggled. Torque GC dropped five shots as a team on Saturday and fell from first to fifth at 3 under, seven back of Majesticks.

Bryson DeChambeau delivered the day's longest swing at the 409-yard par-4 15th, driving the green, but three-putted for par and signed for a 1-over 73. That leaves the Crushers GC captain at 3 under, six shots off the lead, with Crushers GC fourth in the team standings at 5 under.

Ripper GC, the defending team champion in Adelaide, gave the home crowd something to cheer. The Australians went 4 under on Saturday, second best among teams behind Majesticks, to climb to 1 under and seventh. Lucas Herbert also topped the distance chart, averaging 329.1 yards and hitting the longest drive of the day at 358.3 yards on the 17th.

Defending individual champion Brendan Steele bounced back with a 70 and climbed from a tie for 48th to a tie for 29th.

Sunday Is Wide Open

Three players share the lead, two more sit within four, and the top three teams are separated by one stroke. Horsfield is trying to hold off two Olympians, Ancer and Ortiz are chasing each other, and Majesticks GC is chasing history.

In a format where every score counts, one bad hole at the Watering Hole on Sunday could reshape both leaderboards at once.

Catch up on Friday in our Round 1 recap. The full team scoring is in LIV Golf's Round 2 recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: LIV Golf (Round 2 recap and team scoring), Field Level Media. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: LIV Golf.