LIV Golf Indianapolis Round 1: Laurie Canter Fires a 62 as Majesticks Lead the Team Championship

LIV Golf's season was supposed to end next week in Michigan. Instead it began its final act on Thursday in Westfield, Indiana, with the league's future in open question and an Englishman who had to fight his way back onto the roster setting the pace.

Laurie Canter of Majesticks GC shot an 8-under 62 at The Club at Chatham Hills to take a one-shot lead after the first round of LIV Golf Indianapolis. Cameron Smith of Ripper GC and wild card Richard T. Lee each posted bogey-free 63s to sit at 7 under, and a crowd of eight players is two back at 6 under. In the team race, which now doubles as the Team Championship, Majesticks lead at 17 under, two clear of Ripper GC and Legion XIII.

Canter Finds a Gear

Canter started on the sixth hole in the shotgun and did not look like a leader early. He was 1 over through three holes after a bogey from a bunker at the eighth. Then the round flipped: five birdies in the next six holes, and he never really looked back on a calm, windless day that rewarded anyone willing to attack flags. The 62 was the lowest round of his LIV career.

The route back to this position has been anything but straight. Canter was one of the league's original players in 2022, lost his spot, and spent most of 2024 and all of 2025 on the DP World Tour, winning on that circuit in both seasons. A top-10 finish in the DP World Tour standings earned him a PGA TOUR card, and he turned it down to come back to LIV. On Thursday, he called his driving great and said he kept hitting fairways. That was enough to be aggressive everywhere else.

Smith and Lee Keep It Clean

Smith matched Canter's pace for long stretches with a bogey-free 63 built on a driver he could trust. The 2022 Open champion hit all 14 fairways, his first perfect driving day at a LIV event in three years, and was one of four players to manage that. "The fairways are pretty forgiving around here as well, which is nice," Smith said.

Lee, the Canadian wild card who reached the league through LIV Golf Promotions, was just as tidy with a bogey-free 63 of his own. He lost a playoff to Bryson DeChambeau in Singapore this season.

A Logjam at 6 Under

The 6-under group reads like an all-star sheet. Dustin Johnson and Joaquin Niemann both went bogey-free for 64, as did Bubba Watson. Sergio Garcia, Dean Burmester, Caleb Surratt, Brendan Steele and Lee Westwood matched them. Steele led the field in greens in regulation, hitting 16 of 18, and Westwood needed just 20 putts.

DeChambeau shot a bogey-free 65 and sits alone at 5 under, but his round came with a bigger subject attached. The Crushers GC captain has become one of the most prominent advocates for the league as it heads toward a future without backing from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which has said it will stop funding LIV after this season. "We definitely have a lot against us," DeChambeau said, and he asked fans to give the league one more shot.

Jon Rahm, who has already clinched his third straight individual season title, opened with a 67. Michael La Sasso of HyFlyers GC shot 71, and Louis Oosthuizen, back from a back injury after missing two events, also signed for 71.

Majesticks Finally Out in Front

The team storyline might be the best one on the board. Majesticks have never won a team trophy and have not reached a stroke-play podium in 53 LIV events. On Thursday they posted 17 under, with Canter's 62 and Westwood's 64 doing most of the damage and Ian Poulter (68) and Sam Horsfield (69) adding steady numbers. "It's a strange situation because we've not played great as a team throughout most of the year," Westwood said. He added that a win would mean a lot.

Ripper GC (Smith 63, Lucas Herbert 66, Marc Leishman 66, Travis Smyth 70) and Legion XIII (Surratt 64, Rahm 67, Tyrrell Hatton 67, Tom McKibbin 67) share second at 15 under. 4Aces GC, the regular-season team points leaders, are fourth at 13 under behind Johnson's 64. Torque GC sit at 12 under and HyFlyers at 11 under. Crushers GC are last at 6 over, as DeChambeau's 65 was swallowed by a combined 11 over from Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.

Why This Week Carries More Weight

LIV announced on Monday that the Michigan Team Championship, set for The Cardinal at Saint John's from August 27 to 30, was cancelled, with CEO Scott O'Neil saying the league wanted to focus its resources on what comes next. That turned Indianapolis into both the regular-season finale and the Team Championship. Past Team Championships were decided by match play. This one is four rounds of stroke play with all four scores counting, so the lowest 72-hole team total takes the title.

That format punishes a single bad card, which is why Crushers already have work to do and why Majesticks' balance matters.

The Road to Friday

With 54 holes left, no cut and a soft golf course, a one-shot lead means very little. Eleven players are within three of Canter, and the conditions that produced a 62 will invite more of the same. The bigger test is for the teams, where every loose round shows up instantly. Majesticks have their best chance in years to change their history. Friday will show whether they can hold it.

Full first-round details are in the LIV Golf Round 1 recap (opens in a new tab). For last year's edition, Sebastián Muñoz won LIV Golf Indianapolis in a playoff.

Sources: LIV Golf (Round 1 recap), Field Level Media, AFP, Golf News Net. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf.