LIV Golf Singapore Round 1: Rahm, DeChambeau, Westwood and Lee Share a Four-Way Lead

Sentosa's Serapong Course spent Thursday punishing anyone who got greedy, and when the scores settled four very different players were sharing the top of the board.

Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Lee Westwood and wild card Richard T. Lee all signed for 4-under 67s to share the first-round lead at LIV Golf Singapore. Two two-time major champions, a 52-year-old playing on a repaired wrist and a player who does not even have a team. Seven more sit one back at 3 under, ten more at 2 under, and in the team race Rahm's Legion XIII already has a six-shot cushion.

Four Ways to 67

Rahm's round was the steadiest of the four. He hit 15 of 18 greens, birdied three of his first seven holes and cashed in on all three par 5s. According to LIV Golf, he has now made birdie or better on 11 straight par 5s, and the 67 was his 22nd consecutive round under par, a league record. Rahm said everything this year feels just a little better than it has in the past, and the numbers back him up.

DeChambeau got there the hard way. A double bogey at the par-4 fifth threatened to bury his day early, after trouble in both a fairway bunker and a greenside bunker, but the Crushers GC captain played his final 10 holes in 5 under and closed with three straight birdies. He admitted afterward that things had not quite lined up for him yet this season. A closing stretch like that is usually how they start to.

Lee's opener set the tone for the whole round. The wild card holed out from a bunker for a birdie on the first hole he played, then went 4 under on the par 4s, two better than anybody else in the field. That made Lee the first wild card in LIV history to lead or co-lead after any round, and Lee said afterward that knowing the slopes at Serapong, and where to miss it, gives a real edge here.

Westwood's Wrist and a Clean Card

Westwood returned only a week earlier from a torn tendon in his left wrist, an injury that had a specialist worried about surgery, and he finished T18 in Hong Kong in his first start in six months. On Thursday the Majesticks GC co-captain did not make a single bogey. He hit 15 greens and got up and down every time he missed one. LIV Golf says it is the first time Westwood has shared a lead as one of the league's original members, and at 52 he is the oldest player to hold a share of one.

"Seven weeks ago, I couldn't hold the putter," Westwood said.

That line lands differently when you consider the greens. Bubba Watson called them lightning fast, and the scorecards agreed. The 15th hole played as the toughest on the course at 0.40 over par, with 18 players going over par there and nine of them finding the water. More than half the field, 29 players, took at least one penalty stroke on the day.

The Logjam at 3 Under

The group one shot back is loaded. Legion XIII's Tyrrell Hatton, Southern Guards GC captain Louis Oosthuizen, 4Aces GC's Thomas Detry, Ripper GC's Marc Leishman, Crushers GC's Charles Howell III, HyFlyers GC's Cameron Tringale and RangeGoats GC's Matthew Wolff all posted 68s.

Detry, coming off a runner-up finish in Hong Kong, and Leishman both went bogey-free, and neither failed to get up and down after missing a green. Wolff led the field in strokes gained approach at plus 4.98.

At the other end of the day, Watson started on the 10th tee and made five bogeys in the opening stretch, the most any LIV player has made to open a round, before signing for a 3-over 74. Dean Burmester went the other way at the finish, rolling in a 13-foot eagle putt at the 18th.

Legion XIII Sets the Pace

LIV changed the team math for 2026, and every score now counts every round. There is nowhere to hide a bad card, and Legion XIII did not need to. Rahm's 67, Hatton's 68 and 69s from Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt added up to 11 under, and Legion was the only team with all four players under par.

That left a six-shot gap to Crushers GC at 5 under. DeChambeau and Howell carried the Crushers with 67 and 68, Paul Casey added a 70, and a 74 from Anirban Lahiri cost them. 4Aces GC are third at 4 under behind Detry's 68, a 69 from Anthony Kim, a 71 from captain Dustin Johnson and a 72 from Thomas Pieters.

Majesticks GC are the cautionary tale. Westwood shares the individual lead, yet his team sits 11th of 13 at 9 over, because four scores count.

Numbers Worth Knowing

Lucas Herbert averaged 328.5 yards off the tee, and Luis Masaveu hit the longest drive of the day at 340.3 yards on the 18th. McKibbin and Miguel Tabuena needed just 24 putts apiece. Branden Grace's 70 stretched his run of under-par rounds to 21.

What Friday Brings

Three rounds remain, and with 21 players within two shots, nobody has separated. Friday's shotgun start has been pulled forward to 8:05 a.m. local time. Rahm has the form, DeChambeau has the momentum from his back nine, Westwood has the story and Lee has a chance to prove the opening day was not a one-off. Legion XIII, meanwhile, has the one thing nobody else does: a real lead.

The full first-round breakdown is in the LIV Golf Round 1 recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: LIV Golf (Round 1 recap), FOX Sports, Golf News Net (leaderboard). More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: LIV Golf.