LIV Golf Singapore: Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz finds his rhythm and season’s best form to lead first round at Sentosa
- The South American shot a six-under-par 65 at Sentosa to sit on top of a stacked leaderboard, where just two shots separate the top 15 players
- Brooks Koepka and Abraham Ancer in a group of six tied for second a shot further back, with Joaquin Niemann one of eight players on 67
Sebastian Munoz produced the best round of his LIV Golf season in Singapore on Friday, and said he felt his game was finally moving in the right direction.
The Colombian fired a six-under-par 65 at Sentosa Golf Club to sit on top of a stacked leaderboard, where just two shots separate the top 15 players.
Brooks Koepka and Abraham Ancer were among a group of six players in a tie for second a shot further back, with Joaquin Niemann, who has won twice on the circuit this year, one of eight players who carded a 67.
By his own admission, Munoz has not had a great year, and finished in a tie for 38th in Adelaide last week. His best finish was ninth in Las Vegas in February, when he was seven under after three rounds.
“For the past couple of events, I haven’t been able to hit it where I want to, so it just makes golf a lot tougher,” Munoz said.
“I felt like the first round in Adelaide [one over] kind of hit me hard. Both my teammates played really good, and I kind of played poorly towards the end, and I kind of got a little rhythm the next two rounds and now here with a better round.
“So, I feel like I’m definitely learning what was the issue, and I feel like I’m addressing it the proper way, and I feel like we’re in a good way.”
The issue, according to Munoz, has been the rhythm in his swing, but there was little evidence of that in the first round, which after starting on eight took off with back-to-back birdies on nine and 10.
A bogey on the par-4 13th was the only blip, and the 31-year-old was five under through the next nine holes.
Of the chasing pack, Koepka’s three-putt bogey on 16 was the difference between him and a share of the lead, but having bemoaned his ability on the greens ahead of the opening day, the American felt his performance had been “OK”.
“I played pretty solid,” Kopeka said. “Really didn’t do anything other than a three-putt on 16. That was kind of disappointing. But yeah, just played really solid.
“I felt like it was starting to come around last week. The ball striking was there. Just didn’t make any putts, but made a few today. Definitely could have been more, but it’s nice to see some go in.”
In the race to keep Crushers GC from getting any further ahead in the team standings, Ancer’s Fireballs and Koepka’s Smash ended the day on 11 under, with Range Goats, who had Thomas Pieters among those on five under, Cleeks and Stinger all a shot further back.
