HONG KONG — First-round co-leader Abraham Ancer birdied five of his final eight holes for an 8-under 62 and a five-stroke lead after two rounds of the inaugural LIV Golf tournament in Hong Kong.
The Mexican had a two-round total of 15-under 125 on the Hong Kong Golf Club course.
Harold Varner III and Eugenio Chacarra, who shot second-round 66s, were tied for second.
Joaquin Niemann, who won the Jeddah tournament in Saudi Arabia last week for his second LIV victory in three starts, had a 68 and was 10 strokes behind Ancer.
“I’m not going to be thinking about leading the tournament,” Ancer said according to AP.
“I´m just going to go out there and stay in the present, go about my routine, and just keep doing the same thing. Try to focus on the shot that I’ve got in front of me.”
The Hong Kong tournament is the second of three LIV Golf events that are part of the Asian swing, with the third in early May in Singapore.
Ancer is in a strong position to leave Hong Kong as a double-winner as his Fireball GC team, captained by Spaniard Sergio Garcia, ended round two at the top of the team leaderboard on 28-under.
Ancer and Chacarra, both members of Fireball GC, will play alongside each other in the final round as they push each other for the individual crown whilst simultaneously trying to wrap up the team title.
“I think it’ll be great,” Ancer said. “It’s still going to be super competitive; we’re always trying to beat each other.”
The week before Singapore, the LIV series will be in the Pacific region with a second consecutive tournament at The Grange in Adelaide, Australia from April 26-28.
Next up after Hong Kong on the LIV tour will be in Miami from April 5-7.
Tiger Woods, meanwhile, will not be competing in the 50th edition of The Players Championship next week as his name did not appear on the field list when it was released after the deadline.
Woods, who previously said he hoped to play once a month on the PGA Tour this year, has not competed since his season debut three weeks ago was cut short due to illness.
The 15-times major champion now has three more opportunities to play competitively ahead of the April 11-14 Masters, which is the first major championship of the season.
Should he want another start ahead of the Masters, Woods’ options are the March 21-24 Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida; the March 28-31 Texas Children’s Houston Open; and the April 4-7 Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
Woods made his only Valspar Championship appearance in 2018, finishing in a share of second. He was third at the 1996 Texas Open and has never played the Houston Open.
The 48-year-old made his highly-anticipated season debut three weeks ago at Riviera where he dealt with back spasms during the first round and withdrew from the second round while on the seventh hole due to a bout of the flu.
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