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The wealthy Saudi-backed LIV Golf league embodied its “Golf, but louder” slogan in its first season. But can a league that embraced 54 holes, team golf and shotgun starts sustain? What about its players?

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DUBLIN, Ohio — Among the lessons Collin Morikawa took away from missing his first cut as a pro was that his reliable cut shot had left him. He found at it Muirfield Village, and suddenly looks as though he’ll be tough to catch at the Workday Charity Open. Morikawa ran off four straight birdies after making the turn Friday, finished with another birdie and shot 6-under 66 to build a four-shot lead over Sam Burns (66) in the storm-delayed tournament. RELATED: Full leaderboard | | How to give Muirfield a second identity His 13-under 131 was one shot off the 36-hole course record set by Jason Dufner in 2017 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. The Workday Charity Open, which replaces the canceled John Deere Classic for this year only, has been set up a little easier than it will be for the Memorial next week, with slightly slower greens and rough that isn’t quite as high or thick. Morikawa is still playing a different brand of golf than anyone else. Through two rounds, he has 15 birdies and an eagle. His four bogeys have come from silly mistakes that are bound to happen. Ian Poulter, back at Muirfield Village for the first time since 2009 because of a reconfigured schedule brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, had a 69 and joined Chase Seiffert (69) at 7-under 137. The second round had a pair of 75-minute delays because of the rumbling thunder and lightning that seems to appear whenever the PGA TOUR is at Muirfield Village. “Who knows who’s going to take it deep today?” Morikawa said. “Whether I have the lead or not, I’ve got to go into the weekend feeling like I’ve got to make the same amount of birdies I have the past two days. I feel like there’s a lot of birdies out there for me especially, the way I’ve been hitting it.” Morikawa, who turned pro just over a year ago after graduating from Cal, is making his debut at the course Jack Nicklaus built, and perhaps it’s no coincidence that Nicklaus was famous for hitting a cut. “I had heard from a lot of people before, this course was going to suit a left-to-right shot, anyway,” Morikawa said. “Obviously, Jack hit that, and I think it does. But I’ve been able to leave myself some really good numbers into approach shots. I’ve been keeping myself in the fairway for the most part, and that obviously helps.” Among those playing in the afternoon, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka first had to worry about making the cut after sluggish starts. Koepka started at 2 over. Rahm was at even par. Phil Mickelson had another exciting day, minus the meltdown at the end of his round. He opened by chipping in for birdie and making a 12-foot eagle putt. With the tee moved forward on the 14th hole, the par 4 guarded by a pond right of the green, he hit driver to 10 feet and had to settle for birdie. And right before the first batch of storms arrived, Mickelson felt the wind shift and get stronger, so he took driver on the par-5 fifth and whaled away over the trees and just inside backyard fences. It settled in the rough, but it left him only 114 yards away and a pitching wedge to the green. The speed of the greens fooled him, and he repeatedly left putts short. Even so, he managed to post a reasonable number. Jordan Spieth wasn’t as fortunate. He took double bogey on his 17th hole, the par-3 eighth, and was likely to miss the cut. Morikawa had made 22 cuts in a row to start his pro career, a streak that ended two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship. That was three short of the streak Tiger Woods put together when he turned pro. But the 23-year-old Californian was more interested in low scores than simply getting in four rounds and a pay check. “At the end of the day, you’re out there to win tournaments,” he said. “If you miss the cut, make it by whatever, you just want to learn from each week. And like I said, I learned a lot from those two days missing the cut than I have in a lot of events so far when I’ve been finishing whatever.” This one caused him to take a closer look at what was lacking in his game, instead of being reasonably content with a solid finish. “I think sometimes when something really doesn’t go your way, like missing a cut, it just stands out a little more,” he said. Somewhere along the way, he couldn’t rely on his cut shot, allowing him to aim some 6 yards left of his target and fade it toward the pin, no matter where it was located. It was after his practice round Wednesday that he figured out what was missing, and he went back to an old drill of sticking his glove under his left arm. It’s a rotational drill, and it paid off. He had to wait until the storms to see if anyone could catch him, with the second round not likely to end until Saturday.

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AVONDALE, La. – Rory Sabbatini thinks he may have found the secret to picking the right partner for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “Quit trying to find the long hitter,â€� he joked. A year ago, Sabbatini played with John Daly, the current PGA TOUR Champions player who during his heyday in the 1990s was the PGA TOUR’s longest hitter. They missed the cut. This year, he’s playing with Brian Gay, who, well, is not exactly known for his length off the tee. Gay entered this week ranked 208th in driving distance. That’s out of 209 players. No problem. Gay-Sabbatini completed their first round Friday morning at TPC Louisiana, finishing with two birdies for a 12-under 60 that gave them the clubhouse lead. That 60 ties for the lowest tournament score since the Zurich Classic began using the team format in 2017. It also should secure the first made cut at TPC Louisiana for both Gay and Sabbatini in that span. Gay did not play in 2017, while Sabbatini partnered Bryson DeChambeau. They missed the cut that week; for DeChambeau, it was the third of eight consecutive missed cuts before he broke through that summer by winning the John Deere Classic for his first TOUR victory. In 2018, Gay missed the Zurich cut partnering with Aaron Wise. Just like Sabbatini with DeChambeau the previous year, it just seemed like a case of mismatched timing. The next week, Wise tied for second at the RBC Heritage, then won the AT&T Byron Nelson two weeks after that. But that’s all in the past. Gay thinks he’s finally figured out how to pick the right partner. “It helps if you know the guy pretty well,â€� Gay said. “It’s better if your games match up and if you’re comfortable with your partner and you know each other. I think that works better.â€� Both players have plenty of experience at the Zurich Classic, combining for 26 starts in this event. Ten years ago, Sabbatini was runner-up to Jerry Kelly at TPC Louisiana, but Gay’s best results came when the tournament was held at English Turn. He finished T-5 in 2001. But it was Gay who played the steadiest of the two in the first round – although his missed birdie putt from 6-1/2 feet at the 16th hole Friday morning ultimately cost them the tournament record-low of 59. “We would have beat it if Brian hadn’t actually let us down with his putting,â€� cracked Sabbatini. In truth, it’s Gay’s normally solid putting that gives the team confidence this week – especially going into the second round, which will use the Foursomes format. Sabbatini-Gay will likely start their round late Friday afternoon, meaning they’ll have to finish up Saturday morning. “We actually match up very well because we’ve got very similar games in regards to how far we hit the ball, so we know what kind of lines we’re looking at,â€� Sabbatini said. “But I actually felt very comfortable playing with him. “Obviously it’s great having him out there because you know he’s always going to putt well, so that takes a lot of pressure off it from the get-go.â€� Unlike some tandems who may spend all week together on and off the course, Gay and Sabbatini will be going their separate ways most nights. That’s because Gay has his family in town this week, while Sabbatini is flying solo with his family remaining at home. In other words … “I eat at the bar,â€� Sabbatini said. “He eats at a table.â€�

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