Herbert heads Garcia as Virginia team leaderboard gets tighter

Second-placed Sergio Garcia plays out of a bunker during the third round of LIV Golf Virginia as he battled to stay in touch with leader Lucas Herbert at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, on Saturday. Image courtesy LIV Golf.

From a Correspondent

Sterling, Virginia: Sunday’s final round of Maaden LIV Golf Virginia appears to be a showdown between tournament leader Lucas Herbert and primary chaser Sergio Garcia, who have separated themselves from the pack.

But as big-hitting youngster Josele Ballester showed Saturday, the rest of the field can still make up ground quickly with a super-low score.

Herbert maintained his lead at Trump National Washington D.C. with a solid 4 under par 68 in Saturday’s third round, leaving him at 21 under and three shots ahead of Garcia, who shot a 65 to move to 18 under. 

The next closest pursuers are eight shots behind, but Herbert wasn’t ready to declare it a two-man race for the title.

“I don’t want to rule anyone out, and I don’t want it to turn into a match-play situation when it’s still a stroke-play event,” said the Ripper GC member. 

“The reality is it’s very much in mine and Sergio’s hands. If we play great, the other guys are going to struggle to catch us. If we don’t play great, we open the door for them.”

Ballester certainly broke through the door on Saturday with a bogey-free 12-under 60 that ties a league record for lowest round relative to par. 

Big jump

The 22-year-old, a member of Garcia’s Fireballs GC team, started the day tied for 33rd but is now tied for third at 13 under entering the final round. It’s the biggest one-round jump in leaderboard position in league history.

“I know that this round doesn’t happen very often,” said Ballester, who saw his birdie putt from 29 feet on his final hole fade to the right in his bid for 59. 

“Hopefully I can start feeling and entering the flow zone a little more often.”

Ballester is tied with Crushers GC captain Bryson DeChambeau, Southern Guards GC’s Dean Burmester and HyFlyers GC’s Scott Vincent. DeChambeau shot a bogey-free 64 to give him an outside shot at his third individual win this season.

“Look, there’s always an opportunity,” DeChambeau said. “You’ve got to hopefully have (Herbert) mess up and make a couple of bogeys and us get off to a hot start and narrow that gap.”

Herbert, however, has been mostly unflappable for the first three rounds. 

Garcia birdied five of the first six holes and Herbert saw DeChambeau and Jon Rahm each play their first three holes in 5 under, yet he didn’t buckle under the pressure.

The 30-year-old Australian was 3 under in his first six holes on Saturday before suffering his lone bogey of the day at the par-4 seventh. After that, he played the final 11 holes in a bogey-free 2 under.

“I didn’t feel like I did a lot wrong,” said Herbert, who is aiming for his first LIV Golf individual title. 

Hanging tough

“Proud of the way that Sergio was giving me a good run there, and I didn’t take a step back. It felt good, to be honest. Felt like I was getting primetime Sergio there coming up against me. Pretty fun having that battle.”

The 46-year-old Garcia, who has won a LIV Golf tournament in each of the past two seasons, made 10 birdies but suffered three bogeys that kept him from sharing the lead. 

He finished the round with back-to-back birdies but still has plenty of work left to chase down Herbert.

“You can’t just think, oh, it’s just Lucas and I,” Garcia said. “Obviously if we play well, it will be him and I, but we still have to go out there and play well. There’s still 18 holes to go and anything can happen.”

The team competition is just as compelling. 

Fuelled by Ballester’s 60, the Fireballs shot a cumulative 28 under, the second-lowest team score for a single round in LIV Golf history. 

The all-Spanish team moved to 35 under and into a tie with Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII for first place, with Herbert’s Ripper GC two shots back. (courtesy LIV Golf)

Leaderboards

Individual Top 10

1. (-21) – Lucas Herbert, Ripper GC (64-63-68)

2. (-18) – Sergio Garcia, Fireballs GC (66-67-65)

T3 (-13) – Josele Ballester, Fireballs GC (73-70-60); Scott Vincent, HyFlyers GC (72-69-62); Bryson DeChambeau, Crushers GC (69-70-64); Dean Burmester, Southern Guards GC (68-70-65)

7. (-12) – Jon Rahm, Legion XIII (69-70-65)

T8 (-11) – Thomas Detry, 4Aces GC (70-69-66); Graeme McDowell, OKGC (67-72-66)

T10 (-10) – Charles Howell III, Crushers GC (70-68-68); Victor Perez, Cleeks GC (68-72-66); Tyrrell Hatton, Legion XIII (66-74-66); Ian Poulter, Majesticks GC (71-70-65)

Team Top 3

T1 (-35) – Fireballs GC (Ballester 73-70-60, Garcia 66-67-65, Masaveu 77-74-67, Puig 70-72-69),  Legion XIII (Hatton 66-74-66, McKibbin 70-73-69, Rahm 69-70-65, Surratt 72-70-65)

3. (-33) – Ripper GC (Herbert 64-63-68, Leishman 66-73-68, Smith 72-69-69, Smylie 71-77-71)

Day 3 stats

Driving Distance: Caleb Surratt, 327.1-yard avg.

Longest Drive: Caleb Surratt, 349.6 yards (2nd hole). Official measured drives taken only on holes 2 & 12.

Driving Accuracy: Bjorn Hellgren, Yosuke Asaji, 85.71% (12 of 14)

Greens in Regulation: Josele Ballester, Bjorn Hellgren, Sam Horsfield, 94.44% (17 of 18)

Scrambling: 10 players at 100%, led by Harold Varner III (7 of 7)

Fewest Putts: Scott Vincent, 22

Bogey-free rounds: Josele Ballester (60), Bryson DeChambeau (64), Caleb Surratt (65), Branden Grace (66), Joaquin Niemann (67), Byeong Hun An (68), Younghan Song (70),

Also read: Herbert holds firm at LIV Golf Virginia as Rippers extend lead

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