Holding its first event since the week before The Masters, LIV Golf got back into the swing of things on Friday in Mexico City, and the high altitudes at Club de Golf Chapultepec led to a wildly entertaining opening round that resulted in the type of leaderboard fans of the Saudi-backed series have been waiting for.
With all due respect to those such as Adrian Meronk and Marc Leishman, both of whom have wins this season and both of whom are extremely talented, these aren't the guys who got hundreds of millions of dollars to defect from the PGA Tour to help the renegade series make some sort of splash in the golf world.
Those dollars were reserved for the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Cameron Smith. There are many others who got paid, of course, but the reason for mentioning this specific trio is that they currently own the top three slots on the leaderboard following the first round.
Bryson Dechambeau has put himself in position to win his first LIV Golf event since 2023
If anyone is going to put on a show in a thin-air environment, it's Bryson DeChambeau, and that's exactly what he did to open his week in Mexico City.
After coming up short at Augusta, DeChambeau, who hasn't won a LIV Golf event since taking a pair of titles in 2023, got off to a sizzling start, firing an 8-under round of 63 while averaging an absurd 367 yards on his 14 drives.
The highlight of the day came on his final hole, as he drove the green at the 396-yard, par-4 first and two-putted for birdie to close out his lowest-ever first round for LIV.
.@brysondech drives it 391-yards onto the green and goes crazy‼️#LIVGolfMexicoCity @Crushers_GC pic.twitter.com/XSZerMgFsf
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) April 25, 2025
But the world's 12th-ranked player will have plenty of work to do to notch his third victory on the circuit, as Rahm and Smith each shot 64 and sit just one back heading into the weekend.
Rahm opened with three straight birdies and was 5-under through his first seven holes before a pair of bogeys cooled him off. Smith also started hot, carding six birdies in his first eight holes en route to his 7-under round.
But it's not just three vying for the title, as a resurgent Bubba Watson, coming off an impressive T14 at The Masters, sits in solo fourth at 5-under, while Tyrrell Hatton, the second-highest-ranked LIV player in the Official World Golf Ranking at No. 18 in the world, is in solo fifth at 4-under.
DeChambeau's Crushers GC and Smith's Ripper GC are tied atop the team leaderboard at 15-under and are six shots clear of the field.