Dean Burmester carded a five-under-par 66 on Saturday to climb into a share of second place after the second round of the opening LIV Golf event of the year at Mayakoba at the Greg Norman-designed El Camaleon Golf Course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
He’s four strokes behind the leader, Joaquin Niemann of Chile, and he shares second with former world number one Jon Rahm of Spain who is the latest and highest-profile player to have jumped ship to LIV Golf.
Burmester’s five-under 66 tied for low round of the day. Like Niemann, he’s celebrated a team win last year as a member of the Stinger GC but not an individual win. He’ll be in the final group off the first tee with Niemann and Rahm.
“Look, he’s the guy to catch,” Burmester said of Niemann. “There’s no better place to be than right behind him and watch what he’s doing because that can dictate what you need to do sometimes.”
“Obviously in 18 holes there’s a lot that can happen,” said Niemann said after his four-birdie, four-bogey round. “I’m just looking forward for that day. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m going to play with Jon, which is going to be my first Sunday against him, and I was looking for that for a while.”
“I’m just happy that on my first start I have a chance to win. It’s that simple,” Rahm said. “After having as much time off as I did, I’m always confident in myself, but I wasn’t sure I was going to come out, and to start this way, I’m very, very pleased.”
Burmester’s Stinger GC captain Louis Oosthuizen posted a two-under-par 69 to move into a share of 11th in the 54-man field.
Charl Schwartzel slipped to a share of 42nd on four-over with a five-over 76, and Branden Grace continued a poor run with a seven-over 78 to be in a share of 51st on nine-over.
