LIV Golf UK Preview: Iron Heads seek individual improvement at JCB

News
Written by
Joy Chakravarty, LIV Golf correspondent
Jul 25 2024
- 4 min
Iron Heads UM preview STORY image

ROCESTER, England – With just three events remaining in the regular season of LIV Golf, jumping into the top three – which will give them a bye on the opening day of the Team Championship in Dallas – is a mathematical impossibility for Iron Heads GC, but the team realizes that now is a good time to start trending in the right direction.

With all four players outside the Lock Zone of Top 24, and only Captain Kevin Na guaranteed of making a return to the 2025 season if it continues to remain like this, it’s time for each member of the team make some meaningful moves, starting with this week’s LIV Golf UK by JCB.

While the Top-24 immediately secures a card for the new season, finishing within No.25 and No.48 gives them the opportunity to be retained, traded, or released by the teams. But anything outside the Top-48 would result in relegation out of the League.

Zimbabwean Scott Vincent is currently ranked 51st, and Jinichiro Kozuma is on the bubble at 46th. But Danny Lee made a big leap in Valderrama with his courageous 6th place finish, which elevated him to 33rd place in the Individual Standings.

Lee was struggling with his game in Singapore, Houston and Nashville, where he finished 49th, 50th and 54th respectively. However, he scripted a remarkable turnaround and played superbly at the tough Valderrama course, where he was denied a first podium finish since his win in Tucson last year by bogeys in his last two holes.

The Las Vegas-based New Zealander, who revealed he was playing with an almost new set of clubs in Valderrama, said: “I was very happy with the way I played on a golf course that was extremely demanding. The finish could have been better, but the 17th and 18th are very challenging holes.

“My first objective is to play well in these remaining three events and make a push for the Top-24 before shifting my focus to the Team Championship.”

Vincent, who secured a top-24 finish last year with a stunning performance in the last regular event of the season in Jeddah – where he needed to finish inside the top-four and he did exactly that in Jeddah – will need to do something similar this year again. And Kozuma does not have the luxury of finishing outside the points.

Captain Na said: “Once you don’t finish as the Top-3, it does not matter. It only means that unlike those teams, we will have to play one round extra in the Team Championship. If we play those three days well, a lot can change.

“Therefore, as we get closer to Dallas (September 20-22), it is imperative that all our players peak in time for that.”

In Friday’s first round, Na, Lee and Kozuma are paired together and will tee off from Hole No.14 at 1415 IST. Vincent will start from the 7th tee.