Laurie Canter, a chap who apparently left his A-game somewhere between the Lincoln Tunnel and the cornfields of Indiana, has suddenly located it with the flair of a stage magician pulling a rabbit from a hat. His 8-under-par 62 on Thursday wasn't just a good round; it was, by his own admission, the best he’s ever played in LIV Golf. This unexpected brilliance has him sitting pretty with a one-shot lead, leaving guys like the ever-present Cameron Smith to do some serious soul-searching and, more pressingly, some serious putting.
But Canter's individual heroics are just the cherry on top of a surprisingly solid sundae. His team, the Majesticks, are also making a rather improbable dash for glory. They’re currently leading the team standings, a collective 17-under par giving them a two-stroke cushion over their nearest rivals. This is a novel position for a squad that’s become rather intimately familiar with the wrong end of the leaderboard. Their previous top-three finishes are rarer than a sober moment at a Ryder Cup after-party; they haven't sniffed the podium in 53 stroke-play events.
Lee Westwood, co-captain and dispenser of philosophical golf musings (though he’d scoff if you said it), finds himself in a similar “well, this is unexpected” boat. After a T3 finish in New York, he’s now a couple of shots back from Canter. He’s candid about the team's sudden upward trajectory, admitting, "It’s a strange situation because we’ve not played great as a team for most of the year... But to have a great chance to do something this week is obviously something we didn’t expect to happen." I suspect ‘didn't expect’ is a polite way of saying ‘hadn’t dared to dream about’.
Canter himself confesses to a period of staring into the abyss of his own ‘personal pride’ upon rejoining the Majesticks. It seems his attempts to “drive some good performances” initially proved a bit much for his own mental fortitude, a classic human failing playing out on the manicured greens. Thankfully, those struggles have evaporated, much like a poorly struck wedge shot into the water, leaving him in a far more commanding spot.
Even Smith, one of Canter’s closest shadowers, has unearthed something special, particularly off the tee. His perfect fairway accuracy on Thursday, a feat he hadn't achieved in three years, hints at a resurgence that could certainly throw a spanner in the Majesticks' burgeoning fairytale. He did mention the fairways were "pretty forgiving," a sentiment I'm sure many of us can relate to after watching our own drives take a scenic detour into the rough.
The team’s sudden surge, after a season of often lackluster results, is particularly noteworthy given the tournament's format. The shift to a four-round shootout where every score counts, a carryover from the regular season, seems to be a perfect playground for a team that’s finally hitting its stride. Where previous match-play formats offered the swift, brutal finality of a duel, this extended format allows a team finding its rhythm to truly shine, a tactical advantage nobody saw coming for the Majesticks.