It was disappointing to learn England’s Chris Wood missed the first round cut in the 2026 LIV Golf Promotions event at the Black Diamond Ranch course in Florida.
Wood is the current MENA Tour money-list leader having won the revamped Tour’s Q-School and then headed out to finish runner-up in the very first event before superbly capturing the second ahead of the Festive Season break.
However the former DP World Tour and Ryder Cup player’s effort to earn full LIV Golf status ended on day one in posting a level par 70, falling short in being amoung the leading 20 who qualified for round two.
2026 LIV Promotions – Round 2 draw. Image LIV Golf
Sixty players teed-up on the course located to the north-west of Orlando and with Canadian golfer, Richard T Lee leading the way by two shots thanks to a six-under-par 64.
He holds a two-shot lead over five players jockeying for a LIV wild card: Max Kennedy of Ireland, Pablo Ereno of Spain, South Korea’s Hongtaek Kim and Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai and Sadom Kaewkanjana.
Dublin-based Kennedy, signed for a 66 in his third attempt to earn LIV Tour status.
Also, Chase Koepka signed for a 67 while German Max Keifer recorded a 69.
Koepka played on his brother Brook’s team, Smash GC, in 2022 and 2023 before being relegated.
The round two field is reduced to just 47 and headed by a host of Asian Tour stars including the likes Zimbabwe’s Keiran Vincent, other Americans in John Catlin, Anthony Kim, Andy Ogletree and Ollie Schniederjans along with Austria’s Matthias Schwab and popular Thai golfer Jazz Janewattananond.
Also looking to be among the top-20 finishes and that move onto round three and four over the weekend is a handful of Aussie golfers including Travis Smith, Matt Smith, Will Florimo and Christopher Wood.
Wood, and very much like his England-born namesake, is the current Australasian Tour money-list leader, and is exempt into today’s second round.
In fact, there is 18 in round two who were deemed exempt with Matt Smith having been dropped from the all-Aussie Ripper team.
