A surprising name leads the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship after round one.
LIV Golf’s Peter Uihlein, playing with his boss, the Saudi PIF Gov., leads at St. Andrews
American Peter Uihlein, while playing alongside his LIV Golf boss, leads the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
American Peter Uihlein, who now plays for LIV Golf, carded an 8-under 64 at St. Andrews on Thursday. He sits at the top of the leaderboard with Sebastian Söderberg of Sweden and Adri Arnaus of Spain.
He did so while playing alongside Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the man in charge of LIV Golf. Curiously, al-Rumayyan was rostered under the pseudonym Andrew Waterman before it became public who was actually playing.
Like the AT&T Pebble Peach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour, players in Scotland this week are joined by an amateur player, who is often a celebrity.
Hence al-Rumayyan playing with Uihlein, who lost to David Howell in a playoff at the 2013 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
“I was close here,” Uihlein said after the round. “At the time, I didn’t know, but looking back on it, that would have been really special to win around here. I’ve always enjoyed coming back, and yeah, hopefully, I string together three more good days and see what happens.”
Uilhein joined LIV Golf in June 2022, just one week before Matt Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Open at Brookline.
Since joining the Saudi-backed circuit, Uilhein has recorded five top-10 finishes, including a fifth-place finish at LIV Golf - Chicago, the league’s most recent tournament.
He competes for the 4 Aces team, captained by two-time major champion Dustin Johnson. Pat Perez and Patrick Reed are also members of the team.
The 4 Aces currently sit first in the LIV Golf team standings, which must impress al-Rumayyan.
But Uihlein’s play on Thursday must have galvanized the PIF Governor too.
Yet, no reporter asked Uilhelin about his playing partner, which is fascinating since Uihelin is the first active LIV golfer to play in a DP World Tour event.
Interestingly, Uihlein and al-Rumayyan played their first rounds with Martin Slumbers, the CEO of the R&A, who is paired up with Englishman Jordan Smith.
Then, for Friday’s second round, Uihlein has been paired with young South African Jayden Schape. Peter Dawson, the former CEO of the R&A and current chairman of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) board, is Schape’s amateur partner.
So Dawson and al-Rumayyan will likely have plenty to discuss when their group tees it up at Carnoustie. A report on Thursday indicated that the OWGR is “close” to determining whether or not LIV Golf events will award OWGR points.
It is no coincidence that the DP World Tour paired al-Rumayyan with two of the most influential figures in golf, especially since the PGA Tour and the PIF have until Dec. 31, 2023, to finalize an agreement.
Nevertheless, Uihlein and al-Rumayyan fared well on Thursday in the team competition, combining to shoot a 9-under 63.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
