LIV Golf Hong Kong: Garcia and Uihlein join Casey at top, Legion XIII threaten Torque

Old heads prevailed once again at Hong Kong Golf Club on Saturday, but LIV’s young guns made their presence felt too and not for the first time this season Legion XIII are hovering near the top of the leaderboard because of that.

Jon Rahm’s team won the season opener in Riyadh, they were second a week later in Adelaide, and they go into Sunday’s final round tied for second with HyFlyers on 23 under, just two shots back from Torque.

And in Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt, they have two barely twenty-somethings more than holding their own against the likes of Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia, who turned pro before their young opponents were born and are leading the individual standings on 11 under alongside Peter Uihlein.

McKibbin, 22, fired a four-under-par 66, Rahm was two strokes better and Tyrrell Hatton carded a 67, but Surratt had a day when everything went right and his eight-under 62 was a whopping 13 shots better than the five over he managed in the first round.

Starting on 15, the 20-year-old had a run of four consecutive birdies from 18, the last of which at the par-five third rather summed up his round. Surratt found trouble off the tee, hit his approach through the green, chipped back to a tight pin position and knocked in the putt from close range.

“That was just a testament to fighting hard and trying to fight for every shot, and I was fortunate to save some here and there,” Surratt said. “And, you know, I gave myself looks all day and that’s how you score. So I was proud of that.”