"I enjoyed myself out there today and probably not too many guys did," Leishman said after shooting 71 on a course which yielded a stroke average of 75.11.

"It's a tough golf course though not a miserable golf course. I mean, I enjoy playing in the wind. I grew up in Warrnambool. 

"I enjoy getting rewarded for good shots. If you're not hitting good shots out there, you're going to get hammered."

On a stacked leaderboard, Leishman joins DeChambeau and Garcia as the only player to shoot under par in each of the first two rounds. 

Following a double-bogey on the last on Friday and opening his second round with a bogey, momentum wasn't on Leishman's side. 

But that was alleviated when an 84-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole.

"To see that drop in was pretty nice, actually," Leishman said. "That sort of got the round moving.

"Then I birdied the next as well."  

DeChambeau’s 2-under 70 in Saturday’s second round at Trump National Doral leaves him at 5-under and leading by two shots over Sergio Garcia. Another stroke back are Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Leishman.

Jon Rahm and defending champion Dean Burmester are tied for sixth.

On the team leaderboard, the all-Australian Ripper GC leads with a collective 9-over, thanks in large part to Lucas Herbert’s second-round 3-under 69, the only individual score shot in the 60s on Saturday.

"Good day for the boys," Leishman added. "Hopefully we can get a sniff at the teams championship tomorrow.

"And I have a run at the individual."

Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith lets rip at Trump National Doral during LIV Golf Miami. PHOTO: Getty Images.

4Aces GC is second at 11-over, while the Fireballs and Crushers are at 12-over.

The last-place Cleeks GC are at 46 over.

No team has ever won a LIV Golf tournament with an over-par score.

“It’s just a difficult golf course,” said Garcia, whose Fireballs are seeking their fourth consecutive tournament title. “It’s the Blue Monster. That’s just not a name; it comes with something. You have to respect it.”

DeChambeau started his day with a 400-yard drive, and he closed with two birdies late in his round. In between, he showed incredible patience on a Blue Monster course that gets increasingly difficult each day.

As a result, the Crushers GC captain will enter Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf Miami with the lead and a potentially huge momentum boost entering next week’s Masters.

“What a test of golf out there,” said DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion who is seeking his third LIV Golf individual title. “This golf course, every single angle just produced the most testing golf shots out there that I’ve seen in a long time.”

Saturday’s field stroke average of 75.11 was more than three strokes above par, making it the second most-difficult round in LIV Golf, exceeded only by the Rd. 1 in 2024 Andalucia (+3.519 over par). Add Friday’s first round at Doral – the third most difficult day in LIV Golf – and the first two rounds this week have been the hardest 36 holes the league has ever seen.

Players also have to be patient. Certainly, DeChambeau was on Saturday through a stretch of 10 consecutive holes midway through his second round that included nine pars and a bogey.

It was a matter of survival until he reached the drivable par-4 16th, in which he smoked his drive across the water and behind the green, then hit a chip shot from a difficult lie that set up the first of two consecutive birdies that gave him the outright lead.

“There were a few holes where I could’ve lost it and it gone the other way,” DeChambeau said. “You’ve just got to stay patient and make a putt when you have to, and if you don’t, try to steer that ship back on track as quickly as possible.”

Garcia, a winner earlier this season in Hong Kong, played steady golf with three birdies and two bogeys. He made several clutch putts, including an 8-footer to save par at the 14th hole during a stretch of 10 consecutive bogey-free holes.

“I hit a lot of great shots on very challenging conditions, even tougher than yesterday,” he said.

Mickelson, LIV Golf’s most decorated player with six majors and 57 career wins, shot a 1-over 73 despite starting his round with three consecutive bogeys. He would’ve shot even par had he not three-putted his final hole, the par-5 first.

“I started off very poorly; I was 3-over through three and lucky to be that,” said the 54-year-old Hall of Famer. “I was able to hang in there, fight back and had a chance to shoot even par, which was amazing.”

Reed, the first-round leader after an opening 67, followed with a 3-over 75 that included five bogeys on his front nine. But he still has a chance at his first LIV Golf victory as one of just seven players under par through the first two days.

For now, they’re all chasing DeChambeau, with forecasts of even stronger wind gusts on Sunday.

“I’m up for anything,” DeChambeau said. “Whatever it brings me, I’m up for the challenge. It will be a great test tomorrow.”

Individual Leaderboard

TEAM SCORES

1. RIPPER GC +9 (Herbert 69, Leishman 71, Smith 74, Jones 76; Rd. 2 score: +2)

2. 4ACES GC +11 (Pieters 73, Johnson 75, Reed 75, Varner III 76; Rd. 2 score: +11)

T3. FIREBALLS GC +12 (Garcia 71, Puig 71, Masaveu 76, Ancer 77; Rd. 2 score: +7)

T3. CRUSHERS GC +12 (DeChambeau 70, Howell III 74, Casey 79, Lahiri 79; Rd. 2 score: +14)

5. IRON HEADS GC +13 (Lee 71, Na 72 Song 72, Jang 75; Rd. 2 score: +2)