NBA players have flocked to the golf course during their down time for ages. Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Steph Curry … the list of legends who enjoy the occasional round goes on, and Lebron James could be the next to join them. J.R. Smith, James’ former teammate and current member of the North Carolina A&T men’s golf team, discussed the possibility of the four-time MVP taking his talents to the golf course on Golf Channel’s Golf Today

“I would love to get him on the course,” Smith said. “For him, I think it would be amazing. Being in nature, being outdoors and being away from everybody, you get to throw your phone in the bag, have a drink, smoke a cigar, just enjoy the time. I think that would be such an amazing part of his life and give him time to himself, that peace of mind.”

Unlike some of the biggest stars in the world of sports, little video evidence of James’ swing existed —  until early October when footage of the 37-year-old at TopGolf surfaced on the internet. The swing needs … work, to put it lightly, and while longer clubs may help, Smith already has a potential coach in mind for James: 15-time major champion Tiger Woods.

“I don’t know if he [LeBron] has the fluidity, I’m just gonna say, to perfect that swing – or not perfect it, but to be one of those guys who can move it around early. I think it’s going take him a while, he’s going to have to get some lessons. I’m open to teaching him, but obviously I’m not the best either. He has access. I mean he and Tiger [Woods] are Nike [ambassadors], so they can figure that out.”

Woods has played golf with NBA superstars in the past, including Dwayne Wade, one of Lebron’s closest friends, and Jordan. With Woods confirming at the 2022 Hero World Challenge that his playing schedule will look much more relaxed moving forward due to his lengthy list of injuries, perhaps it will open a 6-foot-9 door to teaching. 

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A rollercoaster second round of the 2022 LIV Golf Jeddah saw Peter Uihlein’s name climb to the top of the leaderboard. Ultimately signing for a 7-under 63, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy backed up his round of 5-under 67 on Friday and now sits alone at the top at 12 under.

Beginning his day on the second hole, Uihlein shot out of the gates with four consecutive birdies and applied pressure on overnight leader (and team captain) Brooks Koepka. Another birdie on the 10th saw the LIV Chicago runner-up reach 10 under for the tournament before finding the water on the difficult par-4 13th leading to a double bogey — his only mistake of the day.

Needing to recover quickly, Uihlein did just that with a birdie on the par-4 14th and an eagle-birdie finish to his second round. At 12 under, he finds himself only one stroke clear of Koepka and three ahead of former Masters champions Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia.

Not only will Uihlein need to deal with the stress of capturing the individual title, but he and his closest pursuer must keep an eye on the team portion of the event. Currently at 30 under, Smash GC commands a six-stroke lead over the Fireballs, which won last week at LIV Bangkok. With a triumph, Smash GC would ascend to fifth in the team standings, which would grant it first selection of which team to face on Day 1 of the Team Championship at Trump National Doral.

The leader

1. Peter Uihlein (-12)

Uihlein’s play both on and off LIV Golf has been sneaky good the past few months and has continued at LIV Golf Jeddah. Kicking off his LIV Golf campaign with a podium finish at LIV Golf London, the 33-year-old has since added a T7 result on the Asian Tour, a runner-up effort at LIV Golf Chicago and a top-10 finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour.

He sits eighth in the season-long points race and with a win could conceivably climb into the top three to earn a massive payday. Nothing will be given to Uihlein in the final round as he goes up against Koepka, a four-time major champion with whom he has a history. Rooming together in Europe while both traversed through the Challenge Tour, the two grew close and will surely make for a comfortable final grouping.

Other contenders

2. Brooks Koepka (-11)

T3. Charl Schwartzel, Sergio Garcia (-10)

T5. Abraham Ancer, Paul Casey (-9)

T7. James Piot, Dustin Johnson, Sihwan Kim, Anirban Lahiri (-8)

Following up an 8-under 62 is always a difficult task, but Koepka acquitted himself nicely in the second round. Signing for a 3-under 67, his biggest mistake came on the par-4 13th. Finding the desert off the tee, he compounded one poor swing with another and found the water with his approach to put a double-bogey on his scorecard. Able to bounce back from this mishap, Koepka added birdies on the par-3 16th and par-5 18th to come in at 11 under for the tournament. 

Koepka has never been a glass half full type of guy and his comments following his round confirms he still has stuff to work on. He was disappointed with his driving on Friday and Saturday, and it was his putter which fell flat. Still, he is only one stroke off the Uihlein’s pace, and if he is able to piece together the entirety of his game, a score similar to that of Round 1 may be in store for Sunday.

Team leaderboard

With Kevin Na’s WD, Iron Heads GC must use each team member’s score (3) in the final round.

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