Smylie keeps LIV Riyadh leading trio in sight

Smylie was almost blemish free, like in his first round, carding just one bogey to be joint-fourth.

Gooch, meantime, shot his second straight round of five-under 67, while fellow American Uihlein and Belgian Detry fired 69s to top the leaderboard.

"My intention is to play as good as I can," Gooch, Gooch who rolled in four of his six birdies on the front nine, said.

"But I think if you were to tell me you would give me 67 every round and I don't have to play, I would take it and just watch how the cards fall."

Gooch is the new captain of Smash GC after the departure of Brooks Koepka to return ‌the PGA Tour. Smash ​combined to score 20 under par to move to 30 under and a ‍three-shot lead over Joaquin Niemann's Torque GC in the team's event.

Jason Kokrak turned in the round of the day, an eight-under 64, to bolster Smash's total. That also put Kokrak at nine under for the tournament and tied with Spain's Jon Rahm (68), Colombian Sebastian Munoz (68) and Smylie (69).

Uihlein, who picked up three of his birdies during a five-hole stretch at Nos. 13-17, has his sights set on the individual ​leaderboard as the top 10 finishers will collect Official World Golf Ranking points for the first time.

"Individual is the only ‍thing I've got going for me," said Uihlein, whose RangeGoats are in 11th place.

"... Now that we get world ranking points, you can jump up in the OWGR and try and get in ​the majors. ​That's definitely the goal.

"Yeah, it would be awesome, ​right? There's some unbelievable players out here, and to say you've ​won and beat them definitely would be pretty special."

Detry is in a prime position to win his LIV Golf debut, a year to the week when he won on the PGA Tour for the first time at the Phoenix Open.

Marc Leishman (68) sits at six under in a tie for 14th, while his Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith (71) is four under and the fourth of the Australians Lucas Herbert (67) two under.

With AAP.