The quarter-finals of the LIV Golf’s season-ending Team Championship saw the HyFlyers and Cleeks team pull off the upsets to set up semi-final matches against the top two seeds, 4Aces and Crushers, in Saturday’s semi-finals at Trump National Doral.
HyFlyers Captain Phil Mickelson was hammered 6&4 by Smash GC Captain Brooks Koepka, but teammate Cameron Tringale beat Jason Kokrak in the other singles match, while the pairing of Brendan Steele and James Piot beat Chase Koepka and Matthew Wolff in foursomes to give the ninth-seeded HyFlyers a 2-1 victory.
Graeme McDowell of Cleeks helped give the 10th-seeded Cleeks a 2-1 victory over the all-Aussie Ripper team. Cleeks Captain Martin Kaymer lost to Ripper Captain Cameron Smith after a late rally to send his match to an extra hole. But Richard Bland beat Marc Leishman in the other singles, while Graeme McDowell/Bernd Wiesberger claimed a thrilling match against Matt Jones/Jediah Morgan in foursomes that went three extra holes. McDowell rolled in the winning birdie putt from 20 feet to give the 10th-seeded Cleeks a 2-1 victory.
It’s the second consecutive year the Cleeks have pulled off an upset at Doral. Last year as the 10th seed, they beat 7th-seeded Torque. With a podium finish in Jeddah last week and now quarterfinals win on Friday, the Cleeks will have plenty of momentum entering Saturday.
“We’re a little bit dangerous looking going into tomorrow,” McDowell said. “We’ve kind of shifted into the next gear. We’ll try to stay in that gear.”
Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs team beat Majesticks GC 2-1. Garcia lost 1 down to Henrik Stenson, but Eugenio Chacarra crushed Sam Horsfield 6&5, while Abraham Ancer/Carlos Ortiz handed out a 4&2 beating to Ian Poulter/Lee Westwood after winning three of the last five holes.
The all-South African Stinger GC team won all three of its matches against Iron Heads GC, with Louis Oosthuizen beating Kevin Na 5&3, while Branden Grace overcame Scott Vincent 2&1 after winning four of the last five holes of the match. The clean sweep was assured when Dean Burmester/Charl Schwartzel won 2&1 against Sihwan Kim/Danny Lee. The Stingers pairing rallied from an early deficit and won four holes during a seven-hole stretch to gain control.
SEMI-FINAL LINE UP
4Aces v HyFlyers
Crushers v Cleeks
Torque v Stinger
RangeGoats v Fireballs
To watch the LIVE action on YouTube, which begins at 6.15pm UK time on Saturday, click here.