The final event of the 2023 LIV Golf season gets under way in Miami today with the quarter-final rounds of the Team Championship teeing off at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
Team opponents were announced at a captains’ selection show press conference on Wednesday to kick off this week’s three-day tournament taking place at the iconic Blue Monster course.
For each head-to-head team matchup, three matches will take place: two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match. All 32 players amongst the eight participating teams will compete simultaneously in a shotgun start and matches will be played until a winner is determined. Each match winner receives one point, and the first team to earn two points will advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
MAJOR SHOWDOWNS ON THE CARDS
The first round of LIV Golf’s season-ending event will see Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC take on Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC. The day’s featured singles matches also includes Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia versus 2016 Open champion and Majesticks GC co-captain Henrik Stenson, while Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith will face Martin Kaymer, captain of Cleeks GC. Friday’s fourth singles match will feature Louis Oosthuizen, captain of Stinger GC, taking on Kevin Na, captain of Iron Heads GC.
As the highest-ranked team playing on Friday, Oosthuizen’s fifth-seeded Stinger GC was given the first selection for its opponent. Branden Grace, who finished ninth overall in the LIV Golf individual standings, will face Scott Vincent, who finished fourth in LIV Golf Jeddah presented by ROSHN to secure his spot in the league for 2024. In the groups’ alternate-shot matchup, the Stingers’ Dean Burmester and Charl Schwartzel will face Sihwan Kim and Danny Lee, who secured an individual win earlier this season in Tucson.
Seventh-seed Ripper GC will pair up Matt Jones and Jed Morgan versus former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger. Marc Leishman was selected for Ripper’s second singles match, in which he’ll play England’s Richard Bland, who finished 20th in this season’s rankings to secure his spot with LIV Golf for 2024.
The Smash-HyFlyers showdown is the only matchup involving teams consisting entirely of American players. Big-hitting Matthew Wolff will team up with Chase Koepka in the foursomes match, where James Piot will play alternate shot alongside Brendan Steele. For the second singles match, Jason Kokrak will face Cameron Tringale.
The LIV Golf League awarded points to teams based on their finish at each tournament, with values ranging from 32 points (first place) to 0 (9th-12th). Following the 13th and final regular season event, team standings determined seeds 1-12 for the Team Championship. Top-seeded 4Aces GC (192 points – Captain Dustin Johnson), second seed Crushers GC (186 points – Captain Bryson DeChambeau), third seed Torque GC (183 points – Captain Joaquin Niemann) and fourth seed RangeGoats GC (179 points – Captain Bubba Watson) earned a bye and automatically advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
SEMI-FINAL SATURDAY
Following Friday’s results, team captains for the top four seeds and captains for the four quarterfinal match winners will convene, with the higher-seeded teams selecting their opponents for Saturday’s semifinal round. On Sunday, all 48 players amongst the 12 teams will compete in one round of stroke play, with all four players’ scores counting towards their team’s score. The four teams advancing to the finals will compete for places 1-4, with the teams eliminated in the semifinals competing for places 5-8. Teams eliminated in the quarterfinals will compete for places 9 through 12, with larger prizes awarded to teams based on their finishing position.
HOW TO WATCH THE LIV GOLF TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
To watch the LIVE action on YouTube, which begins at 6.15pm UK time, click here.