LIV Golf Championship Preview
It All Comes Down To This
As the 2023 LIV Golf League season is coming to an end, we bring you the LIV Golf Championship Preview. The Championship is taking place at Trump National Doral. It is different from the other big-money events on the circuit’s schedule due to its unique format. Throughout the year, teams earn points for their finishes at each regular-season event. At the $50 million finale, teams are seeded based on their points earned over the season and then compete in both strokes and match play over three days. The top four teams have a bye for the first round, which is the quarterfinals.
LIV Golf on Twitter: “It’s Miami week 🌴The stakes are high for the Team Championship 🏆Purchase tickets below 👇 / Twitter”
It’s Miami week 🌴The stakes are high for the Team Championship 🏆Purchase tickets below 👇
The captains play the captains in a singles match, leaving three players to be split between another singles match and a foursomes (alternate shot) match. There are no ties. The first team to win two points advances to Saturday. The higher-seeded teams can pick their opponents in the quarters and semis, which adds an interesting wrinkle to the tournament. This was evident during Tuesday’s press conference which featured the captains of teams Nos. 5-12.
The first pick was…
Louis Oosthuizen, captain of Stinger GC, was the first to pick and selected Kevin Na’s Iron Heads, the team that has been in last place all season long. The moderator of the captain selections, Su-Ann Heng, tried to get Oosthuizen to bring the heat with his reason for picking the Iron Heads but he said he “didn’t really want to play any of the other teams.” Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia picked the three-way captained Majesticks (Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, and Lee Westwood), which led to a quip from Stenson that they just wanted to have a Saturday off.
Cam Smith and Ripper GC selecting Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks GC was a rather dull exchange, leaving Brooks Koepka and Smash GC to square off against Phil Mickelson and his HyFlyers GC. Koepka said he “didn’t really get much option in this” and joked about being stuck with Phil. Mickelson was complimentary of Koepka’s year as the PGA champion and a two-time winner with LIV but added that there were “a lot of other guys I would rather be playing against.”
Here are the first-round matches for Friday’s quarterfinal round.
Fireballs GC vs. Majesticks GC
- Singles: Sergio Garcia vs. Henrik Stenson
- Singles: Eugenio Chacarra vs. Sam Horsfield
- Foursomes: Abraham Ancer/Carlos Ortiz vs. Ian Poulter/Lee Westwood
Smash GC vs. HyFlyers GC
- Singles: Brooks Koepka vs. Phil Mickelson
- Singles: Jason Kokrak vs. Cameron Tringale
- Foursomes: Chase Koepka/Matthew Wolff vs. James Piot/Brendan Steele
Stinger GC vs. Iron Heads GC
- Singles: Louis Oosthuizen vs. Kevin Na
- Singles: Branden Grace vs. Scott Vincent
- Foursomes: Dean Burmester/Charl Schwartzel vs. Sihwan Kim/Danny Lee
Ripper GC vs. Cleeks GC
- Singles: Cam Smith vs. Martin Kaymer
- Singles: Marc Leishman vs. Richard Bland
- Foursomes: Matt Jones/Jediah Morgan vs. Graeme McDowell/Bernd Wiesberger
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