Format tweak adds spice to LIV Golf team championship finale in Dallas

Defending champions Crushers GC, Legion XIII and Ripper GC will sit out the quarter-finals of the LIV Golf Team Championship at Maridoe Golf Club on Friday with the remaining 10 teams facing off in the first of two elimination rounds going into Sunday’s final day of action in Dallas.

Adding a twist this year is a change in format. For the first two seasons, team captains mandatorily faced off in one of two singles matches with the remaining two members of each squad playing the foursomes. From this year, that restriction has been removed, and welcomed.

“I’ve always enjoyed having someone to put my arm around or his arm around me when we’re on the course,” said Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia at the pre-event press conference on Thursday. “That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been successful in both foursomes and fourballs.”

The Spanish star, who beat India’s Anirban Lahiri in a playoff at Valderrama to win his first individual LIV Golf title has an outstanding 13-5-3 Ryder Cup foursomes record. 

Higher ranked teams had the choice of quarter-final opponents which were announced on Thursday and the five winning teams will go through to Saturday’s semi-finals to also be contested in a match-play format. The top four will then enter Sunday’s final with the format reverting to stroke-play and all four team scores counting towards the final totals.

On Friday there will be 15 quarter-final matches in all as each team pairing will play two singles and a foursomes match. In the draw, fourth seeds Smash headed by Brooks  Koepka had first choice and picked the lowest-ranked Iron Heads. 

Torque’s Niemann selected the 12th ranked HyFlyers. Fireballs’ Garcia opted for the 11th ranked Majesticks though Louis Oosthuizen of Stinger GC chose the eighth ranked Cleeks instead of the ninth seeded RangeGoats. That left the RangeGoats and 2022 team champions 4Aces, ranked 10th as the two remaining teams.

Friday match-ups
Fourth seeds Smash GC vs. 13th seeds Iron Heads GC: Singles: Brooks Koepka (captain) vs. Kevin Na (captain); Talor Gooch vs. Danny Lee. Foursomes: Jason Kokrak/Graeme McDowell vs. Jinichiro Kozuma/Scott Vincent.
Fifth seeds Torque GC vs. 12th seeds HyFlyers GC: Singles: Joaquin Niemann (captain) vs. Andy Ogletree; Sebastián Muñoz vs. Cameron Tringale. Foursomes: Mito Pereira/Carlos Ortiz vs. Phil Mickelson (captain)/Brendan Steele.
Sixth seeds Fireballs GC vs. 11th seeds Majesticks GC: Singles: Eugenio Chacarra vs. Henrik Stenson (co-captain); David Puig vs. Ian Poulter (co-captain). Foursomes: Sergio Garcia (captain)/Abraham Ancer vs. Lee Westwood (co-captain)/Sam Horsfield.
Seventh seeds Stinger GC vs. eighth seeds Cleeks GC: Singles: Branden Grace vs. Adrian Meronk; Dean Burmester vs. Kalle Samooja. Foursomes: Louis Oosthuizen (captain)/Charl Schwartzel vs. Martin Kaymer (captain)/Richard Bland.
Ninth seeds RangeGoats GC vs. 10th seeds 4Aces GC: Singles: Peter Uihlein vs. Dustin Johnson (captain); Thomas Pieters vs. Patrick Reed. Foursomes: Bubba Watson (captain)/Matthew Wolff vs. Harold Varner III/Pat Perez
Following the format change, five team leaders including Garcia, Oosthuizen of the Stingers, Cleeks captain Kaymer, Bubba Watson of the RangeGoats and HyFlyers skipper Mickelson have opted to play the foursomes.

As per the format for the first two days, a team must win at least two of three matches to advance. For Sunday, the system of higher-ranked teams picking their opponents for the final will continue.

Behind the top four in Sunday’s final round, the four losing teams from Saturday will play for places five to eight and the remaining teams will contest for places nine to 13. Sunday’s final round will be on stroke-play basis, with all scores counting for each team.