HyFlyers GC, Fireballs GC, Cleeks GC and Stinger GC won their quarterfinal matches Friday to advance to the LIV Golf Team Championship semifinals in Miami.
The top four teams in the season standings — 4Aces GC, Crushers GC, Torque GC and RangeGoats GC — were granted byes into the semifinals. After Friday’s action, those teams used a draft format to choose their semifinal opponents.
On Saturday, 4Aces will face HyFlyers, Crushers will play Cleeks, Torque will meet Stinger and RangeGoats will battle Fireballs in match play.
Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC is out of the tournament early despite Koepka defeating HyFlyers captain Phil Mickelson 6 and 4 to start their match.
HyFlyers’ Cameron Tringale beat Jason Kokrak 2 and 1, and the team of James Piot and Brendan Steele beat Chase Koepka and Matthew Wolff 1 up for a 2-1 HyFlyers victory.
Majesticks GC captain Henrik Stenson had a similar fate after Stenson beat match-play maven Sergio Garcia of Fireballs 1 up.
Eugenio Chacarra got Fireballs on the board with a 6-and-5 rout of Sam Horsfield, and the team of Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz beat Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood 4 and 2 to give Fireballs a 2-1 win.
Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith also saw his season end despite beating Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer in 19 holes. Richard Bland of Cleeks beat Marc Leishman 4 and 3 for a 1-1 match, and the team of Graeme McDowell and Bernd Wiesberger beat Matt Jones and Jediah Morgan on the 21st hole to finally ensure the Cleeks a victory.
Stinger was the only team to win its match 3-0, beating Iron Heads GC. Louis Oosthuizen won the captains’ singles match 5 and 3 over Kevin Na. Branden Grace took down Scott Vincent 2 and 1, and the duo of Dean Burmester and Charl Schwartzel topped Sihwan Kim and Danny Lee 2 and 1.
4Aces are the defending champion and No. 1 seed, featuring captain Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Pat Perez and Peter Uihlein. They chose to play a HyFlyers team seeded ninth in the championship that never got on the podium at an event all season.
“Well, I was sitting over here with the team and they wanted to play the HyFlyers, so I said OK,” Johnson said.
Crushers features Bryson DeChambeau as captain, Torque is a Spanish-speaking group led by young captain Joaquin Niemann and RangeGoats has not only captain Bubba Watson but also LIV’s individual champion, Talor Gooch.
–Field Level Media