The matchups for Friday’s quarter-final round of the 2023 LIV Golf Team Championship, taking place at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami from 20-22 October, have been announced.
Team opponents were announced at a captains’ selection show press conference to kick off this week’s three-day tournament taking place at the iconic Blue Monster course, site of LIV Golf’s 14th and final event of the year.
For each head-to-head team matchup, three matches will take place: two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match. All 32 players among 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 semi-finals.
The first round of LIV Golf’s momentous season-ending event will showcase some of the biggest names in golf squaring off.
Six-time Major winner Phil Mickelson, captain of HyFlyers GC, will take on five-time Major champion and 2023 PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka, captain of Smash GC.
The day’s featured singles matches also includes Fireballs GC captain and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia versus 2016 Open champion and Majesticks GC co-captain Henrik Stenson, while Ripper GC captain and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith will face two-time Major winner and former world No 1 Martin Kaymer, captain of Cleeks GC.
Friday’s fourth singles match will feature 2010 Open champion 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 individual standings, will face Scott Vincent, who finished fourth in LIV Golf Jeddah 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.
The sixth-seeded Fireballs GC, coming off a team victory in Jeddah, elected to take on the 11th seed Majesticks GC, the most experienced squad in the field with more than 2,000 starts among them.
A pair of young, rising stars will face off in Eugenio Chacarra and Sam Horsfield, while veteran Ryder Cup legends Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood will take on the Mexican duo Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz in the foursomes match.
Seventh-seed Ripper GC will pair up Matt Jones and Jed Morgan versus former US 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 zero (ninth to 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 semi-finals.
Following Friday’s results, team captains for the top four seeds and captains for the four quarter-final match winners will convene, with the higher-seeded teams selecting their opponents for Saturday’s semi-final round.
On Sunday, all 48 players among 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 semi-finals competing for places 5-8.
Teams eliminated in the quarter-finals will compete for places 9 through 12, with larger prizes awarded to teams based on their finishing position.
Photo: Ian Maule/Getty Images
