Saturday at the LIV Golf League Team Championships means semi-finals day on Maridoe GC in Dallas. The drama began in Texas before a ball had been struck in anger, with the news that, due to severe flu symptoms, Jon Rahm had withdrawn from the weekend for the fancied Legion XIII. With the team captain and talisman sidelined for the weekend, John Catlin was drafted in to deputise for the ’24 LIV Golf League Individual Champion. Not insubstantial shoes to fill for Catlin with a $14 million winners prize on the line. Catlin would face Cameron Tringale in Rahm’s stead in the first of the singles pairings in match two.
Hobbled by the loss of their captain. Legion XIII were quick to make their point in match number two. The first match to get over the line, it saw them vanquish the Hyflyers 2-1. The match was over early with emphatic victories for Tyrrell Hatton, 5&4 over Ogletree while Surrat and Vincent defeated captain Mickelson and Steel 4&3 in their foursomes match. Stand-in for Rahm, Catlin brought up the rear, and despite battling hard all the way to a 20th hole, he came up just short losing to Tringale on the second extra hole. Legion XIII progress to contest top spot on Sunday.
Hatton was on the media rounds and was asked if he had been in touch with the absent Rahm. “We exchanged a few messages probably 10 minutes ago. He sounds like he’s doing a little bit better, which is good to hear. It was good for the team to win today,” he commented. “I think whenever you’re choosing a team to play, you almost give that team a little bit of an added incentive to go out there and win. But yeah, it was nice for us to do our jobs and gave ourselves a chance going into tomorrow.”
The top match of the day produced another sensational upset from the Iron Heads. One of the lower seeded teams heading into the week, they have been chopping down the big trees in Dallas. First Koepka’s Smash GC and now a clean sweep against one of the red-hot favourites and top seeds, DeChambeau’s Crushers GC. Captain Kevin Na and playing partner Kozuma beat Lahiri and Howell III in their foursomes match, while Vincent and Lee both won their singles, Lee defeating DeChambeau 2-UP. The unlikely dark horse of the week will fancy their chances on the final day’s stroke play.
Na was on hand to express his pride in his team after two big upsets. “Feels pretty damn good. I’m really proud of my boys, said the elated skipper. “They fought hard. They needed — when they needed to, they were there, and get the job done. It’s a great feeling. I think a confidence boost the last two days going into Sunday. I’m telling my boys, anything can happen.”
Match number three was the tightest of the day with a playoff hole in the final match on course required to separate Ripper GC and Fireballs GC. Team skipper, Garcia and Ancer were first home after taking down Ripper captain Cam Smith and Jones in the bottom match to give Garcia’s men the lead. Lucas Herbert pulled the match level with a 1-Up win over David Puig before Chacarra and Leishman headed to a 19th hole. The Australian took the honours on the first extra hole, putting Ripper into Sunday with a shot at top spot.
The final match on Saturday saw Stinger GC and the 4 Aces go toe-to-toe, and this too was a tight affair. Oosthuizen and Schwartzel reprising their foursomes partnership from Friday, and to good effect. A 3&2 victory for the Rainbow Nation pair saw Stinger take an early lead. This was short lived however as Patrick Reed would take a point 1-UP against Brandon Grace and 4 Aces captain Dustin Johnson earned redemption after defeat on Friday to clinch the crucial point to send his team into Sunday in contention.
The four winning teams will face off in Sunday’s stroke play action to determine the top four league spots. All four player’s cards per team will count, with the lowest cumulative four walking away from Dallas with a cheque for a cool $14M. The losing semi finalists will contest places five to eight while those that lost on Friday will compete for the final five league positions. Sunday’s action gets underway for the last shotgun start of the season with all 52 on course for one last hurrah in ’24. The final day gets underway at the slightly earlier time of 17.05 Irish time.
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