Graeme McDowell rolled back the years and put in a foursomes performance reminiscent of Ryder Cups of old as he and Bernd Wiesberger came from behind to snatch a dramatic win over Matt Jones and Jeddiah Morgan and in doing so, send Cameron Smith’s Ripper GC home at the LIV Golf Miami Team Championships at Doral.
Richard Bland stormed to a 4&3 win over Marc Leishman, and though Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer would claw back a three-down to deficit to Smith to stand all-square on the final tee, the 2022 Open Champion came up clutch to make it a point apiece, leaving the McDowell and Wiesberger versus Jones and Morgan match the decisive affair.
One-down playing the last, McDowell hit an approach close and Wiesberger rolled in an eight-footer to extend the match, and after halving the 12th in bridie and the 13th in par, it would be the Portrush man who’d drain a 20-footer on the third playoff hole to send Cleeks GC into the semi-finals where they’ll now face Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC.
Captains DeChambeau and Kaymer will square off in the opening match, with Paul Casey taking on Bland in the second singles, and McDowell and Wiesberger will again team up in foursomes action, this time taking on Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.
“We’re a little bit dangerous looking going into tomorrow,” McDowell said. “We’ve kind of shifted into the next gear. We’ll try to stay in that gear.”
Meanwhile, HyFlyers Captain Phil Mickelson lost his high-profile singles match to Smash GC Captain Brooks Koepka, 6 & 4, in a battle of LIV Golf’s most decorated major winners. But teammate Cameron Tringale beat Jason Kokrak in the other singles match, while the duo of Brendan Steele/James Piot beat Chase Koepka/Matthew Wolff in Foursomes to give the ninth-seeded HyFlyers a 2-1 victory.
“So excited about these guys. So proud of what they did, the way they played,” Mickelson said. “It’s inspiring. Look forward to the opportunity these guys gave me.”
Fifth-seeded Stinger GC won all three of its matches against Iron Heads GC, while 6th-seed Fireballs GC beat Majesticks GC, 2-1.
Captains of the top four seeds then selected their semifinal opponents after Friday’s round. The shotgun start for Saturday is set for 6:15 p.m. Irish time with these matchups:
- No. 1 4Aces GC vs. No. 9 HyFlyers GC
- No. 2 Crushers GC vs. No. 10 Cleeks GC
- No. 3 Torque GC vs. No. 5 Stinger GC
- No. 4 RangeGoats GC vs. No. 6 Fireballs GC
The defending Team Champion 4Aces GC will pose a tough challenge for the HyFlyers, but Mickelson – who will face Dustin Johnson in singles – looks forward to the opportunity.
“The Aces are the strongest team on LIV. They won it last year,” Mickelson said. “They’ve led throughout the year this year. But I’m really proud of my team for today and the effort that our guys made down the stretch to win and to finish the matches off.”
Johnson said selecting the lowest-seeded team available was the obvious choice. “I was sitting over here with the team, and they wanted to play the HyFlyers, so I said OK,” the captain said.
The Crushers lost in the semifinals last year with the same lineup, but captain Bryson DeChambeau said his team is stronger this year.
“I feel like we’re a force to be reckoned with, and we’ve just got to keep playing our game in the way we know we can and see what happens,” DeChambeau said.
Torque GC, the youngest team in the LIV Golf League, won more tournament titles (four) than any other team this season, but they’ll face a tough South African squad that posted the only shutout on Friday.
“They’ve got youth, so he’ll learn. So, we’ll see,” Stinger Captain Louis Oosthuizen said of his match against Torque Captain Joaquin Niemann. “It’s going to be fun tomorrow.”
RangeGoats Captain Bubba Watson will face Fireballs Captain Sergio Garcia, but the intriguing matchup will be 2023 Individual Champion Talor Gooch against young Eugenio Chacarra, who had the best performance Friday with a 6 & 5 win over the Majesticks’ Sam Horsfield.
“We’re going to go out there, we’re going to give it our best,” said Garcia, who lost a tight match against Majesticks co-captain Henrik Stenson. “My boys played amazing today, so I hope that they do more of the same tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll play a little bit better, and we’ll see if we can get that W.”
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