Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC pulled off the biggest upset during Friday’s Quarterfinals at the LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship. They now get the opportunity to knock off the league’s top-ranked team in a Semifinals showdown between friendly captains.
The 10th-seeded HyFlyers were the only team to sweep all three of their matches on Friday, beating Sergio Garcia’s third-seeded Fireballs GC. Their reward is a Saturday matchup against Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII, a team that won four tournaments this season but barely survived against the upset-minded Cleeks Golf Club.
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” Mickelson said. “We look forward to the opportunity to take on the No. 1 team.”
Rahm, the two-time LIV Golf Individual Champion, is hoping to bounce back from a singles loss to Adrian Meronk that forced his teammates to win their other two matches. As captain of the top-seeded team, Rahm was able to choose any of the other Friday winners as an opponent. He opted to select the HyFlyers and then announced that he would face off against Mickelson – his good friend and fellow Arizona State alum – in one of the two singles matches.
“As of late, our most head-to-head matches have been on YouTube, so slightly different stakes,” Rahm said. “Really looking forward to it. He’s a great friend and a great competitor. No matter what, it’s going to be a fun day for both of us.”
It wasn’t a fun day for the defending Team Champions, as the all-Australian Ripper GC were knocked out of title consideration with a 2-1 loss to Stinger GC, a team they had beat last year in Adelaide in LIV Golf’s first-ever team playoff. The all-South African team now gets another chance at Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC, who eliminated the Stingers in the Team Championship in 2023.
“They beat us badly in Miami,” said Stinger Captain Louis Oosthuizen. “So, it’s a little bit of a revenge tomorrow.”
Six team-vs-team matchups took place Friday – two singles matches and one foursomes match, with the winning teams keeping their Team Championship hopes alive. The losing teams dropped to the bottom half of the bracket and can only hope to finish as high as seventh place.
Besides Legion XIII, Torque GC, HyFlyers GC and Stinger GC, the other two teams advancing to the Championship bracket are Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GCand Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC.
DeChambeau won his singles match against Majesticks GC Co-Captain Lee Westwood while his foursomes pairing of Paul Casey and Charles Howell IIIknocked off the other Majesticks co-captains, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson, in decisive outcomes.
DeChambeau had the second pick behind Rahm for Saturday’s opponent and opted to face Smash. But in an interesting twist, DeChambeau announced he would face Talor Gooch instead of Koepka in singles. Gooch, a winner earlier this year in Andalucía, has been Smash’s best player this season.
“I’ve got my reasons,” DeChambeau explained. “it’s not personal, though. I can tell you that.”
Koepka instead will play Anirban Lahiri in the other singles match. The Smash captain lost to 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson in a tight match Friday that went 18 holes, with Johnson winning 1 up via a birdie on the final hole. Smash advanced, though, with Gooch winning his match against Patrick Reed, while Graeme McDowell and Jason Kokrak posted the most decisive victory of the day, 6 & 5 over Harold Varner III and Thomas Pieters.
“We’re not going to mess with a winning formula,” Koepka said.
Rahm was the only other captain who lost his match but saw his team advance. Making his first Team Championship appearance – he missed last year due to illness – Rahm was 2-down with three to play. He made a birdie but followed with a bogey on the match’s 17th hole to lose 2 & 1.
He then had to sweat out the other singles match with his teammate Tyrrell Hattongoing toe-to-toe with Richard Bland. The two Englishmen matched scores on the final five holes of regulation, but Bland three-putted on the extra hole after Hatton made his own clutch par putt after a tricky chip against the collar came up short.
“Tyrrell doing Tyrrell things,” Rahm said. “He seems to be unflappable hitting those short putts.”
As for Rahm, he’ll get a chance to redeem himself for Friday’s loss. He’s grateful to get another chance thanks to the wins from Hatton and the young foursomes duo of Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt.
“My daughter, who can’t even stand, would be better with a putter than me,” Rahm said. “Hopefully I can fix that. … Always full faith in my team. I’m just hoping their captain shows up tomorrow with a better level of golf.”
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