LIV Golf Miami Day 1 Video Highlights & Recap
MIAMI – With three matches going the distance, including the singles duel between captains Cameron Smith of Punch GC and Phil Mickelson of Hy Flyers GC, the opening day of the historic LIV Golf Team Championship produced plenty of drama at Trump National Doral.
Smith, the reigning Open Champion and individual winner of the LIV Golf Invitational Chicago last month, beat the six-time major winner Mickelson 1 up with a birdie on their final match hole. The outcome gave 11th-seeded Punch its second win against the 8th-seeded Hy Flyers in their three quarterfinal matches, allowing the all-Australian team to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
In addition to Punch GC’s win, the other quarterfinal team winners on Friday were: 5th-seeded Smash GC, which beat 12th-seeded Niblicks GC 2-1; 6th-seeded Majesticks GC, which swept 9th-seeded Iron Heads GC 3-0; and 10th-seeded Cleeks GC, which beat 7th-seeded Torque GC 2-1, with both wins decided on the final match hole.
Along with the four winners on Friday, the four top seeds, which received byes and did not play Friday, will play in the semifinals. During the captains’ selection Friday night, Dustin Johnson’s top-seeded 4 Aces GC chose Cleeks GC as its opponent; Bryson DeChambeau of No. 2 seed Crushers GC opted to play 4th-seeded Stinger GC; Sergio Garcia of No. 3 seed Fireballs GC picked Punch GC; and that left Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC facing off against Ian Poulter’s Majesticks.
The same format in the quarterfinals will be used for Saturday’s semifinals. The teams will compete in three matches – two singles and one foursomes (alternate-shot) – with all players on each team competing. Each match is worth one point, and the teams that win two points advance to Sunday’s championship finals, which will be a stroke-play format with all scores counting.
Here is a recap of each match played Friday:
SMASH GC 2, NIBLICKS GC 1
Harold Varner/Niblicks def. Brooks Koepka/Smash, 4 & 3. Varner, the designated playing captain for non-playing captain Bubba Watson, won the second and third holes with birdies and never gave an opening to Koepka, the individual winner in Jeddah. Varner produced seven birdies in his first 10 holes to control the match. “I played well. I think I would have beat a lot of people,” Varner said. “… It just sucks we didn’t make it as a team.”
Peter Uihlein/Smash def. James Piot/Niblicks, 5 & 3. Uihlein, the runner-up in Jeddah, won the opening hole with a birdie, then took command midway through the match with four winning birdies in a six-hole stretch. Uilhein was a bogey-free 7 under in his 15 holes played.
Jason Kokrak-Chase Koepka/Smash def. Turk Pettit-Hudson Swafford/Niblicks, 2 & 1. The Smash duo won the first three holes but the Niblicks fought back and were just 1 down after 10 holes. Then Smash rebuilt its lead until another Niblicks rally. Up 1 with two holes to play, Smash closed it out with a birdie.
CLEEKS GC 2, TORQUE GC 1
Joaquin Niemann/Torque def. Shergo Al Kurdi/Cleeks, 5 & 3. The Torque captain won all four par-5 holes to knock off the 19-year-old replacement player for injured Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer. Niemann took the lead for good with a birdie on the sixth match hole (the par-5 10th) and never trailed.
Laurie Canter/Cleeks def. Jediah Morgan/Torque, 1 up. Canter birdied the final hole, the par-4 10th, to complete his rally. The Englishman was 2 down with six holes to play before winning two consecutive holes to tie the match. Morgan responded with a winning birdie to reclaim the lead before finding trouble on the next hole, giving Canter the opening he needed.
Richard Bland-Graeme McDowell/Cleeks def. Scott Vincent-Adrian Otaegui/Torque, 2 up. With the match tied entering the last three holes, the Cleeks duo birdied the par-3 fourth before winning the final hole with a par. The Torque pair was behind most of the match before rallying late with three winning holes, but McDowell provided the decisive shots. “He was just clutch all day,” Bland said of McDowell. “I love this dude next to me.”
PUNCH GC 2, HY FLYERS GC 1
Cameron Smith/Punch def. Phil Mickelson/Hy Flyers, 1 up. The top-billed match of the day lived up to the hype, with the Punch captain prevailing with a birdie on the final hole, the par-5 eighth, after Mickelson caught the rough on his tee shot. The two team captains combined for just six birdies, and the lead was never more than 1 up on either side. “We both struck the ball good,” Smith said. “I probably didn’t hole as many putts as I’d like, but I was able to get the job done there on the last hole.” Said Mickelson: “It’s disappointing on that last hole. I thought I hit a good drive, thought it hit the fairway. Surprised it was in the rough.”
Marc Leishman/Punch def. Matthew Wolff/Hy Flyers, 4 and 2. With the match tied through 12 holes, Leishman won the next four holes to close out the big-hitting Wolff. Leishman was 2 down after seven holes before fighting back, and made two late birdies while Wolff found trouble.
Bernd Wiesberger-Cameron Tringale/Hy Flyers def. Matt Jones-Wade Ormsby/Punch, 3 and 2. The match was tied through 10 holes before the Hy Flyers duo won three consecutive holes (two with pars) to take control.
MAJESTICKS GC 3, IRON HEADS GC 0
Ian Poulter/Majesticks def. Kevin Na/Iron Heads, 4 & 2. Na won the third hole before Poulter roared back. The Majesticks captain won the match’s fifth hole (at the par-5 1st) with a birdie and never trailed after that, as he played 16 holes in a bogey-free 4 under. “He drew first blood,” Poulter said, “and it was head down, get focused.”
Lee Westwood/Majesticks def. Sihwan Kim/Iron Heads, 4 & 3. Kim opened with a winning birdie, but Westwood won the match’s third hole with a par to square it. Westwood’s birdie at the par-4 second then gave him a lead he would not relinquish.
Sam Horsfield-Henrik Stenson/Majesticks def. Sadom Kaewkanjana-Phachara Khongwatmai/Iron Heads, 4 & 2. The Majesticks pair never trailed, taking the lead for good with a par on the fourth hole of the match. That was the start of four consecutive winning holes.
PREVIEW OF SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS
4 ACES GC vs. CLEEKS GC. 4 Aces captain Dustin Johnson will face Shergo Al Kurdi, the replacement for injured Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer. The 19-year-old Kurdi was paired with Johnson in the first round in Boston after filling in for Henrik Stenson, but the match play format obviously creates different challenges.
“It’s an unbelievable matchup,” Kurdi said. “I’ve always watched him on TV in the past, and I’ve always looked up to him. Watching him firsthand in Boston, it was also unbelievable, and obviously he won that week, so it was a brilliant week to be playing with him.”
Said Johnson: “All the teams are great. Any team can win at any point. It’s match play. I felt like this is our best option.”
In the other singles match, 4 Aces’ Patrick Reed will face Laurie Canter. In the foursomes match, Pat Perez and Talor Gooch will take on Friday winners Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland of Cleeks.
Kaymer has high hopes, especially for his foursomes duo. “Richard is a very solid ball-striker. He hits many fairways,” Kaymer said. “G-Mac is very good in the short game, so I think they matched up really well. I don’t want to play against those two.”
CRUSHERS GC vs. STINGER GC. Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau could have picked one of the lower-seeded teams that played Friday, but instead he opted for the Stingers, who also had the bye. That sets up a singles match against Stinger captain Louis Oosthuizen.
“Considering some of the injuries that they’ve had, and my 4-iron going past his driver in Jeddah, we feel like there’s a good chance there,” DeChambeau said.
Replied Oosthuizen: “I know I’m hitting into the greens first with my match against Bryson. I’m not sure how he copes under pressure. We’ll see that tomorrow.”
In the other singles match, Portland winner Branden Grace – who has an oblique muscle injury that forced him to WD in Bangkok – will play the Crushers’ Paul Casey. In the foursomes match, London winner Charl Schwartzel and teammate Hennie du Plessis, who rejoined Stinger for this event, face off against Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.
FIREBALLS GC vs. PUNCH GC. Fireballs captain Sergio Garcia didn’t hesitate to go up against the reigning Open champ in Cameron Smith in singles. “We’re going to take the ones with the best hair,” Garcia said with a laugh. “Obviously we made a list, and that was one of our choices, and some of the other ones were gone already. We feel like we can match up nicely to them.”
Replied Smith: “Looking forward to playing my boy Sergio. Wasn’t really expecting that.”
In the other singles match, Fireballs’ Carlos Ortiz will face Marc Leishman. In the foursomes match, Abraham Ancer and Bangkok winner Eugenio Chacarra will face Punch’s Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby.
SMASH GC vs. MAJESTICKS GC. Smash captain Brooks Koepka didn’t have much of a chance against the hot hand of Harold Varner III, and now the Jeddah individual winner will face Majesticks captain Ian Poulter, who thrives in this kind of setting.
“Poults is pretty good at match play, so that’ll be interesting,” Koepka said.
Poulter expects Koepka to bounce back. “I need to go out and play strong tomorrow,” he said. “Brooks is coming off a win a couple of weeks ago, so they’ve got a strong team. But so do we. … I think we dominated our match today, but tomorrow is going to be a tougher test, and we need to step up.”
In the other singles match, Smash’s Peter Uihlein will face Lee Westwood. In the foursomes match, the Smash duo of Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka will play Henrik Stenson and Sam Horsfield.
WRITTEN BY LIV GOLF STAFF
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