LIV has announced the initial matchups between seeds 4 – 13 in Dallas on Friday, September 20th.
Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers, Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII, and Cam Smith’s Ripper squads have earned a well-deserved bye and will return to action Saturday, September 21st to face those teams who survive Friday’s knockout round.
For more information on how points work during the three rounds, LIV has provided the following guide for viewers.
Here’s how the Team Championship works in the LIV App.
- Players can pick their choice of team in Round 1. Each correct pick nets the player one point.
- The five winners from Round 1 will join the three teams who received byes. Players select the top four teams from Round 2. Each correct pick is worth two points.
- Round 3 is a ranking system. Players choose where all thirteen teams will finish in the standings, including the overall champion which will hold the first ranking. Each final ranking is worth three points. The first five teams eliminated on Friday must be selected in ranges 9 – 13 of the rankings.
First Round: Friday, September 20
(4) Smash GC vs. (13) Iron Heads GC. Singles: Brooks Koepka (captain) vs. Kevin Na (captain); Talor Gooch vs. Danny Lee. Foursomes: Jason Kokrak/Graeme McDowell vs. Jinichiro Kozuma/Scott Vincent.
This is by far the most lopsided matchup. I have Brooks Koepka’s Smash as my third-ranked team in our power rankings over Ripper who have earned a bye.
This figures to be a sweep as no matchups favor the Iron Heads. Kevin Na may be able to best Brooks Koepka if the latter isn’t completely focused, but it’s still a very long shot.
Prediction – Smash Win
(5) Torque GC vs. (12) HyFlyers GC. Singles: Joaquin Niemann (captain) vs. Andy Ogletree; Sebastián Muñoz vs. Cameron Tringale. Foursomes: Mito Pereira/Carlos Ortiz vs. Phil Mickelson (captain)/Brendan Steele.
These are clever matchups by Joaquin Niemann. Niemann should win handily over Ogletree and Ortiz has the potential to carry Pereira in the foursome.
The closest matchup here, and likely one of the better ones for Friday is Sebastian Munoz versus Cameron Tringale.
Tringale has beaten everyone he has ever faced in the team championships. This one could be closer than people think, but Torque has the edge.
Prediction – Torque Win
(6) Fireballs GC vs. (11) Majesticks GC. Singles: Eugenio Chacarra vs. Henrik Stenson (co-captain); David Puig vs. Ian Poulter (co-captain).
Foursomes: Sergio Garcia (captain)/Abraham Ancer vs. Lee Westwood (co-captain)/Sam Horsfield
I’m extremely bullish on Sergio Garcia and his current form. However it is quite surprising Fireballs are using their best two players in the foursome matchups.
Splitting Garcia and Ancer would have been the smart move. Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter could quite easily upset Chacarra and Puig, so if there is an upset here, it will be because of who Sergio’s choice to play with Ancer as both players could easily win singles tournaments.
Prediction – Fireballs Win
(7) Stinger GC vs. (8) Cleeks GC. Singles: Branden Grace vs. Adrian Meronk; Dean Burmester vs. Kalle Samooja. Foursomes: Louis Oosthuizen (captain)/Charl Schwartzel vs. Martin Kaymer (captain)/Richard Bland
This is a nightmare matchup for Cleeks. Branden Grace is the sacrificial lamb here for Stinger as he is being paired up against Cleeks’ best player, Adrian Meronk.
Stingers GC is in essence giving a point away with that matchup so they can take the other single event and foursome matchup.
Martin Kaymer has been in awful form the past three tournaments and hasn’t finished better than T34.
As good as Richard Bland is, he’s not going to carry Kaymer to a win over Oosthuizen and Schwartzel.
Prediction – Stinger Win
(9) RangeGoats GC vs. (10) 4Aces GC. Singles: Peter Uihlein vs. Dustin Johnson (captain); Thomas Pieters vs. Patrick Reed. Foursomes: Bubba Watson (captain)/Matthew Wolff vs. Harold Varner III/Pat Perez
These are very good matchups for the RangeGoats. Like Cameron Tringale, Peter Uihlein is as reliable as they come for team championship head-to-head matchups. Dustin Johnson surprisingly has not finished in the top ten this season outside of his early win in Las Vegas.
Patrick Reed’s current form leaves a lot to be desired, while Thomas Pieters has been getting better the past three tournaments in a row.
The most intriguing matchup is the foursome. Matthew Wolff has been getting progressively worse since a T6 finish in the UK and Bubba Watson’s best showing was a T15 finish way back during Las Vegas.
Meanwhile Pat Perez is only in The Open Zone due to other players not taking advantage of moving up during Chicago.
Let’s just say this: Do not expect this foursome matchup to receive a lot air time on the main broadcast.
Second Round: Saturday, September 21
Players then pick the four teams they believe will finish with the best scores, and then placed in slots 1 – 4 after Round 2. These four team with the best scores then are placed in contention to win it all on Sunday.
The four teams that score fewer points from Round 2 also play on Sunday but are only eligible to finish in spots 5 – 8.
Saturday ‘Winners’ Saturday ‘Losers’
Smash Fireballs
Legion XIII Torque
Ripper Stinger
Crushers RangeGoats
Standing by my power rankings, I’m not expecting any Saturday upsets. The Saturday losers each have serious team flaws that will need to be addressed during the offseason while the Saturday winners are more complete teams or have more high-end talent.
Sergio Garcia and Joaquin Niemann make things very interesting for Fireballs and Torque. If there is to be an upset, expect it from one of those two teams, but don’t bank on it.
Third Round: Sunday, September 22
Final Rankings by Total Points Earned
4th Place – Ripper
Ripper has had some amazing tournaments over the last couple of months but the four teams ranked ahead of them have all won more recently.
3rd Place – Smash
Jason Kokrak’s poor showing at Chicago is of concern, but he did manage to capture 3rd place during the prior tournament in Greenbrier, which Smash won.
Graeme McDowell came back from suspension and had a great showing. The duo of Brooks Koepka and Talor Gooch can edge Ripper depending on what version of Cam Smith and Marc Leishman decide to show up in Dallas.
2nd Place – Legion XIII
There is no better 1-2 punch in LIV than Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton. The elite duo has covered up for a lot of deficiencies that are glaring in the other half of their team.
Four times this season Legion XIII has shown that they can win with essentially two superstars and not much else, that’s why they’re ranked so high at number two.
This being the team championship, however, I don’t have faith in them to put together great scores from all four golfers, even three is a stretch for most tournaments.
If Legion XIII doesn’t win in their inaugural season, they’re still only one roster move away from being the league’s best team by a wide margin.
Champions – Crushers
The Crushers will repeat to become back-to-back champions. Having won Chicago their form is in great shape.
Charles Howell III has had a rough go since his return from injury but all he needs to be is average for Crushers to win. Nobody is worried about Anirban Lahiri or Paul Casey performing, those two are as reliable as they come.
While no Crushers have won an individual trophy this season, this squad embodies what it means to be a team.
Nobody in LIV pulls it together on a championship Sunday quite like the Crushers.
Final Rankings
13. Iron Heads
12. HyFlyers
11. Majesticks
10. 4Aces
9. Cleeks
8. RangeGoats
7. Stinger
6. Torque
5. Fireballs
4. Ripper
3. Smash
2. Legion XIII
1. Crushers
