LIV Golf Miami Team Championship: Format, seeding, and purse explained!
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LIV Golf’s $50m season-ending Team Championship will continue to shake up the world of golf as the rebel series combines knockout match play and stroke play for its dramatic finale.
Taking place at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami this week (October 28-30), the field will once again be made up of 48 players in 12 teams as the Saudi Arabian-backed series’ inaugural season draws to a close.
But instead of the 54-hole strokeplay event we have witnessed in the previous seven LIV Golf Invitational events, the Team Championship will see the iconic Blue Monster course stage a seeded three-day knockout competition, with foursomes and singles matchplay across the first two days before reverting to strokeplay for the final round.
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There will be an enormous $50m up for grabs, with the winning team splitting $16m four ways, the runners-up splitting $10m and the team in third each taking their share of $8m. Fourth place will receive $4m ($1m per player), with fifth to eighth each taking $3m ($750k per player), and the teams finishing ninth to 12th each taking home $1m ($250k each).
Each of the 12 team captains, including individual standings leader Dustin Johnson, will play in a featured singles match and will also choose who represents their teams in the other singles match and the alternate shot match.
That means we could see the likes of DJ facing off again Cam Smith, Lee Westwood taking on Phil Mickelson, and Brooks Koepka tackling old foe Bryson DeChambeau.
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The opening two days of match play will be used to whittle things down with just four teams in action come Sunday when the format will revert to strokeplay with a shotgun start. The scores of all four players from each team will count towards the final total, with the lowest aggregate team crowned LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Champion.
The top-four seeded teams will sit out the opening day’s quarter-finals action having been given a bye due to their performances throughout the season. That means 4Aces GC (Dustin Johnson, Talor Gooch, Patrick Reed, Pat Perez), Crushers GC (Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri), Fireballs GC (Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra) and Stingers GC (Louis Oosthuzen, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Shaun Norris) will join the event for Saturday’s semi-finals.
Points have been awarded to teams based on their finish at each of the seven regular season tournaments, with values ranging from 32 points (first place) to 0 (9th-12th). This has determined their seeds for the Team Championship.
Here’s how things stand heading to Miami, including the teams’ finishes in each event.
1. 4 Aces GC
Dustin Johnson (captain), Talor Gooch, Patrick Reed, Pat Perez
London 5th, Portland 1st, Bedminister 1st, Boston 1st, Chicago 1st, Bangkok 6th, Jeddah 4th – 152 points
2. Crushers GC
Bryson DeChambeau (captain), Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri
2nd, 9th, 6th, 2nd, 6th, 2nd, 3rd – 96 points
3. Fireballs GC
Sergio Garcia (captain), Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra
11th, 3rd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 1st, 2nd – 93 points
4. Stinger GC
Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Shaun Norris
1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th, 5th, 11th, 9th – 72 points
5. Smash GC
Brooks Koepka (captain), Chase Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Peter Uihlein
9th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 2nd, 8th, 1st – 62 points
6. Majesticks GC
Lee Westwood (Captain), Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Sam Horsfield
3rd, 8th, 2nd, 3rd, 10th, 7th, 7th – 61 points
7. Torque GC
Joaquin Niemann (captain), Scott Vincent, Hideto Tanihara, Jediah Morgan
4th, 4th, 12th, 5th, 7th, 12th, 6th – 38 points
8. Hy Flyers GC
Phil Mickelson (captain), Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Tringale
10th, 11th, 4th, 8th, 3rd, 10th, 5th – 37 points
9. Iron Heads GC
Kevin Na (captain), Sadom Kaewkanjana, Phacara Khongwatmai, Sihwan Kim
12th, 5th, 10th, 4th, 11th, 4th, 12th – 32 points
10. Cleeks GC
Martin Kaymer (captain), Graeme McDowell, Laurie Canter, Richard Bland
8th, 10th, 9th, 11th, 9th, 3rd, 8th – 21 points
11. Punch GC
Cameron Smith (captain), Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Wade Ormsby
7th, 12th, 11th, 7th, 4th, 9th, 10th – 16 points
12. Niblicks GC
Bubba Watson (Non-playing captain), Harold Varner III, Hudson Swafford, James Piot, Turk Pettit
8th, 7th, 7th, 12th, 12th, 5th, 11th – 13 points
“This has been a transformative year for golf and we’re just getting warmed up,” said LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman.
“The Invitational Series finale, played at the fan-favourite Blue Monster at Doral, is befitting our game-changing model that delivers an innovative, one-of-a-kind experience for players and fans. I’m looking forward to watching the teams compete in what will be a historic and monumental event.”
Trump National Doral Golf Club is a fitting venue for the finale having played host to three of Norman’s 20 PGA Tour wins. The Aussie also shattered the course record in 1990, shooting a 10-under-par 62 in the final round of the Doral-Ryder Open, coming from seven shots adrift and securing a play-off with Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia and Tim Simpson. Norman then chipped in for eagle to lift the trophy.
Blue Monster was remodelled by Gil Hanse in 2014 and will expect to welcome Dustin Johnson’s 4 Aces GC as the top seeds for the LIV final.
Liv Golf Team Championship Final Schedule
October 28:Liv Golf Team Championship Quarter-Final
– Teams seeded 1-4 will receive a bye
– Seeds 5-12 will compete in head-to-head match play competitions
– All 32 players amongst those eight teams will compete simultaneously in a shotgun start in foursomes
– For each head-to-head team competition, a set of three matches will take place: two singles matches and one alternate shot match
– Each team captain will play in a featured singles match and determine the remaining line-up of their team
– Matches will be played until a winner is determined; there will be no ties. Each match winner receives one point
– Teams earning two points will advance to Saturday’s semi-final
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October 29: Liv Golf Team Championship Semi-Final
– Teams seeded 1-4 will face off against the winning four teams from the quarter-final
– All 32 players amongst those eight teams will compete simultaneously in a shotgun start in foursomes
– Teams compete in the same format as the quarter-finals with two singles matches – including a featured singles match between team captains – and one alternate shot match, with each match winner receiving one point
– Matches will be played until a winner is determined; there will be no ties
– The four teams earning two points will advance to the Team Championship Final
October 30: LIV Golf Team Championship Final
– The four remaining teams will compete in a shotgun start round of stroke play
– All 16 players will compete in twosomes, with every player’s score counting towards their team’s score
– At the end of Sunday’s round, the squad with the lowest team score is the LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Champion
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4 Aces GC should head into the LIV Golf finale as No.1 seeds.
