LIVE COVERAGE: Watch Cam Smith make his LIV Golf debut here

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LIV Golf’s superstar signing Cam Smith will skipper an All-Australian line-up alongside fellow recruit Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby when the LIV Golf Invitational Boston tees off on Friday at The International.

The Saudi-backed tour unveiled the 12 teams from its 48-player field on Thursday, with several new faces set to make their debut after defecting from the PGA Tour. As expected, Smith will walk straight into team ‘Punch GC’ and take over captaincy duties.

Smith won six times on the PGA Tour, including its flagship event, the Players Championship, in March. But the 29-year-old said professional golf needed a shake-up from its 72-hole individual strokeplay roots.

“I think it’s been the same for a very, very long time, and it needs to be stirred up a little bit,” Smith said. “I think this [54-hole team events] are the future of golf. I think it needs to change. Particularly as golf fans become younger, I think we need to do something to make it exciting for them.”

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The LIV Golf Invitational Series features teams of four where players compete as individuals and teams for both points and lucrative prizemoney.

All members of the four-player teams will compete in the three-day tournament. The player with the lowest 54-hole strokeplay total will be the individual winner.

In the team competition, the best two strokeplay scores in the first two rounds will count for each team. For the third and final round, the best three scores will count. The lowest overall team score after 54 holes will be the team winner.

Teams will compete for a $US5 million purse, with $3 million to first place, $1.5 million to second and $500,000 to third. Each player will receive a 25-percent share of the earnings.

Let’s take a peek at the new-look lineups teeing it up this week (teams listed in order of finish in Bedminster):
4 ACES GC: Captain Dustin Johnson has assembled the team to beat. The all-American roster with Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez has won consecutive team titles, by seven strokes in Portland and eight strokes in Bedminster, with a cumulative counting score of 48-under in those two victories. Johnson and Reed each finished in the top 5 individually in both events.

MAJESTICKS GC: The move to add Swedish star Henrik Stenson paid immediate dividends for captain Lee Westwood. Stenson won the individual title in his LIV Golf debut in Bedminster, and Majesticks GC posted its best result as a team, finishing second. Stenson, Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sam Horsfield each finished under par in Bedminster, the only team to achieve that feat in any of the first three events.

FIREBALLS GC: Captain Sergio Garcia’s team has finished in the top three in each of the past two events, but the Spanish-speaking foursome go into Boston with higher ambitions than another third-place result. Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz is a cumulative 19-under in his first two LIV Golf starts, and Garcia comes off his best performance. Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Spanish rookie Eugenio Chacarra complete a talented group.

HY FLYERS GC: Captain Phil Mickelson adds LIV Golf newcomer Cameron Tringale to the squad. Matthew Wolff and Bernd Wiesberger compete again for the Hy Flyers, with Wolff showing at Bedminster he’s capable of putting the team on his back. His runner-up finish to Stenson fuelled Hy Flyers GC to fourth place, its best team result. Adding the steady Tringale, a top-60 world player, will raise hopes of a podium result.

STINGER GC: After a win in London and a second-place finish in Portland, captain Louis Oosthuizen’s squad finished outside the podium for the first time in Bedminster. Now comes the South African team’s first lineup change, with Shaun Norris replacing Hennie du Plessis. Norris turned pro in 2002; so did Oosthuizen and London winner Charl Schwartzel. Add Portland winner Branden Grace – who turned pro in 2007 – and Stinger GC has a combined 75 years of professional experience in its lineup.

CRUSHERS GC: New LIV Golf member Anirban Lahiri fills the void left by Shaun Norris’ departure, and the two-time Olympian from India will provide another steady hand for captain Bryson DeChambeau’s team. Crushers GC added Paul Casey and Charles Howell III prior to Bedminster and finished sixth. If DeChambeau channels previous successes – one of his 10 professional wins came in Massachusetts in 2018 – expect Crushers GC to make some noise.

NIBLICKS GC: Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson debuts as LIV Golf’s first non-playing captain, overseeing the squad while he rehabs from knee surgery. Watson will have a close friend in his lineup with Harold Varner III making his LIV Golf debut in Boston. Varner joins holdovers Hudson Swafford, James Piot and Turk Pettit in the all-American lineup. Pettit comes off a top-10 finish in Bedminster.

SMASH GC: Another all-American lineup, this one with local ties. Massachusetts native Peter Uihlein joins captain Brooks Koepka’s team, replacing Englishman Richard Bland who moves to a new squad. Chase Koepka and Jason Kokrak are the holdovers for Smash GC. The Koepka brothers showed improvement in Bedminster, with Brooks shooting a final-round 66 to give him some momentum heading into Boston.

CLEEKS GC: Captain Martin Kaymer gets an experience boost, as 49-year-old Richard Bland replaces 20-year-old Spanish amateur David Puig in the lineup. It’s the fourth different lineup for Kaymer’s team, although carryovers Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and Laurie Canter of England will provide familiar faces for the all-European roster. Kaymer finished 12th in Bedminster, his best individual performance.

IRON HEADS GC: The lineup that finished fifth in Portland is reuniting in Boston, as Sihwan Kim returns to LIV Golf thanks to his status on the International Series Order of Merit. Captain Kevin Na’s team might be poised to make some noise, with Thai golfers Phachara Khongwatmai and Sadom Kaewkanjana each coming off top-10 finishes at the recent International Series Korea.

PUNCH GC: The all-Australian lineup gets a significant boost in star power, with world No. 2 and reigning Open champion Cameron Smith taking over the captaincy and 13-time winner Marc Leishman also joining the team. Both are making their LIV Golf debuts this week, which should pay immediate dividends for Punch GC, which has finished 12th and 11th since the lineup went full-Aussie. Former captain Wade Ormsby and fast-playing Matt Jones complete the roster.

TORQUE GC: The new-look Torque GC is headed by captain Joaquin Niemann, the world No. 19, who’s making his LIV Golf debut in Boston. His team includes Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent, who is playing on his fourth different team in as many events; Australia’s Jediah Morgan; and Spain’s Adrian Otaegui, who played for the original Torque GC team in London prior to a roster shakeup.