Cameron Smith’s all-Australian team, Ripper GC, have been sent home from the LIV Golf teams championship finale after losing a best-of-three matchup against Martin Kaymer’s side, Cleeks GC.
Each matchup had three games: two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match. Each match winner was awarded one point, and the teams who earned two points advanced to Saturday’s semifinals. There, they will face the top four seeds who enjoyed day one off with a bye.
On Friday at Trump Doral’s Blue Monsters course in Miami, Seventh-seed Ripper GC lost 2-1 to the Cleeks. Last year’s Open champion Smith squared off against former world No.1 Kaymer, while Ripper’s Matt Jones and Jed Morgan took on former US Open champion Graeme McDowell and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger. Marc Leishman was chosen for Ripper’s second singles match, and faced England’s Richard Bland.
Smith surrendered a three-up lead with three to play against Kaymer, but salvaged a point by defeating the German on the first extra hole. McDowell and Wiesberger also took Morgan and Jones to extra holes. On the third playoff hole, Cleeks defeated the Aussie pair.
Leishman also lost, 4 and 3, to Bland. Ripper GC were knocked out on day one.
Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers knocked out Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC 2-1, while Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs defeated Ian Poulter’s Majesticks 2-1. The South African team of Stinger GC, whose captain is Louis Oosthuizen, swept Kevin Na’s Iron Heads 3-0.
The top four teams — Dustin Johnson’s 4 Aces, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers, Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC, and Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats — received a bye into Saturday’s semifinals.
This week’s three-day team championship will be held at Trump Doral’s Blue Monster course in Miami. The event has a $US50 million purse, $US14 million of which goes to the winning team. The tournament features match play Friday and Saturday and stroke play on Sunday with all 12 teams competing to determine the team champion.
