The match play portion of LIV Golf’s season-ending championship is complete. The top four teams over the first two days at Trump National Doral have moved on to championship Sunday, where teams will play stroke play for $34 million worth of prize money.
The match of the day on Saturday determined the last team in the championship. Bryson DeChambeau and Louis Oosthuizen went 23 holes before Oosthuizen beat DeChambeau 1 up. That sent the Stinger GC onto Sunday, joining the 4 Aces, Punch GC and Smash GC in the finale.
The 4 Aces — which had dominated the season –narrowly escaped on Saturday in the semifinals. Dustin Johnson destroyed Shergo Al Kurdi 5 and 3, but Patrick Reed lost to Laurie Canter. Pat Perez and Talor Gooch had to squeak out a 1-up win over Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland in the foursomes match for the Aces to have a chance to cap their terrific season with a $16 million first prize on Sunday.
One of the other featured matches of the day saw Sergio Garcia defeat Cameron Smith 2 and 1. Despite the individual win, the Fireballs couldn’t pull out the team victory. Marc Leishman of Punch GC beat Carlos Ortiz 1 up and Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby defeated the team of Eugenio Chacarra and Abraham Ancer by the same margin to down Garcia’s squad.
In the final match, Smash GC beat the Majesticks in all three matches. Brooks Koepka downed Ian Poulter, Peter Uihlein bested Lee Westwood, and Chase Koepka and Jason Kokrak narrowly got past Henrik Stenson and Sam Horsfield.
Punch is the outlier in the finals. All three of the other teams came into the finals ranked in the top five on the year, but Punch came in having finished 11th in the regular season. However, they did make the biggest move down the stretch by adding Open champion Smith, and that could pay off (literally) for them in a big way on Sunday in Miami.
Individual stroke play is the game on the final day, and all four scores count. The lowest aggregate team score will take home $16 million ($4 million per player). The other three finishing spots aren’t bad, either.
1st: $16 million
2nd: $8 million
3rd: $6 million
4th: $4 million
Here are the scores from each of the semifinal matches in the 2022 LIV Golf Team Championship.
4 Aces (1): 2 | Cleeks GC (10): 1
|
4 Aces |
Dustin Johnson over Shergo Al Kurdi |
5 and 3 |
|
Cleeks GC |
Laurie Canter over Patrick Reed |
2 and 1 |
|
4 Aces |
Pat Perez/Talor Gooch over Graeme McDowell/Richard Bland |
1 UP |
Stinger GC (4): 2 | Crushers (2): 1
|
Stinger |
Louis Oosthuizen over Bryson DeChambeau |
1 UP (23 holes) |
|
Crushers |
Paul Casey over Branden Grace |
1 UP (20 holes) |
|
Stinger |
Charl Schwartzel/Hennie du Plessis over Charles Howell III/Anirban Lahiri |
2 UP |
Punch GC (11): 2 | Fireballs (3): 1
|
Fireballs |
Sergio Garcia over Cam Smith |
2 and 1 |
|
Punch GC |
Marc Leishman over Carlos Ortiz |
1 UP |
|
Punch GC |
Matt Jones/Wade Ormsby over Eugenio Chacarra/Abraham Ancer |
1 UP |
Smash GC (5): 3 | Majesticks (6): 0
|
Smash GC |
Brooks Koepka over Ian Poulter |
3 and 1 |
|
Smash GC |
Peter Uihlein over Lee Westwood |
4 and 2 |
|
Smash GC |
Chase Koepka/Jason Kokrak over Henrik Stenson/Sam Horsfield |
1 UP |