By Rahul Banerji
Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III failed to save the Crushers from elimination in the team semi-finals of the inaugural LIV Golf season against the Stingers in Miami on Saturday.
In the foursomes match of the Team Championship clash, Lahiri and Howell III fell behind South Africans Charl Schwartzel and Hennie du Plessis early to go down 2-up at Trump National Doral.
Two birdies midway through the foursomes match were enough for the South Africans to prevail as Lahiri and his partner were unable to cover the deficit.
In the top match, Crushers’ captain Bryson DeChambeau could not put it past his opposite number, Louis Oosthuizen, whose extra-holes win proved decisive for his team.
Oosthuizen tied the match on the final hole in regulation having trailed all the way before birdieing the fifth playoff hole, the 23rd of the match for the decisive point.
Paul Casey earned the lone point for the second-seeded Crushers in the second singles against Branden Grace, this match too going past the regulation 18 holes till the 20th, once again with a birdie.
The finale will this feature 4 Aces GC, Stinger GC, Smash GC and Punch GC in a stroke-play shootout to decide the LIV Golf Team Championship.
Tight battles
Saturday saw close fights up and down the order as seven of the 12 semi-finals matches went the distance, including the two that required extra playoff holes.
Brooks Koepka’s Smash, winners of the team title two weeks ago in Jeddah, were the only team to sweep all three matches in beating Majesticks GC.
The other results included Cameron Smith’s Punch beating Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs despite Ryder Cup star Garcia getting the better of The Open champion Smith in their singles match;
Dustin Johnson’s 4 Aces were stretched before beating the gritty Cleeks who were without injured captain Martin Kaymer.
The final set of 16 matches will see all four individual cards counting toward the team total.
The lowest score will net the $16 million first prize from the massive $50 million purse for the finals.
“It’s the first LIV Team Championship,” said Johnson, who already has claimed the individual champion title this season while leading the all-American 3 Aces squad, adds livgolf.com.
“It’s kind of the first year of this and I think it’s gone really well and it just kind of sets up for things to come. I think it would be amazing and it’s something that we all really want to win.”
While Johnson easily overcame Cleeks’ substitute Shergo Al Kurdi 5&3, Partick Reed suffered a shock 2&1 defeat against Englishman Laurie Canter.
It was left to Pat Perez and Talor Gooch to seal the win in a tight 1-up finish against veterans Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland in the foursomes.
Championship preview
Johnson’s 4 Aces won four of the seven team titles during the regular season, sweeping all four tournaments played in the US.
They arrived in Miami as the top seeds, but Johnson is sanguine about whatever happens on Sunday.
“I think we’ve had a really good year and no matter what happens tomorrow, we’ll still have had a really good year,” Johnson said.
“Sunday, it’s anybody’s ballgame. All four guys have to play really well if you want to win.”
Of the four remaining teams, two have played in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Fifth seeds Smash, captained by Brooks Koepka, beat Niblicks 2-1 on Friday before sweeping the Majesticks 3-0 on Saturday.
Koepka lost to Harold Varner III 4&3 on Friday but bounced back to beat match-play specialist Ian Poulter 3&1 on Saturday.
“I played good yesterday. Played better than I did today,” Brooks said after beating Poulter.
Looking ahead
“Just got whacked by Harold, seven under through 10. Not much you can do. But our whole team is playing well. We’re excited to see what tomorrow brings.”
The all-Australian Punch GC, captained by Cameron Smith, beat Hy Flyers GC 2 to 1 in the quarter-finals, then beat 3rd-seeded Fireballs GC 2 and 1 in the semis.
Like Koepka, Smith is 1-1 in his singles matches, but Marc Leishman has won both of his singles to lead the team.
“It’s obviously going to be hard work,” Smith said of knocking off the 4 Aces. “I think the golf course has got better and better as the week’s gone on.”
I think typically Aussies like to play firm and fast golf courses and it’s starting to get a little bit like that. We’ll see what happens overnight.
Sunday’s round will include twosomes from different teams, with the captains paired.
Johnson and Smith will be in one twosome going off the first hole, while Oosthuizen and Koepka will be in the other twosome going off the 10th.
“Anything can happen tomorrow,” Koepka said. “You never know. Everybody’s got 18 holes and especially with this finish, you never know.”
Also read: Smith wins quarters thriller against Mickelson in LIV season finale
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