The top three of the 2025 season who are in title contention. Image courtesy LIV Golf/X.
From a Corresponent
Plymouth, Michigan: Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm beat a good friend. Crushers GC captain Bryson DeChambeau justified his lineup decision.
And Stinger GC captain Louis Oosthuizen kept the faith with his hottest player.
Now their respective teams will compete for LIV Golf’s biggest team prize on Sunday in the Michigan Team Championship.
Legion XIII, Crushers and Stinger each emerged with 2-1 wins over their opponents in Saturday’s match-play semi-finals.
All but one of those nine matches reached at least the 17th hole, with all three of the Crushers’ matches against Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC going the full distance.
The action was non-stop and Sunday’s final day of the 2025 LIV Golf season offers the same potential as the format shifts to stroke play at The Cardinal at Saint John’s, with all four scores counting for each team.
“These teams up here are incredible teams, incredible golfers,” DeChambeau said of the final three. “It’s going to be a tough test tomorrow because it’s scoring conditions out there for sure.”
Rahm, the two-time individual champion, has a chance to end the season with the team championship after he defeated HyFlyers GC captain Phil Mickelson.
Winning combo
His young partnership of Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surrat posted their second straight foursomes win.
It was an emotional victory for Rahm, who attended Mickelson’s alma mater, Arizona State and considers him a mentor.
“He’s such a good friend. You never want to beat a friend,” Rahm said.
“In a weird way, it feels good because Phil and I have a fun rivalry going. It’s a weird feeling but proud of myself and how I fought today.”
DeChambeau opted to take on Smash GC’s Talor Gooch instead of Koepka in singles.
Gooch won LIV Golf Andalucía and led his team in points this season, but the decision still generated plenty of scrutiny.
In the end, it was the winning call. DeChambeau made eight birdies to Gooch’s six and needed a birdie on the final hole to win 1 up.
Meanwhile, Anirban Lahiri held tough against Koepka, who required a late birdie of his own to win 1 up. Foursomes partners Paul Casey and Charles Howell III supplied the other point for the Crushers.
Logical option
“Look, I could have gone up against him,” DeChambeau said of Koepka, a five-time major winner and five-time LIV Golf champion.
“Brooks is a great fighter, and I would have loved to have played against him, but I felt like from a matchup perspective, Talor was going to be a more difficult force today.”
Torque GC captain Joaquin Neimann, a five-time tournament winner this year, was expected to be difficult for the Stingers’ Dean Burmester, who won two weeks ago in Chicago in the no. 1 singles.
Burmester was 4-up through 12 holes, but Niemann showed his championship mettle, clawing back into the match with three consecutive birdies down the stretch.
Burmester responded with two matching pars, then won the final hole with a birdie to finish 2 up for the deciding point of the matchup.
“I knew I had to still hit good shots,” Burmester said. “He’s a class player and he proved it.”
Oosthuizen and his longtime partner Charl Schwartzel supplied the other point with a 2&1 win over Torque’s Sebastián Muñoz and Carlos Ortiz, two top-10 players this season.
A year ago at the Dallas team championship, Stinger lost in the semi-finals, then shot the lowest cumulative score of any team on the final day to finish fifth.
If that happens on Sunday, they’ll win the title. The South Africans as the lowest-seeded team among the three at no. 7; Legion XIII and the Crushers finished 1-2 in the season-long points race.
Best shot
“We all play to be in this situation, to have a shot at it tomorrow,” Oosthuizen said. “It’s going to be go big or go home. We’re going to try our best to upset everyone.”
The Crushers, meanwhile, have a chance to become the first LIV Golf team to win two team titles, having claimed their first two years ago in Miami.
Last year, they were upset by the Iron Heads in the semi-finals. “It would mean a lot for our team,” DeChambeau said of a second win. “Hopefully we end on a high note.”
No team have been better this season than Legion XIII, who have the league’s lowest stroke average and the league’s best performance in the final round when the stakes are highest.
Legion XIII won four times this season and have won eight of their first 27 tournaments since joining LIV Golf as its first expansion team last year.
“Whatever we’ve done until right now doesn’t matter anymore,” Rahm said.
“Tomorrow, you have 18 holes to prove it again, and that’s all we have. It’s the same thing for all of us. It’s been a great season – and now it’s time to hopefully finish it.”
Slow burn
Koepka and Lahiri played mind games with each other during their singles match, especially by slowing the pace of action.
Lahiri was deliberately slow, Koepka even slower, and eventually they were put on the clock but suffered no penalties after speeding up their play.
“I think it took us five holes,” said Koepka who won the match 1 up. “It wasn’t long, but I felt like we could play the rest of the holes at my pace, and I felt like I did.”
Asked if he was aware about the slow pace of his teammate’s match, DeChambeau said,
“They were definitely farther behind. I’m sorry about that. It’s just fun. We’re trying to have a good time. We’re trying to win, right?
Final run
With the match play portion now complete, the stage is set for all 12 teams to play for their final positions on Sunday.
The format will switch to stroke play, with all four scores counting for each team just like during each round of the 2025 regular season.
The three remaining teams left in the championship bracket are Legion XIII, Crushers and Stinger who will compete for the top three places.
Torque, Smash and HyFlyers dropped into the top tier of the rankings bracket and will compete for fourth, fifth and sixth places. The HyFlyers are guaranteed their best-ever final placing.
Saturday’s winners in the rankings bracket were Fireballs GC, 4Aces GC and Ripper GC who will compete for places seven to nine. The 4Aces and Ripper are past team champions.
The losing teams in this bracket were the RangeGoats, Cleeks and Majesticks who will compete for 10th, 11th and 12th places. (courtesy LIV Golf)
Semi-final results
Championship bracket
Legion XIII bt HyFlyers GC, 2-1 (Jon Rahm bt Phil Mickelson 2&1; Tyrell Hatton lost to Cameron Tringale 2&1; Tom McKibbin/Cabel Surrat bt Andy Ogletree/Brendan Steele 3&1)
Crushers GC bt Smash GC, 2-1 (Anirban Lahiri lost to Brooks Koepka 1 down; Bryson DeChambeau bt Talor Gooch 1 up; Paul Casey/Charles Howell III bt Jason Kokrak/Graeme McDowell 2 up)
Stinger GC bt Torque GC, 2-1 (Dean Burmester bt Joaquin Neimann 2 up; Branden Grace lost to Mito Pereira 4&2; Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel bt Sebastian Muñoz/Carlos Ortiz 2&1)
Rankings bracket
Fireballs GC bt Cleeks GC, 2-1 (Josele Ballester lost to Richard Bland 6&4; Abraham Ancer bt Adrian Meronk 2&1; Sergio Garcia/David Puig bt Martin Kaymer/Frederik Kjettrup, 4&2)
4Aces GC bt Majesticks GC, 3-0 (Dustin Johnson bt Henrik Stenson 1 up; Partick Reed bt Sam Horsfield 2&1; Thomas Pieters/Harold Varner III bt Ian Poulter/Lee Westwood 6&5)
Ripper GC bt RangeGoats GC, 2-1 (Cam Smith bt Ben Campbell 1 up; Lucas Herbert lost to Matthew Wolff 1 up; Matt Jones/Marc Leishman bt Peter Uihlein/Bubba Watson 4&2)
Also read: HyFlyers oust Fireballs in LIV Golf team championship upset
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