LIV Golf returns at Doral’s challenging Blue Monster in Miami

By Rahul Banerji

Task Force Crushers will look to extend their domination of the team event at LIV Golf Miami, which tees off at Trump National Doral on Friday.

The league-leading side of Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri have racked up a round 100 points from five tournaments of the 2024 season including wins at the last two – Jeddah and Hong Kong.

The four combined well to win the 2023 team championship finale at Doral’s par-72, 7,701-yard Blue Monster course last year riding on a 16^th hole birdie from their captain.

That trend of late rushes has continued this year too and the Crushers came from way back to storm past the field over the home stretch at both the Royal Greens GCC near and at the Hong Kong Golf Club three weeks later.

Here’s a support stat: Fully 41 of the team’s 100 points have come from their last-day surges that has seen the Crushers finish off the podium only once – at Las Vegas – in 2024. And this is with all four scores now counting in the final round.

DeChambeau’s quartet is 42 points ahead of second-placed Torque GC and has three members in the top 10 of the individual standings, Casey at fourth, DeChambeau seventh, and Howell III in tenth.

Rounded unit

Each of the four complements the others almost perfectly as DeChambeau pointed out ahead of the 2024 season and only Lahiri (currently 25^th in the solo standings) is yet to hit consistent form.

Missed cuts at the Asian Tour’s International Series at Al Mouj and last week’s Indian Open will only have sharpened the Indian star’s appetite for success as he showed in a strong closing run at the DLF GCC in Gurgaon.

At the same time, there’s plenty of depth in the Doral field with second placed Torque (on 58 points), whose captain Joaquin Neimann had won twice in 2024 (Mayakoba and Jeddah) and leads the individual standings.

Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC are third on 51.50 points with Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII in fourth with 46 points and are the other winning teams behind the Crushers who have twice mauled Torque at the finish line.

On 97 points, Neimann is well ahead of the second-placed Rahm and Dustin Johnson of the 4 Aces is third.

All three with Rahm the defending champion at Augusta National, plus Phil Mickelson, Charl Schwartzel, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed as past winners besides Koepka, DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Tyrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk will head to the Masters next, adding some extra spice to the Miami clash.

Last year, Koepka and Mickelson shared second place behind Rahm at the Masters and Reed was tied for fourth.

Masters prep

Doral’s challenging Blue Monster will provide a good warmup for Augusta National with its long and narrow fairways and greens surrounded by bunkers, as livgolf.com noted recently.

“The par-4 18th is recognised as one of the toughest finishing holes in golf, with its slim fairway surrounded by water on the left and bunkers on the right, and the front of the green protected by the lake.

“Previous winners at the Doral course include HyFlyers GC captain Mickelson, 4Aces GC captain Johnson and his teammate Patrick Reed,” it added.

That is for later. This week the focus will be Miami and the Torque foursome will be out to prove that they can finish the job on Sunday as a team having taken top-five finishes at the four opening events including one runner-up placing.

Besides all the other storylines around Doral, there is also the Anthony Kim sage, whose comeback after an extended hiatus continues on a gentle upward trend since his LIV Golf League debut in Jeddah.

Also read: Ancer tops LIV Hong Kong as the Crushers repeat Jeddah result