By Rahul Banerji
Cameron Smith and Phil Mickelson produced an edge-of-the-seat match that went the distance on the opening day of the LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami on Friday.
The Open champion Smith prevailed, but only on the 18th and final hole of his match against six-time major winner Mickelson to help put his team into Saturday’s semi-finals.
Three matches went the distance at Trump National Doral on the opening dau of the LIV Golf inaugural season finale that saw three higher-seeded teams progressing, and one upset.
But it was the clash between Punch GC skipper Smith and Mickelson of Hy Flyers GC that held much of the attention on a day of much drama.
It needed a seven-foot birdie putt to decide the issue 1-up in favour of Smith, and gave the 11th seeds a second win against eighth-seeded Hy Flyers in their three quarter-final matches.
Other winners on Friday were fifth seeds Smash GC, who beat 12th seeds Niblicks GC 2-1; sixth seeds Majesticks who swept the Iron Heads 3-0; and Cleeks GC, 2-1 upset winners over seventh-ranked Torque 2-1.
First pick
In the captains’ selection on Friday night, Dustin Johnson’s top-seeded 4 Aces GC chose as their opponents Cleeks in the semis.
Second seeds Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau opted for the Stingers, Sergio Garcia of the Fireballs picked Punch, leaving Brooks Koepka’s Smash to face Ian Poulter’s Majesticks.
Teams will again compete in two singles and one foursomes (alternate-shot) match with each match fetching one point.
Teams that take two points advance to Sunday’s championship finals, which will be a stroke-play format with all scores counting, livgolf.com said.
Semis preview
4 Ace vs Cleeks
4 Aces captain Dustin Johnson will face Shergo Al Kurdi, the replacement for injured Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer.
The 19-year-old Kurdi was paired with Johnson in the first round in Boston after filling in for Henrik Stenson, and said later, “It’s an unbelievable matchup. I’ve always watched him on TV in the past, and I’ve always looked up to him.”
In the other singles match, 4 Aces’ Patrick Reed will face Laurie Canter. In the foursomes match, Pat Perez and Talor Gooch will take on Friday winners Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland of Cleeks.
Crushers vs Stingers
Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau could have picked one of the lower-seeded teams that played on Friday, but opted for the Stingers, who also had the bye.
That sets up a singles match against Stinger captain Louis Oosthuizen.
“Considering some of the injuries that they’ve had, and my 4-iron going past his driver in Jeddah, we feel like there’s a good chance there,” DeChambeau said.
Replied Oosthuizen: “I know I’m hitting into the greens first with my match against Bryson. I’m not sure how he copes under pressure. We’ll see that tomorrow.”
In the other singles match, Portland winner Branden Grace will play the Crushers’ Paul Casey.
In the foursomes, London winner Charl Schwartzel and teammate Hennie du Plessis, who rejoined Stinger for this event, face off against Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.
Fireballs vs Punch
Fireballs captain Sergio Garcia didn’t hesitate to go up against the reigning Open champ in Cameron Smith in singles.
“We’re going to take the ones with the best hair,” Garcia said with a laugh.
“Obviously we made a list, and that was one of our choices, and some of the other ones were gone already. We feel like we can match up nicely to them.”
Replied Smith: “Looking forward to playing my boy Sergio. Wasn’t really expecting that.”
In the second singles, Fireballs’ Carlos Ortiz meets Marc Leishman. In the foursomes, Abraham Ancer and Bangkok winner Eugenio Chacarra face Punch’s Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby.
Smash vs Majesticks
Smash captain Brooks Koepka didn’t have much of a chance against Harold Varner III, and now the Jeddah individual winner faces Majesticks captain Ian Poulter, who thrives in this kind of setting.
“Poults is pretty good at match play, so that’ll be interesting,” Koepka said.
Poulter expects Koepka to bounce back. “I need to go out and play strong tomorrow,” he said.
“Brooks is coming off a win a couple of weeks ago, so they’ve got a strong team. But so do we. … I think we dominated our match today, but tomorrow is going to be a tougher test, and we need to step up.”
In the second singles, Smash’s Peter Uihlein faces Lee Westwood. In the foursomes, the Smash duo of Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka play Henrik Stenson and Sam Horsfield.
Also read: Miami set to stage LIV Golf’s season one team championship final
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