MIAMI, Fla., Oct. 20 (UPI) — Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith each did their part , won singles matches at the LIV Golf Team Championship, but won .
They will not be in contention for the overall title after their team lost their head-to-head match on Friday in Miami.
The HyFlyers, led by Phil Mickelson, eliminated Koepka’s team, Smash GC. Cleeks, led by Martin Kaymer, took down Ripper GC led by Smith.
“I’m really proud of our team today, the effort our players put in to win and finish our matches,” Mickelson said in a press conference .
Thirty-two players, divided into eight teams, compete in the first round at Trump National Doral Miami. Four of those teams qualified and will meet the top four teams from the regular season on Saturday in the semifinals on the 7,725-yard, par-72 Blue Monster Course.
The winners will face off on Sunday in the final round. The tournament has a $50 million purse, the largest of any event on the PGA Tour’s rival tour, which is sponsored by Saudi Arabia.
The team that wins first place will take home $14 million.
Two players from each team compete in singles, while the remaining two face off in a rotating foursome in the first round on Friday. The first team to score two points will advance to the second round.
Fireballs GC and Sergio Garcia-led Stinger GC, led by Louis Oosthuizen, are the first two teams to advance to the semi-finals.
Eugenio Chacarra defeated Sam Horsfield of Majesticks GC in a singles match to earn a point for the Fireballs. Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz picked up the remaining points with a four-way win over Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
Oousthuizen earned one of Stinger’s two clinching points by beating Kevin Na of the Iron Heads in a singles match.
Stinger’s Dean Burmester and Charl Schwartzel earned the other point with a foursomes win over Sihwan Kim and Danny Lee.
Koepka earned the first point for Smash, beating Mickelson in a singles match. But the HyFlyers rallied to earn the next two points. Cameron Tringale beat Jason Kokrak in a singles match. James Piot and Brendan Steele edged Chase Koepka and Matthew Wolff in a four-way match to claim the remaining point.
Richard Bland of Cleeks defeated Marc Leishman of Ripper in singles for the first point of this match. Smith then ended the battle for the Ripper by defeating Kaymer in another singles match.
Cleeks’ Graeme McDowell and Bernd Wiesberger then defeated Matt Jones and Jediah Morgan in four sets to progress to the semi-finals.
Defending champion 4Aces, led by Dustin Johnson, are among the top four regular-season teams not playing on Friday as they have a first-round bye to reach the semi-finals. Patrick Reed, Peter Uihlein and Pat Perez are the other 4Aces players.
Crushers, including Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri, are the No. 2 seeds. Torque, along with Joaquin Niemann, Sebastian Munoz, Mito Pereira and David Puig, are the No. 3 seeds.
RangeGoats, including Bubba Watson, Talor Gooch, Harold Vanrer III and Thomas Pieters are the No. 4 seed.
The second-round will feature the same format as the first, with two singles matches and foursome play between eight teams.
All 12 teams will compete again in the final round, with the Top 4 teams battling to determine their finishing order — and payday. The team with the lowest score — including all four players’ individual scores — will be crowned tournament champion.
Team Nos. 5 through 8 and Nos. 9 through 12 will compete to determine their orders and paydays.
The Top 4 teams also earned the right to pick their semifinal foes. Johnson’s 4Aces chose to take on Mickelson’s Hyflyers. DeChambeau and Crushers will face Cleeks. Niemann and Torque will face Stinger. The RangeGoats will battle Fireball in the other match.
Round 2 of the tournament will tee off at 1:05 p.m. EDT Saturday in Miami. The final round will tee off at the same time Sunday. The tournament will air on the CW Network, LIV Golf Plus and the LIV Golf YouTube channel.
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