There will be no Spaniards in the team final of LIV Golf being held this weekend at the Maridoe Golf Club in Dallas. The Fireballs of Sergio García have been eliminated by the Australian Ripper of Cameron Smith and the Legion XIII of Jon Rahm, although they have qualified for the final after knocking out a blurred Hyflyers of Phil Mickelson, they will not be able to count on the golfer from Barrika due to a severe flu.
Thus, the four teams that will compete for the LIV Golf title tomorrow are Legion XIII, Ripper, Aces and the surprising Iron Heads of Kevin Na, a quartet that finished last during the regular season and has already consecutively knocked out the teams of Brooks Koepka and today of Bryson DeChambeau. They are the giant killers of this edition of LIV.
Legion XIII has won their semi-final duel convincingly despite Rahm’s absence. Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent have destroyed a unknown Mickelson and Steele by 4 and 3 and Hatton has completed the work by comfortably defeating Andy Ogletree by 5 and 4. The Englishman started losing, but we already know how he gets when he catches fire. In the other match, John Catlin, Jon’s substitute, and Cameron Tringale drew.
Meanwhile, Sergio’s Fireballs fell, although there is not much to blame the captain for. The golfer from Castellón came back in his foursome match alongside the Mexican Abraham Ancer to win 3 and 1 against Cameron Smith and Matt Jones. The problem for García’s team was in the singles. Lucas Herbert came back against David Puig, who was up by 2 and won by one on the last hole. Meanwhile, Marc Leishman defeated Eugenio López Chacarra on the first playoff hole. Thus, the Fireballs will fight for a place between the fifth and eighth classified.
In the other two quarter-final duels, called semi-finals by the organisation because everything is decided tomorrow, the surprising Iron Heads won against DeChambeau’s Crushers, the team that won the regular season. Crushing victory by 3-0. Na and Kozuma beat Howell III and Lahiri, Danny Lee took down DeChambeau by 2 up and Scott Vincent did the same against Paul Casey. The bank jumped.
Finally, Dsutin Johnson’s Aces left the South African Stingers in the ditch in the most evenly matched duel alongside the Fireballs and the Ripper. Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed won their two individual matches against Burmester and Grace very closely and in the foursome Oosthuizen and Schwartzel beat Varner III and Perez.
Thus, this Sunday, in a final that surely no one expected in LIV Golf, the team title will be disputed by Legion XIII, Iron Heads, Ripper and Aces. Remember that the format changes. Stroke play is played and the cards of the four players count. The team that has a better overall performance from all its players will win. There will be less room for surprise. The favourites are Legion XIII, despite Rahm’s absence, and Cameron Smith’s Australians.
