Once the quarter-final matches of the Team Championship with which LIV Golf concludes the 2024 season have finished, the three teams exempt from this first round, who were waiting for an opponent for the semi-final round, have chosen in order, from the best ranked in the general team classification to the third, who they will cross paths with tomorrow in search of a place in the grand final on Sunday in Dallas.
The Crushers GC of Bryson DeChambeau, who finished in the first place in the general team classification in the regular season with 208.5 points, have been the first to choose, and as expected, they have selected the IronHeads GC as their semi-final opponent. The IronHeads finished last in the classification, but in the quarter-finals they surprised by eliminating the Smash GC of Brooks Koepka in the only cross where one of their matches, the foursomes, went to a tiebreak. Casey will play with Vincent, DeChambeau with Lee, while the doubles duel will be between Lahiri and Howell III against Na and Kozuma.
The second team to choose an opponent has been the Legion XIII of Jon Rahm, who has avoided selecting the Fireballs GC of Sergio García. The champion’s team from Barrika will face the HyFlyers GC, who staged the second big surprise on Friday by leaving the Torque GC of Joaquín Niemann behind. Jon will play with Tringale, Hatton, with Ogletree, while the doubles duel in foursomes will be contested by Surrat and Vincent on the Spanish team and Mickelson and Steele on the team captained by the golfer from San Diego.
The Ripper GC, third in the general classification and the last team to directly access the semi-finals without playing the Friday quarters, have chosen the Fireballs GC for their match tomorrow. Thus, Marc Leishman will play with Eugenio López-Chacarra, Lucas Herbert will face David Puig (the Fireballs repeat the same configuration as in the quarters) and the pair formed by Smith and Jones will be the one to face Sergio García and Abraham Ancer in search of a place in the Sunday final.
The last match on Saturday is the one that will be played by the Stinger GC and the 4Aces, both qualified in the quarter-final crosses. Burmester will play against DJ the first of the two individual confrontations, the second will be between Reed and Grace, while the foursomes will face Varner III and Pat Pérez on one side with Oosthuizen and Schwartzel on the other. The four winning teams will fight tomorrow for the 1st to 4th places in the team final and those who lose this Saturday will play on Sunday for the 5th to 8th positions.
