The Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, in the northern area of Dallas, near the Fort Worth International Airport, will be the venue this weekend for the Dallas Team Championship, or in other words, the grand team final of the 2024 season of LIV Golf. An event in which, regardless of the results achieved during the course by each of the 13 teams that compete week after week on the Saudi tour, everyone has the possibility of achieving victory.
Those who are closest to achieving it are the Crushers GC, the Legion XIII and the Ripper GC, the top three teams in the overall team standings of the season and who will be exempt from playing the first round on Friday. But from Saturday, the swords will be at their highest in search of the title… and a juicy economic prize, because this event that closes the year in LIV Golf distributes no less than 50 million dollars, with a prize for the winning team of 14 ‘kilos’ (each player can take 10% of the prize that their team achieves).
The game format changes with the intention that all players on the tour compete until the end of the tournament, with the only exception of the 12 players who make up the three teams that closed the general in the first positions, who will not have to play on Friday and will wait for direct rivals for the semi-final crosses on Saturday, September 21, and the players of the teams that fall eliminated on Friday, who will not play on Saturday.
But let’s go step by step, starting with Friday…
Quarterfinals, September 20
· The teams ranked in the top three positions in the overall team season are exempt from playing this round
· The teams between the 4th and 13th position will compete in head-to-head match play duels
· The better-ranked teams will choose in order which of the rivals they face. For example, the Smash GC, fourth in the general of the course, will be the first to choose, and could decide to face the Iron Heads GC, bottom of the table, if they wish, until the five duels (10 teams) are completed.
· In each head-to-head, three matches will be played: two individual duels and one in pairs in foursomes mode (alternate shots). Each match won adds a point, there can be no ties (play would continue until a tie is broken) and when a team scores two points it will move on to the semi-finals.
· The five winning teams will advance to Saturday’s semi-finals where they will join the top three in the general, who already had their place assured.
Semi-finals, September 21
· The teams between the 1st and 3rd position of the general will be choosing their opponents in order (the Crushers will choose first, then the Legion XIII of Rahm, and so on until the four matches are completed).
· The 32 players on the field, just like the 40 on Friday, will play at the same time, in a shotgun start.
· The format will be the same as in the quarterfinals, with three matches for each confrontation, two individual and one in pairs in foursomes mode (alternate shots), adding a point for each match won.
· Each team that scores two points will qualify for Sunday’s final.
Final, September 22
· The 52 players from the 13 teams will play, all at once on the field, with a shotgun start.
· The four individual results of each player from each team will count towards the team’s overall result.
· The four teams that won the semi-finals will compete for the 1st to 4th positions of the tournament.
· The four teams that lost the semi-finals will compete for the 5th to 8th positions of the tournament.
· The five teams that were eliminated in the quarterfinals on Friday will compete for the 9th to 13th positions of the tournament.
· The prizes will be distributed according to the final position of each team (adding the cards of their four players) and the champion will be the team that has needed the fewest strokes in the total of its four players to complete their round. They will be the LIV Golf 2024 team champion.
The final prizes
The result of the four members of each team on Sunday will determine the final position of each team in the tournament, depending on the places they will fight for in the final round (1st to 4th, 5th to 8th and 9th to 13th). The winning team will take 14 million dollars, the second, eight million, the third, six ‘kilos’, and so on the prizes will decrease until the last classified, who will receive 600,000 dollars.
Of each team’s prize, 60% will be for the team’s activities, while the remaining 40% will be divided equally among the four members of each team. That is, each player on the winning team, whose total prize is 14 million, will take 1.4 million in bonus. A significant figure that among others Sergio, Puig, Chacarra… and Jon Rahm aspire to, to increase their spectacular earnings in their first season in LIV Golf.
