By Matt Smith
Ahead of the Individual Championship double-header in Bangkok and Jeddah, LIV Golf has revealed its plans for the season-ending Team Championship in Miami at the end of October.
Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson et al jet off to Asia for two weeks of action to decide who will be the best of the bunch — and pocket their share of $50 million — before they scoot back to the US for the team showdown and another $50 million in Miami.
The inaugural year will close out with a tournament incorporating a mix of matchplay and strokeplay. At the conclusion of LIV Golf’s seventh event (held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from October 14-16), the final standings will determine the No. 1 through 12 seeds for the team competition in Miami, with Johnson’s 4 Aces leading the way as we stand.
The format is as follows:
Quarter-finals (October 28)
The top four teams will receive byes
The highest-ranked teams get to pick their matches
32 players from eight teams will compete in a shotgun start
In each team match-up there will be three matches: Two singles matches, one alternate shot
Matches will be played until a winner is determined
Semi-finals (October 29)
The four teams that received byes choose their opponents, with the same format as above
Championship Round (October 30)
Four teams compete in shotgun start round of strokeplay
16 players will compete in twosomes
All four scores count towards team score. Team with lowest total wins
As for what is on the line, the winning team gets to split $16 million among the four players, with the runners-up receiving $10 million and third place $8 million. Even the teams that are bounced on Day 1 still get $1 million. Through the first five events the 4 Aces — featuring Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez — are first in the team standings.
Also on Tuesday four more LIV members — Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Hudson Swafford and Talor Gooch — dropped out of the lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Of the 11 players that were originally part of the antitrust case, only three remain: Matt Jones, Peter Uihlein and Bryson DeChambeau.
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