Teams announced for LIV Golf Invitational at The International outside Boston

By Matt Smith
LIV Golf has unveiled the latest line-ups from the 48-player field competing in at The International, Bolton this week.

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LIV Golf’s fourth event of the season, runs from September 2-4, where 12 teams will compete as individuals and teams for points and prize money.

All members of the four-player teams will compete in the three-day tournament. The player with the lowest 54-hole stroke-play total will be the individual winner. In the team competition, the best two stroke-play scores in the first two rounds will count for each team. For the third and final round, the best three scores will count. The lowest overall team score after 54 holes will be the team winner. Teams will compete for a $5 million purse, with $3 million to first place, $1.5 million to second and $500,000 to third. Each player will receive a 25per cent share of the earnings.

Team line-ups for LIV Golf Invitational Boston

Here is a rundown of each team:

4 ACES: Captain Dustin Johnson has assembled the team to beat. The all-American roster with Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez has won consecutive team titles, by seven strokes in Portland and eight in Bedminster, with a cumulative counting score of 48-under in those two victories. Johnson and Reed each finished in the top 5 individually in both events.
MAJESTICKS: The move to add Swedish star Henrik Stenson paid immediate dividends for captain Lee Westwood. Stenson won the individual title in his LIV Golf debut in Bedminster, and Majesticks posted its best result as a team, finishing second. Stenson, Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sam Horsfield each finished under par in Bedminster, the only team to achieve that feat in any of the first three events.
FIREBALLS: Captain Sergio Garcia’s team has finished in the top three in each of the last two events, but the Spanish-speaking foursome go into Boston with higher ambitions than another third-place result. Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz is a cumulative 19-under in his first two LIV Golf starts, and Garcia comes off his best performance. Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Spanish rookie Eugenio Chacarra complete a talented group.
HY FLYERS: Captain Phil Mickelson adds LIV Golf newcomer Cameron Tringale to the squad. Matthew Wolff and Bernd Wiesberger compete again for the Hy Flyers, with Wolff showing at Bedminster he’s capable of putting the team on his back. His runner-up finish to Stenson fuelled Hy Flyers to fourth place, their best team result. Adding the steady Tringale, a top-60 world player, will raise hopes of a podium result.
STINGER: After a win in London and a second-place finish in Portland, captain Louis Oosthuizen’s squad finished outside the podium for the first time in Bedminster. Now comes the South African team’s first line-up change, with Shaun Norris replacing Hennie du Plessis. Norris turned pro in 2002 — so did Oosthuizen and London winner Charl Schwartzel. Add Portland winner Branden Grace, who turned pro in 2007, and Stinger have a combined 75 years of professional experience in their line-up.
CRUSHERS: New LIV Golf member Anirban Lahiri fills the void left by Shaun Norris’ departure, and the two-time Olympian from India will provide another steady hand for captain Bryson DeChambeau’s team. Crushers added Paul Casey and Charles Howell III prior to Bedminster and finished sixth. If DeChambeau channels previous successes — one of his 10 professional wins came in Massachusetts in 2018 — expect Crushers to make some noise.
NIBLICKS GC: Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson debuts as LIV Golf’s first non-playing captain, overseeing the squad while he rehabs from knee surgery. Watson will have a close friend in his line-up with Harold Varner III making his LIV Golf debut. Varner joins holdovers Hudson Swafford, James Piot and Turk Pettit in the all-American line-up. Pettit comes off a top-10 finish in Bedminster.
SMASH: Another all-American line-up, this one with local ties. Massachusetts native Peter Uihlein joins captain Brooks Koepka’s team, replacing Englishman Richard Bland who moves to a new squad. Chase Koepka and Jason Kokrak are the holdovers for Smash. The Koepka brothers showed improvement in Bedminster, with Brooks shooting a final-round 66 to give him some momentum heading into Boston.
CLEEKS: Captain Martin Kaymer gets an experience boost, as 49-year-old Richard Bland replaces 20-year-old Spanish amateur David Puig in the line-up. It’s the fourth different line-up for Kaymer’s team, although carryovers Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and Laurie Canter of England will provide familiar faces for the all-European roster. Kaymer finished 12th in Bedminster, his best individual performance.
IRON HEADS: The line-up that finished fifth in Portland is reuniting in Boston, as Sihwan Kim returns to LIV Golf thanks to his status on the International Series Order of Merit. Captain Kevin Na’s team might be poised to make some noise, with Thai golfers Phachara Khongwatmai and Sadom Kaewkanjana each coming off top-10 finishes at the recent International Series Korea.
PUNCH: The all-Australian side get a significant boost in star power, with world No. 2 and reigning Open champion Cameron Smith taking over the captaincy and 13-time winner Marc Leishman also joining the team. Both are making their LIV Golf debuts this week, which should pay immediate dividends for Punch, who have finished 12th and 11th since the line-up went full-Aussie. Former captain Wade Ormsby and fast-playing Matt Jones complete the roster.
TORQUE: The new-look Torque is headed by captain Joaquin Niemann, the world No. 19, who’s making his LIV Golf debut. His team includes Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent, who is playing on his fourth different team in as many events, Australia’s Jediah Morgan and Dubai-based Spaniard Adrian Otaegui, who played for the original Torque team in London prior to a roster shake-up.

In the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational London at Centurion Club, Stinger, with captain Louis Oosthuizen and fellow South Africans Charl Schwartzel, Hennie du Plessis and Branden Grace, took first place with a total score of 20-under par. The 4 Aces captain Dustin Johnson and the all-American line-up of Talor Gooch, Pat Perez and Patrick Reed followed suit with back-to-back team victories in Portland and Bedminster.

Led by the 1-2 punch of Johnson and Reed — who each finished inside the top 5 in the individual standings at LIV Golf’s second and third events — the American foursome will try to make it three straight team titles against a field that welcomes six notable names making their LIV Golf debuts. New players include world No. 2 and 2022 Open Champion Cameron Smith, world No. 19 and top Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III (No. 46), Cameron Tringale (No. 55), Marc Leishman (No. 62) and India’s top-ranked pro Anirban Lahiri (No. 92). Amongst the newcomers, Smith (Punch) and Niemann (Torque) will serve as team captains in Boston along with two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, who will debut as a non-playing captain for Niblicks and will make on-air contributions to live event coverage.

“I can’t wait to tee it up every week with one of my best mates, Marc,” said Smith. “The team format I think is great. We are going to have heaps of fun out there, and yeah, I can’t wait for this next chapter.

“I think it’s really a shame that we are not getting World Ranking points out here. To have 48 of the best, you know, guys around the world playing, and not to get World Ranking points, I think is perhaps a little bit unfair.

Leishman added: “You know, it’s early days. Hopefully things change not too far down the track. As far as the majors and all that go, I think it could potentially hurt them having some guys potentially miss out because they are not offered World Ranking points here.

“You know as a golf fan, that’s hard for the top tournaments, but like I say, hopefully it sorts itself out.”