Phil Mickelson vs. Cameron Smith Highlights LIV Golf Team Championship Friday Matches
Things didn’t play out the way Phil Mickelson had hoped Wednesday as the LIV Golf Invitational Series unveiled its team matchups for its season-ending event that begins Friday.
In a format that allowed the highest-seeded team captained by Brooks Koepka to pick the team he wants to play, it was left that Mickelson’s Hy Flyers team would face the Punch team captained by British Open champion and world No. 3 Cam Smith.
And since the rules require that captains play each other in a head-to-head match, Mickelson quickly knew what he would be up against.
“Yeah, this sucks, right? I mean, I don’t literally like the way this all worked out,” Mickelson said during a news conference in which the matchups were announced. “Look at Cam smile. Look how happy he is. This didn’t really work out the way we had planned at all.”
To which Smith replied: “The way Phil hits his driver around here, I think he’ll be dropping a few balls out there.”
Ouch.
Mickelson has struggled for much of the season in LIV Golf and will now get a match with its highest-ranked player, Smith, in the first round of the Team Championship.
Courtesy of LIV Golf
LIV Golf has reached its season-ending event in Miami, and the Team Championship is going to require a dive into the fine print to understand what is happening at Doral’s Blue Monster course.
First, the last of the eight LIV Golf events has a $50 million purse.
| Friday’s Team Matches | Singles | Foursomes |
|---|---|---|
Smash vs. Niblicks | B. Koepka vs. Varner | C. Koepka/Kokrak vs. Pettit/Swafford |
Majesticks GC vs. Iron Heads | Poulter vs. Na | Horsfield/Stenson vs. Khongwatmai/Kaewkanjana |
Torque GC vs. Cleeks GC | Niemann vs. Kaymer | Otaegui/Vincent vs. McDowell/Bland |
Hy Flyers vs. Punch | Mickelson vs. Smith | Wiesberger/Tringale vs. Jones/Ormsby |
There is no individual title at stake, just the 12 teams vying for a $16 million first prize to be split four ways. Every team is guaranteed at least $1 million, meaning $250,000 per player for the four teams that are eliminated Friday.
That’s right—this event will see four teams eliminated Friday and four more Saturday, with eight teams competing for the team title Sunday.
The top four teams through the LIV Golf Jeddah event received first-day byes, meaning the 4 Aces captained by Dustin Johnson, the Crushers (Bryson DeChambeau), the Fireballs (Sergio Garcia) and Stinger (Louis Oosthuizen) await the winner of Friday’s matches.
The format calls for two individual matches and one foursomes match, with the team earning two points out of three advancing.
So in the case of Mickelson’s Hy Flyers team, he will play against Smith, while Matthew Wolff takes on Marc Leishman. There is then an alternate-shot match of Bernd Wiesberger and Cameron Tringale against Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby.
That means 32 players on the course Friday in a shotgun start at 12:15 p.m. ET.
Mickelson, 52, who has struggled for most of this year, knows he has a formidable task against Smith, who won the Open at St Andrews and also captured the Players Championship.
“The guy is the Champion Golfer of the Year,” Mickelson said. “There’s not much I can say. But I have won here. Just sayin’. Have you even played here at Doral? I’ve won here at Doral.”
Mickelson won the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral in 2009.
Said Smith: “20 years ago. I was two when Phil won around here.”
Mickelson: “I think you were at that clinic that I gave. It’s nice to see you were paying attention.”
And so it went.
Brooks Koepka’s Smash team takes on Bubba Watson’s (nonplaying captain) Niblicks.
Joaquin Niemann’s Torque team plays Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks.
Mickelson’s Hy Flyers goes against Smith’s Punch.
And Ian Poulter’s Majesticks play against Kevin Na’s Iron Heads.
The winners play the teams that got a bye, with Johnson’s 4 Aces team getting to choose which team it will face Saturday.
The four remaining teams after Saturday compete for the team title Sunday, with all 16 players playing their own ball in stroke play with all four scores counting.