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Previewing the LIV Golf Team Championship

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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.

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 Phil Mickelson’s Hy Flyers team, he will play against Cam 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.

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.