The LIV Golf Team Championship quarter-final  draw is set, with some mouthwatering clashes in store to get the final weekend of the 2023 season rolling at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.

For each head-to-head team match-up, three matches will take place: two singles and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match. All 32 players among the eight participating teams will compete simultaneously in a shotgun start and matches will be played until a winner is determined. Each match winner receives one point, and the first team to earn two points will advance to Saturday’s semi-finals.

The pick of Friday’s clashes must be LIV Golf Jeddah champ and PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and his Smash team going up against six-time major winner Phil Mickelson and the HyFlyers. The day’s featured singles matches also includes Fireballs captain and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia versus 2016 Open champion and Majesticks co-captain Henrik Stenson, while Ripper captain and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith will face two-time major winner and former world No. 1 Martin Kaymer, captain of Cleeks. Friday’s fourth singles match will feature 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, captain of Stinger, taking on Kevin Na, skipper of Iron Heads.

Oosthuizen’s fifth-seeded Stinger were given the first selection for their opponents, and now Branden Grace, who finished ninth overall in the LIV Golf Individual Championship standings, will face Scott Vincent, who finished fourth at LIV Golf Jeddah to secure a spot in the Lock Zone and a spot in the league for 2024. In the alternate-shot match-up, the Stingers’ Dean Burmester and Charl Schwartzel will face Sihwan Kim and Danny Lee, who secured an individual win earlier this season in Tucson.

The sixth-seeded Fireballs, coming off a team victory in Jeddah, elected to take on the 11th seed Majesticks, the most experienced squad in the field with more than 2,000 starts among them, and some serious match-play credentials with the likes of Stenson, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter all Ryder Cup legends. A pair of young, rising stars will face off in Eugenio Chacarra and Sam Horsfield, while Ryder Cuppers Poulter and Westwood take on the Mexican duo Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz in the foursomes match.

Seventh-seed Ripper will pair up Matt Jones and Jed Morgan versus former US Open champion Graeme McDowell and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger. Marc Leishman was selected for Ripper’s second singles match, in which he’ll play England’s Richard Bland, who finished 20th in this season’s rankings to secure his spot with LIV Golf for 2024.

The Smash-HyFlyers showdown is the only match-up involving teams consisting entirely of American players. Big-hitting Matthew Wolff will team up with Chase Koepka in the foursomes match, where James Piot will play alternate shot alongside Brendan Steele. For the second singles match, Jason Kokrak will face Cameron Tringale.

The LIV Golf League awarded points to teams based on their finish at each tournament, with values ranging from 32 points (first place) to zero (ninth-12th). Following the 13th and final regular season event, team standings determined seeds 1-12 for the Team Championship. Top-seeded 4 Aces (192 points – Captain Dustin Johnson), second seed Crushers (186 points – Captain Bryson DeChambeau), third seed Torque GC (183 points – Captain Joaquin Niemann) and fourth seed RangeGoats GC (179 points – Captain Bubba Watson) earned a bye and automatically advance to Saturday’s semi-finals.

Following Friday’s results, team captains for the top four seeds and captains for the four quarter-final match-winners will convene, with the higher-seeded teams selecting their opponents for Saturday’s semi-final round. On Sunday, all 48 players among the 12 teams will compete in one round of stroke play, with all four players’ scores counting towards their team’s score. The four teams advancing to the finals will compete for places 1-4, with the teams eliminated in the semifinals competing for places 5-8. Teams eliminated in the quarterfinals will compete for places 9 through 12, with larger prizes awarded to teams based on their finishing position.

Main image: LIV Golf