DORAL, Fla. — Graeme McDowell holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole to win a foursomes match and send the Cleeks to a surprise victory over Cameron Smith‘s Ripper team Friday in the quarterfinals of the LIV Golf team championship.
Smith had to go 19 holes in a singles match against Martin Kaymer, while Richard Bland of Cleeks easily handled Marc Leishman to set up the decisive point in foursomes.
In other matches, Brooks Koepka needed only 14 holes to beat Phil Mickelson at Trump Doral, only for Mickelson’s HyFlyers team to beat Smash. Cameron Tringale won his singles match, while James Piot and Brendan Steele beat Chase Koepka and Matthew Wolff.
Louis Oosthuizen and his Stinger team routed the Iron Heads led by Kevin Na, while the Mexican duo of Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz took down former Ryder Cup stalwarts Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood in foursomes. That was the decisive match in Fireballs advancing over the Majesticks.
The top four seeds had a bye and then could choose their semifinals opponent for Saturday. Defending champion 4 Aces captain Dustin Johnson picked Mickelson’s HyFlyers. Bryson DeChambeau and his Crush will play the Cleeks.
In the other semifinals, Torque will face Stinger and the Range Goats will play Fireballs.