LIV Golf: $50m purse up for grabs in Team Championship finale
Talor Gooch may have wrapped up the LIV Golf Individual Championship last weekend in Saudi Arabia, and banked £17m in the process, but the season is set for its climax over the next three days at the Trump National Doral in Miami.
Because on the Florida greens this weekend the LIV Golf Team Championship finale takes place, with the teams competing for a share of the $50m (£41m) purse.
The 12 teams have been competing all season and have been seeded accordingly for this weekend’s shootout.
On Friday teams ranked one through four will be given a bye while teams ranked five through 12 will face off in four match play ties – the fifth ranked side, the all-South African Stinger GC, pick their opponents first before the next three highest ranked sides choose.
Stinger chose to compete against Iron Heads GC before Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs picked Henrik Stenson’s Majesticks. Cameron Smith’s Ripper picked Cleeks GC while Brooks Koepka’s Smash chose Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers.
On Saturday, the four winners from Friday join the top four seeds for another round of match play, with the highest seeds, Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC, picking first.
On Sunday all 48 players from the 12 teams will compete in a shotgun start stroke play with all four scores counting towards the team scores. The lowest combined score from Saturday’s four winning teams will claim the team title and a share of $14m (£11.5m).
Of the prize money, 60 per cent will go into the team account while the four players take 10 per cent each of the remaining 40 per cent. A winning player will pocket at least $1.4m (£1.15m).
Last year’s winners 4Aces – where this year Johnson is joined by Patrick Reed, Peter Uihlein and Pat Perez – go in as the No1 seeds this weekend with 188 points after the individual season.
Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC finished the regular season second with Joaquin Niemann Torque GC and Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats making up the top four teams, who will get a bye on Friday.
Interestingly for Gooch, he could become the first LIV Golf player to win back-to-back team championships with different teams after the former 4Aces player moved over to the RangeGoats GC ahead of this season.
Gooch’s Individual Championship last week earned him a £15m bonus in addition to £1.85m for second place in Jeddah. Added to £13m of previous winnings, it took his season total to $37m (£30m).
That is more than four times the total of £7m he won in five years on the PGA Tour before joining the lucrative Saudi-backed circuit in 2022.
Former Open winner Cameron Smith was a standout performer on the Sunday last year with his 7-under 65 catapulting his Ripper GC team to second place in the rankings.