LIV Golf Miami Team Championship format, explained: Match play, stroke play on tap at Doral tournament
Forty-eight golfers from around the world have arrived in Miami, but only four will leave as the first-ever LIV Golf team champions.
The Saudi-backed tour’s inaugural season comes to a close this weekend with the 2022 Team Championship at Trump National Doral. The course known as the “Blue Monster” hosted a PGA Tour event for 54 consecutive years before being removed from the schedule in 2017.
Unlike most golf tournaments, this event will not be focusing on individual performance. Instead, 12 teams of four players will compete to come out on top and earn the grand prize of $16 million. Dustin Johnson already clinched the title of LIV Golf individual champion earlier this month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
MORE: LIV Golf Miami betting guide, including best bets to win and sleeper picks
If you’re trying to make sense of the format this weekend, look no further. Here’s a full breakdown of how the scoring will work at the LIV Golf 2022 season finale:
LIV Golf Miami teams
The field consists of 48 players split into 12 four-person teams. Each team has one designated captain. The table below is listed in order of seeding.
| Team | Captain | Player | Player | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Aces GC | Dustin Johnson | Patrick Reed | Talor Gooch | Pat Perez |
| Crushers GC | Bryson DeChambeau | Paul Casey | Charles Howell III | Anirban Lahiri |
| Fireballs GC | Sergio Garcia | Abraham Ancer | Carlos Ortiz | Eugenio Chacarra |
| Stinger GC | Louis Oosthuizen | Charl Schwartzel | Branden Grace | Hennie du Plessis |
| Smash GC | Brooks Koepka | Jason Kokrak | Peter Uihlein | Chase Koepka |
| Majesticks GC | Ian Poulter | Lee Westwood | Henrik Stenson | Sam Horsfield |
| Torque GC | Joaquin Niemann | Scott Vincent | Adrian Otaegui | Jediah Morgan |
| Hy Flyers GC | Phil Mickelson | Bernd Wiesberger | Matthew Wolff | Cameron Tringale |
| Iron Heads GC | Kevin Na | Sadom Kaekwanjana | Phacara Khongwatmai | Sihwan Kim |
| Cleeks GC | Martin Kaymer | Graeme McDowell | Laurie Canter | Richard Bland |
| Punch GC | Cameron Smith | Marc Leishman | Matt Jones | Wade Ormsby |
| Niblicks GC |
*Bubba Watson Harold Varner III |
Hudson Swafford | James Piot | Turk Pettit |
* – Watson is a non-playing captain this week
LIV Golf Miami team championship format
There will be three rounds, with the quarterfinals on Friday, semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday.
All 12 teams have been seeded based on their performance so far this season. The top four seeds have received byes into the semifinals, while the teams seeded 5-12 will go head-to-head in a match play format in the quarterfinals. The highest-ranked teams in each round select their opponents.
Here’s a look at the seeding for all 12 teams, as well as the quarterfinal matchups for those in action on Friday.
1. 4 Aces GC (BYE)
2. Crushers GC (BYE)
3. Fireballs GC (BYE)
4. Stinger GC (BYE)
5. Smash GC vs. 12. Niblicks GC
6. Majesticks GC vs. 9. Iron Heads GC
7. Torque FC vs. 10. Cleeks GC
8. Hy Flyers GC vs. 11. Punch GC
Each team matchup will consist of two singles (1v1) matches and one alternate shot (2v2) match. Each match is worth one point, and the team with the most points when all matches are finished advances.
Saturday’s semifinals will have the teams seeded 1-4 select their opponents from Friday’s winners. They will then play the same match play format as the quarterfinals, with the four winning teams advancing to the Finals.
Sunday’s finals format is a little bit different. Rather than match play, the 16 remaining golfers will play stroke play (the over par/under par system typically used in tournaments). At the end of the day, the team with the lowest total cumulative score for all four of its players will be declared the 2022 LIV Team Champion.
If you’re still perplexed, here’s the official format breakdown on LIV Golf’s website.
