|
The 2024 LIV Golf season draws to a close with the Team Championship. After the near-drama of last week when Jon Rahm took control of the event and the Individual Championship in the second round and Joaquin Niemann played well, but could never quite catch the Spaniard, there will be a very different drama this week in the LIV Golf-specific format of a Team matchplay-strokeplay event. The format is as follows. The three teams ranked 1st to 3rd in the Team Standings through the season receive a bye to the semi-finals. The quarter-finals are contested by the remaining ten teams with the teams ranked 4th to 7th in the Team Standings through the season being able to choose their opponents. The team ranked 4th gets the 1st choice of opponent, the team ranked 5th getting the 2nd choice, and so on. The winners of these quarter-final matches progress to the semi-finals, where the team ranked 1st in the Team Standings through the season getting the 1st choice of opponent, the team ranked 2nd getting the 2nd choice, and so on. In the two knockout rounds, each match between the two teams involves all four players in two singles, both worth one point, and one foursomes worth one point. Whichever team wins at least two points from these three matchups progresses to the next round. On Sunday, the four remaining teams compete in a strokeplay event with the scores from all four players counting towards a team’s score. The winner is the team with the lowest cumulative score on that day. The other teams also take part on Sunday in a similar format, but the performances of the teams who lost in the semi-finals are used to determine positions 5th to 9th in the overall team standings, while those who lost in the quarter-finals also compete in a similar format to determine positions 10th to 13th in the overall team standings. After Trump National Doral has hosted this event for two years, LIV Golf has moved to a new location for this year’s event: Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, 30 minutes north of Dallas. While the Golf Club has a long history, formerly as the Columbian Club and then the Honors Club, this incarnation is new. Acquired by Texas oil man Albert Huddleston and given a new name (the nickname of his wife Mary), the course underwent a major re-design under Steve Smyers and Patrick Andrews. Huddleston’s goal was to create a tough enough test that would attract significant golfing events to Dallas. After hosting a number of important amateur events since it opened in 2017, this is the first major professional tournament held here. The remit to create a tough course was certainly met. The USGA has given Maridoe Golf Club a slope rating of 155 (the maximum allowed) and a course rating of 79.6 from the ‘Plates’ tees. According to the USGA, the course rating is “an indication of the difficulty of a golf course for the scratch player under normal course and weather conditions”, i.e. a scratch player would be expected to be eight-over-par in normal conditions on this course. By comparison, the USGA gave the following ratings for the host course for this year’s U.S. Open, Pinehurst No.2, from the U.S. Open tees: slope: 149; course rating: 77.9. The above event format, the history of the last two years in this event and the course description are sufficient to highlight two angles this week. Angles to consider: 1. Ball-striking should be paramount this week Given the reputation of this week’s course, there is a tendency to focus on straight and accurate players. The amount of water in play and the firmness of the Bermudagrass throughout the course suggests that accuracy should be paramount, but this is an event played in September. According to reports, the rough is not as lush or penal as is the case in Spring or early Summer, so driving accuracy is less important at this stage of the year other than around water hazards. That leaves overall ball striking as the most important metric. As such, the greens in regulation stats should be the best indicators of who should fare well on this course. 2. Seedings matter The winner of this event in the last two years have been 4Aces GC, who were ranked 1st in the Team Standings through the season, and Crushers GC, who were ranked 2nd in the Team Standings through the season. The fact that they only have to win one match to progess to Sunday and the top seeds can choose their opponents makes it extremely likely that the top two seeds will feature in Sunday’s strokeplay event. At this point it becomes like a normal Sunday in LIV Golf with all four scores counting, but only those scores on this day rather than throughout the full three days. This means that the teams that fare well throughout the season are the ones to manage to fare well across all four players, but just one or two marquee players. Selection The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following team has been selected. Crushers GC
Bryson DeChambeau’s team finished 1st in the Team Standings through the season and so will get first choice of opponents in the semi-final. They secured this ranking ahead of Legion XIII with victory at last week’s event, an event that highlighted the difference between the two teams. While Rahm and Hatton finished 1st and 4th in that event, their team-mates finished 23rd and last. This perfectly matched their season-long individual standings of 1st, 4th, 41st and 54th. This is an imbalanced team that will struggle to compensate for the struggles of two players when all scores count on Sunday. By contrast, the Crushers GC players finished 6th, 6th, 13th and 42nd last week, which correlates well with their overall standings of 8th, 11th, 16th and 32nd in the individual standings, and that last ranking is lower only because Charles Howell III missed four of the 13 events through injury. These two teams were so far ahead of the 3rd placed team, Ripper GC, and their form, particularly of captain Cameron Smith, has been so mixed, that it is hard to see them as serious contenders. Likewise, Smash GC are a very capable team with Brooks Koepka as captain, but his inconsistent form was all too evident last week. And in terms of course fit, again it should the more balanced team of Crushers GC. DeChambeau, Casey and Lahiri has been playing very well with strong ball-striking stats for some time. The only concern is over Howell III who hasn’t reached his early season highs in the two events since his return. By contrast, Rahm and Hatton have been consistently two of the best players in LIV Golf, particularly since Nashville but the weaknesses in Kieran Vincent’s game and Caleb Surratt’s youthfulness in both his game and mental strength will be severely tested this tough course. Vincent was relegated last week, while Surratt has finished in the top-40 just once in the last four tournament and shot 18-over-par last week. Both will need to perform much better if Legion XIII is to justify its favouritism in the odds market. It’s better to look behind them in what should be a contest between two teams. 0-1; -6.00pts 6pts win Crushers GC 16/5 Bet365 7th
|
