Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith focus on the start of LIV Miami

The first day of LIV Golf Miamiwhich was contested this Friday in Doral (Florida, USA), had a conflict between Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith the main point of interest, with the Aussie getting a decision point to win the tag team matchup.

They qualified for the semi-finals the Smash by the Koepka brothers, the Majestics by Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, the Cleeks by Martin Kaymer and the Punch by Cameron Smithwho performed the best duel of the day against Phil Mickelson’s Hyflyers.

This last quote from LIV Golfa Saudi initiative aimed at competing on the PGA Tour, the only one played in a team match-play format, with four exempt teams on Friday and directly qualifying for the semifinals on Saturday.

These four teams released from the first day for having the best classification are the Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces, Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers and Louis Oosthuizen’s Stinger.

the fight in between Michaelson and Smith It raised the biggest expectations on the first day and turned out to be the best rivalry in the quarterfinals due to the evenness and emotion it had until the end. With the points already won by Marc Leishman in the individual and the pair formed by Bernd Wiesberger and Cameron Tringale, everything has to be decided in the duel of the captains.

same leader, Michaelson and Smith staged a battle between the most experienced, who has done this route up to 68 times, and the Australian debutant in Doral. There wasn’t much distance in their match and we had to wait until the end to decide the winner. Tied on the last hole and sure enough there, on the eighth green, the American missed a decisive putt which the Australian took advantage of to close his round with a birdie and add the point his team needed to clinch victory.

The surprise of the day is Harold Varner IIIwho dominated his match from the first holes against the Brooks Koepka. Despite the fact that he completed a sub-par tour of the field, Varner III’s card was excellent with five birdies. However, Varner III’s team lost two more duels. “It was very good, I think I did my part, I played well, it was fun, but it didn’t help much,” said the American.

The Chilean Joachim Niemann won his point against Shergo Al Kurdi but his team, the Torques, did not advance to the semifinals. His colleague, the Spaniard, was also fired with him. Adrian Otaeguiwho lost in doubles with Scott Vincent.

After the first day’s contention, the captains of the four surviving teams with the best rankings chose an opponent for Saturday’s semifinals. Dustin Johnson chose Martin Kaymer’s team, Bryson DeChambeau chose Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia for Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka will face the team led by Ian Poulter.

The Fireballs, the Hispanic team formed by Sergio García as captain, his compatriot Eugenio López-Chacarra and the Mexicans Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz, will face this Saturday the Punch of Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby.

The tournament distributes 50 million dollars. One million for the teams that lost in the first round, three million for the losers in the semifinals, four million for the fourth place, six for the third place, eight for the runner-up and 16 million for the winners. Each member of the champion team will pocket four million dollars on Sunday.

This will be the last appointment of LIV Golf this 2022 where Dustin Johnson leads the classification of earnings with more than 13.5 million dollars, followed by Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Peter Uihlein, the three above 7 million.