Bryson DeChambeau had the luxury of picking Crushers GC’s opponent first ahead of the semi-finals of the team championship at LIV Golf Dallas after an outstanding season for his side.
The quarter-finals at LIV Golf Dallas certainly threw up a couple of surprises. Both fourth seed Smash GC and fifth seed Torque GC were knocked out, with Brooks Koepka and Joaquin Niemann set to play no further part in deciding the team champions at the end of this season of LIV Golf.
For much of Friday, it appeared that it was going to be a fairly dull occasion, with plenty of one-sided games. Koepka absolutely blew Kevin Na away, despite the Iron Heads GC captain really not playing that badly at all. However, there were a handful of dramatic finishes.
Phil Mickelson and Brendan Steele managed to beat Mito Pereira and Carlos Ortiz to help the HyFlyers knock out Torque, while Jinichiro Kozuma and Scott Vincent came from four down to beat Graeme McDowell and Jason Kokrak in a play-off.
Bryson DeChambeau suggests a misconception about LIV Golf after team championship quarter-final
The likes of Crushers, Legion XIII and Ripper will have been delighted with the results as they enter at the semi-final stage. But speaking at the press conference which confirmed the line-ups for Saturday’s game, Bryson DeChambeau was asked about what the wins for HyFlyers and Iron Heads show about the level of competition.
“Well, it just shows the depth of play out here. I think that people are starting to realise how good everyone is and how much we want to fight to win,” he said.
“I think that’s been a big misunderstanding for a lot of individuals out there, and it certainly shows with the Iron Heads doing what they did today. It’s impressive.
“I just can’t say any more positive words about how deep this field is and will continue to be. That’s what’s so exciting about this league.”
The problem with DeChambeau’s statement
Depth has arguably been a big issue for LIV. They clearly have some of the world’s best players in their league, but some of the results on Friday highlighted that some of the quality lower down the order is lacking.
The PGA Tour had a player with the quality of Tom Kim missing out on making the top 50 in the FedEx Cup this year, while no-one arguably on the South Korean’s level was close to being in the positions which would see them relegated from LIV.
Obviously, it is a surprise to see the likes of Koepka and Niemann knocked out, but matchplay does make upsets more likely – though neither Koepka or Niemann did lose their individual games.
And anyone who watched the conclusion of the foursomes match between the Iron Heads and Smash is unlikely to say the final stages of the game screamed quality. Some outstanding putting from Kozuma aside, it was startling how poor some of the shots were.
Certainly, there does not appear to be too much reason for DeChambeau’s Crushers to be too concerned in their semi-final should they play reasonably well on Saturday.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
