Cameron Smith has been picked to face off against Phil Mickelson in the first day of the LIV Golf Teams Championship, the finale to the upstart tour’s inaugural season.
Six-time major winner Mickelson will play the reigning Open Champion, Smith, in a singles match at Miami’s famed Doral course on Friday in Florida. The famed Miami-area club, owned by former President Donald Trump and once host of a regular PGA Tour stop won by the likes of Greg Norman, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, is the venue for LIV’s $US50 million finale to its inaugural 2022 season.
On Wednesday, LIV announced its teams matchups for the finale. In short, teams seeded 1-4 sit out Friday while teams seeded 5-12 will compete in head-to-head match-play. For each match-up, three matches will take place: two singles matches and one foursomes match.
Among the most compelling, at least for Australian fans, is to watch world No.3 Smith try to take down golf great Mickelson in match play. All 48 LIV players gathered inside a ballroom at Trump Doral, owned by former President Donald Trump, with jokes flying as the matchups for Friday’s first day of the team competition were revealed.
“The way Phil hits his driver around here, I think he’ll be dropping a few balls out there,” Smith said, throwing shade at Mickelson chose not to needle the Australian who won three PGA Tour events this year before joining LIV, then won LIV’s Chicago stop last month.Asked what Mickelson had to say to that sledge, the American responded, “I mean, the guy is the Champion Golfer of the Year; CGOTY,” Mickelson said. “There’s not much I can say. But I have won here [in 2009], just sayin’. Cam have you even played here at Doral?” Smith inrterjected, “20 years ago. I was two when Phil won around here.” Mickelson then responded, “I think you were at that clinic that I gave. It’s nice to see you were paying attention.”
The 29-year-old Smith said he was eager to face off against Lefty, and believed it would be closer than people think. That is hard to believe given Mickelson has been playing poorly; he has broken 70 in just eight rounds of the 21 he’s played on LIV.
“I mean, it’s not going to be a gimme match,” Smith said. “I think Phil is kind of playing it up a little bit. Phil is still playing some pretty good golf. I think he’s probably beaten me the last couple of weeks. Yeah, so I’m looking forward to it. It should be a good match. We actually played together in Bangkok. Phil played well. He still does it right for an old fella.”
Usually one of the great sledgers in golf, Mickelson appeared to avoid poking Smith instead showering him with praise. Mickelson was asked if he was trying not to poke the bear.
“No, I love the way he plays,” Mickelson said. “I love the way he swings the club. I love the way he hits it. His short game is remarkable. I love the way he rolls it. It’s not just that he makes putts, it’s how he does it. If you watch, he’s looking at the hole all the time. He’s getting out into the putt. If you watch him swing the club, it’s got this beautiful rhythm. It looks like he’s a swinger of the club rather than a slasher or a hitter. I just love the way he plays. I enjoy watching him play and compete. I’m actually going to really enjoy the opportunity to compete against him. I think a lot of him as a player, and not just as a person but how he plays the game I really like.”
Smith is the captain of the all-Australian team, Punch GC. They will face off against Mickelson’s Hy Flyers team. Smith’s fellow Australian Marc Leishman will square up against young gun Matt Wolff.
The top four teams after LIV’s Jeddah event earned byes for day one, meaning the 4Aces captained by Dustin Johnson, the Crushers (Bryson DeChambeau), the Fireballs (Sergio Garcia) and Stinger (Louis Oosthuizen) will face the winners from Friday’s matches.
The format sees two individual matches and one foursomes match, with the team earning two points out of three advancing. There is then an alternate-shot match of Bernd Weisberger and Cameron Tringale against Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby.
That means 32 players on the course Friday in a shotgun start at 12:15 pm/3.15am Saturday AEDT.
Here are all the matches for Friday’s first day:
