The LIV Golf League concludes its 2023 season by leaning into its team format, hosting the LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral in Florida.
And to say the event is lucrative is, well, an understatement. A total of $50 million ($A79 million) is on the line with the four-man team that wins on Sunday earning $14 million ($A21 million).
Recall that in 2023, team winnings at any tournament have gone toward team expenses as LIV Golf tries to have each team become its own independent entity, creating its own value for possible sale to investors. (On Thursday, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson claimed the squads they captain, RangeGoats and 4Aces, respectively, have gotten multiple equity offers.)
With that, here’s how the purse breakdown for the winning team works:
Winning team: $14 millionTeam share: $8.4 million (60 percent)Players share: $1.4 million per player
Similarly, the prize money earned by all other teams will shake out to 60 percent going to the “team” and 40 percent to the players for their week’s work.
The format for the team event on the Blue Monster course is, well, slightly tricky to follow. Friday’s play involves the Nos. 5-12 teams from the season-long standings. The top seeds from these teams chose who they would face in the quarterfinal, and here’s how the match-ups shook out:
Stinger GC vs Iron Heads GC
Louis Oosthuizen vs. Kevin Na
Brendan Grace vs. Scott Vincent
D. Burmester/C. Schwartzel vs. S. Kim/D. Lee
Ripper GC vs. Cleeks GC
Cameron Smith vs. Martin Kaymer
Marc Leishman vs. Richard Bland
M. Jones/J. Morgan vs. G. McDowell/B. Wiesberger
Fireballs GC vs. Majesticks GC
Sergio Garcia vs. Henrik Stenson
Eugenio Chacarra vs. Sam Horsfield
A. Ancer/C. Ortiz vs. I. Poulter/L. Westwood
Smash GC vs. HyFlyers GC
Brooks Koepka vs. Phil Mickelson
Jason Kokrak vs. Cameron Tringale
C. Koepka/M. Wolff vs. J. Piot/B. Steele
The team that earns two or more points advances to Saturday’s semifinals, where they face the Nos. 1-4 seeds, who had byes. A similar match-play format is used to determine the four winners.
Come Sunday, all 12 teams are playing to determine the final outcome. All players will compete in stroke play, with all four team scores added together. The lowest score of the four teams that won Saturday matches will be the overall winner, with the remaining teams claiming second through fourth place. The losing squads on Saturday are playing for fifth through eighth place, with the losing squads from Friday playing for ninth through 12th place.
Here’s the prize money payouts for each team this week at Doral:
Winner: $16 million ($1.4 million per player)
2: $8 million ($800,000 per player)
3: $6 million ($600,000 per player)
4: $4 million ($400,000 per player)
5: $3.25 million ($325,000 per player)
6: $3 million ($300,000 per player)
7: $2.75 million ($275,000 per player)
8: $2.5 million ($250,000 per player)
9: $2 million ($200,000 per player)
10: $1.75 million ($175,000 per player)
11: $1.5 million ($150,000 per player)
12: $1.25 million ($125,000 per player)
