LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship: Legion XIII, Crushers, Stinger advance to Championship Finals

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm defeated his good friend. Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau justified his lineup decision. And Stinger GC Captain Louis Oosthuizen kept the faith with his hottest player.

Now their respective teams will compete for LIV Golf’s biggest team prize in Sunday’s Championship Finals of the Michigan Team Championship.

Legion XIII, Crushers and Stinger each emerged with 2-1 wins over the opponents in Saturday’s match-play Semifinals. All but one of the nine matches played in the Championship bracket reached at least the 17th hole, with all three of the Crushers’ matches against Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC going the full distance.

RELATED: Semifinals recap | Video highlights | Scores

The action was tense and full of drama – and Sunday’s final day of the 2025 LIV Golf season offers the same potential as the format shifts to stroke play at The Cardinal at Saint John’s, with all four scores counting for each team.

“These teams up here are incredible teams, incredible golfers,” DeChambeau said of the final three. “It’s going to be a tough test tomorrow because it’s scoring conditions out there for sure.”

Rahm, the two-time Individual Champion, has a chance to end the season with the Team Championship after he defeated HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson 2 & 1, while his young partnership of Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt posted their second straight foursomes win.

It was an emotional victory for Rahm, who attended Mickelson’s alma mater, Arizona State and considers him a mentor.

“He’s such a good friend. You never want to beat a friend,” Rahm said. “In a weird way, it feels good because Phil and I have a fun rivalry going. It’s a weird feeling but proud of myself and how I fought today.”

DeChambeau opted to take on Smash GC’s Talor Gooch instead of Koepka in singles. Gooch won LIV Golf Andalucía and led his team in points this season, but the decision still generated plenty of scrutiny.

In the end, it was the winning call. DeChambeau made eight birdies to Gooch’s six and needed a birdie on the final hole to win 1 up. Meanwhile, Lahiri held tough against Koepka, who required a late birdie of his own to win 1 up. Foursomes partners Paul Casey and Charles Howell III supplied the other point for the Crushers.

“Look, I could have gone up against him,” DeChambeau said of Koepka, the five-time major winner and five-time LIV Golf champion. “Brooks is a great fighter, and I would have loved to have played against him, but I felt like from a matchup perspective, Talor was going to be a more difficult force today.”

Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann, the five-time tournament winner this year, was expected to be difficult for the Stingers’ Dean Burmester, who won two weeks ago in Chicago and was tabbed by Oosthuizen for No. 1 singles.

Burmester was 4-up through 12 holes, but Niemann showed his championship mettle, clawing back into the match with three consecutive birdies down the stretch. Burmester responded with two matching pars, then won the final hole with a birdie to finish 2 up for the deciding point of the matchup.

“I knew I had to still hit good shots,” Burmester said. “He’s a class player and he proved it.”

Oosthuizen and his longtime partner Charl Schwartzel supplied the other point with a 2 & 1 win over Torque’s Sebastián Muñoz and Carlos Ortiz, two top-10 players this season.

A year ago at the Team Championship in Dallas, Stinger lost in the Semifinals, then shot the lowest cumulative score of any team on the final day to finish 5th. If that happens this Sunday, they’ll win the Team Championship. They enter as the lowest-seeded team among the three at No. 7; Legion XIII and the Crushers finished 1-2 in the season-long points race.

“We all play to be in this situation, to have a shot at it tomorrow,” Oosthuizen said. “It’s going to be go big or go home. We’re going to try our best to upset everyone.”

The Crushers, meanwhile, have a chance to become the first LIV Golf team to win two Team Championships, having claimed their first title two years ago in Miami. Last year, they were upset by the Iron Heads in the semifinals, eliminating their chance to repeat.

“It would mean a lot for our team,” DeChambeau said of a second win. “Hopefully we end on a high note.”

No team has been better this season than Legion XIII, which has the league’s lowest stroke average and the league’s best performance in the final round when the stakes are highest. Legion XIII won four times this season and have won eight of their first 27 tournaments since joining LIV Golf as its first expansion team last year.

“Whatever we’ve done until right now doesn’t matter anymore,” Rahm said. “Tomorrow, you have 18 holes to prove it again, and that’s all we have. It’s the same thing for all of us. It’s been a great season – and now it’s time to hopefully finish it.”

LIV GOLF TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS RESULTS

CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET

1. LEGION XIII def. 10. HYFLYERS GC, 2-1

• Rahm, Legion XIII def. Mickelson, HyFlyers, 2 & 1. All square through 11, Rahm won two of the next three holes in what proved to be the decisive match.
• Tringale, HyFlyers def. Hatton, Legion XIII, 2 & 1. Tringale moved his LIV Golf match play record to 7-0 with birdies on the final two holes to beat the confirmed 2025 Ryder Cupper.
• McKibbin/Surratt, Legion XIII def. Ogletree/Steele, HyFlyers 3 & 1. Legion’s young duo never trailed in winning their second straight foursomes match.

2. CRUSHERS GC def. 8. SMASH GC, 2-1

• Koepka, Smash def. Lahiri, Crushers, 1 up. Lahiri rallied three different times to square the match, but Koepka’s birdie on the 16th match hole proved to be the winner.
• DeChambeau, Crushers def. Gooch, Smash, 1 up. In a well-played match with seven lead changes, Gooch tied the lead with a chip-in on the 17th match hole, only to see DeChambeau respond with the winning birdie on the final hole.
• Casey/Howell III, Crushers def. Kokrak/McDowell, Smash, 2 up. Another back-and-forth affair ended with the Crushers duo winning two of the last three holes.

7. STINGER GC def. 4. TORQUE GC, 2-1

• Burmester, Stinger def. Niemann, Torque, 2 up. Burmester was 4 up through nine holes, before Niemann rallied with three consecutive birdies to make things interesting in the decisive match.
• Pereira, Torque def. Grace, Stinger, 4 & 2. Torque’s relegated player produced perhaps his best performance of the year, posting three early birdies and seven overall for the win.
• Oosthuizen/Schwartzel, Stinger def. Muñoz/Ortiz, Torque, 2 & 1. The longtime South African duo led for all but one hole and improved to 4-0 in LIV Golf foursomes.

RANKINGS BRACKET

3. FIREBALLS GC def. 11. CLEEKS GC, 2-1

• Bland, Cleeks def. Ballester, Fireballs, 6 & 4. After losing the first two holes, Bland won eight of the last 12, seven of those with birdies.
• Ancer, Fireballs def. Meronk, Cleeks, 2 & 1. Ancer won four of the first six holes and never trailed.
• Garcia/Puig, Fireballs def. Kaymer/Kjettrup, 4 & 2. The Spaniards won seven holes with birdies and never trailed.

5. 4ACES GC def. 12. MAJESTICKS GC, 3-0

• Johnson, 4Aces def. Stenson, Majesticks, 1 up. The 4Aces captain birdied the final hole in a match that featured 15 halved holes.
• Reed, 4Aces def. Horsfield, Majesticks, 2 & 1. Reed birdied four of his final five holes, winning three of them to rally for the win.
• Pieters/Varner III, 4Aces def. Poulter/Westwood, Majesticks, 6 & 5. The 4Aces duo were 4 up through six for a comfortable victory against the Majesticks co-captains.

6. RIPPER GC def. 9. RANGEGOATS GC, 2-1

• Smith, Ripper def. Campbell, RangeGoats, 1 up. The Ripper captain won two late holes with birdies to break an all-square match.
• Wolff, RangeGoats def. Herbert, Ripper, 1 up. Herbert fought back from 3 down but Wolff posted the winning birdie on the final hole.
• Jones/Leishman, Ripper def. Uihlein/Watson, RangeGoats, 4 & 2. The Australians won three consecutive holes with birdies midway through the round to take control of the match.

LIV GOLF TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS NOTES

PLAYING FOR POSITIONS: With the match play portion of the Michigan Team Championship now complete, the stage is set for all 12 teams to play for their final positions Sunday at The Cardinal at Saint John’s.

The format will switch to stroke play, with all four scores counting for each team just like during each round of the 2025 regular season.

The three remaining teams left in the Championship Bracket are Legion XIII, Crushers GC and Stinger GC. They will compete for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Each team is getting its second opportunity to win the Team Championship on the final day; the Crushers got the job done in 2023.

Torque GC, Smash GC and HyFlyers GC drop into the top tier of the Rankings Bracket and will compete for 4th, 5th and 6th. For the HyFlyers, they are guaranteed their best-ever Team Championship finish.

Saturday’s winners in the Rankings Bracket were Fireballs GC, 4Aces GC and Ripper GC. They will compete for 7th, 8th and 9th. The 4Aces and Ripper are previous Team Champions.

The three losing teams in the Rankings Bracket were RangeGoats GC, Cleeks GC and Majesticks GC. They will compete for 10th, 11th and 12th.

UNIQUE TEE TIMES: The three teams in the Championship Bracket will utilize four different tee times off the No. 1 tee Sunday, with a player from each team in each group. The first threesome will tee off at 1:05 p.m. ET, the second threesome at 1:16 p.m., the third threesome at 1:27 p.m. and the final threesome – consisting of captains Jon Rahm (Legion XIII), Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers GC) and Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger GC) – will tee off at 1:38 p.m.

THE SLOW BURN GAME: Smash Captain Brooks Koepka and Crushers GC’s Anirban Lahiri were playing mind games with each other during their singles match, especially by slowing the pace of action. Lahiri was deliberately slow, Koepka even slower, and eventually they were put on the clock but suffered no penalties after speeding up their play.

“I think it took us five holes,” said Koepka who won the match 1 up. “It wasn’t long, but I felt like we could play the rest of the holes at my pace, and I felt like I did.”

Asked if he was aware about the slow pace of his teammate’s match, Crushers Captain Bryson DeChambeau said, “They were definitely farther behind. I’m sorry about that. It’s just fun. We’re trying to have a good time. We’re trying to win, right?”

LEGION XIII’S YOUNG FOURSOMES: Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt are the only two Legion XIII players to be undefeated in the first two days, as they won both their foursomes matches while Captain Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton each went 1-1.

It’s been an impressive performance for the 21-year-old Surratt and 22-year-old McKibbin. They led for 28 of the 34 holes they played over the two rounds and never trailed. They won nine holes to their opponents’ four.

“They both wanted to be here, and they both wanted to do well,” Rahm said. “They’re both for the most part quite collected individuals. Me and Tyrrell take the other side of the coin. It’s nice to see two young guys so even keel throughout the whole thing.”

Rahm said the experience both players are receiving in the match play competition this week should prove extremely valuable later in their careers.

“When I first spoke to Tom before coming to LIV, this is the tournament that obviously one of the weeks that came to mind and something we’re really excited,” Rahm said. “That can get you ready for many future things.”

LOUIS AND CHARL SHOW: The Stinger GC pairing of Captain Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel goes back to their first Presidents Cup together in 2013. They played foursomes the last two years at the LIV Golf Team Championship and are 4-0, including Saturday’s win.

What makes the South African veterans so successful? “We’re just very comfortable around each other,” Oosthuizen said. “I don’t think we’ve ever said sorry to each other if we hit a bad shot. … It’s just a very good relationship. We’re pretty good together.”

NUMBERS FOR THE TOP THREE: Legion XIII led the league in team scoring this season at 267 under (69.5 stroke average), including 96 under in the second round and 119 under in the third round, also league bests.

Crushers GC ranked second in scoring at 243 under (69.8 stroke average) and led the league in first-round scoring (86 under).

Stinger GC ranked sixth overall in scoring at 165 under. Their most productive round was the final round at 94 under, third best of any team.

TRINGALE NOW 7-0: HyFlyers GC's Cameron Tringale moved his LIV Golf match play record to a perfect 7-0 with his win over Tyrrell Hatton. Tringale won his first match in foursomes in 2022 and has won his last six matches in singles. Included among the players he has defeated are two players with Ryder Cup experience in Hatton and Patrick Reed and two former Presidents Cup players in Abraham Ancer and Sebastián Muñoz. All four of those players have won LIV Golf tournaments.

HOT BLANDY: Cleek GC’s Richard Bland won the most holes of any player on Saturday, claiming eight holes as he beat Fireballs GC’s Josele Ballester 6 & 4. At age 52, Bland is 30 years older than Ballester, who joined the league at mid-season.