Surprise, surprise! Captains reveal lineup twists for Team Championship quarterfinals

CARROLLTON, Texas – Sergio Garcia finds that playing singles in a match play competition can be “a little lonely.”

He won’t be lonely Friday.

Garcia, the Fireballs GC captain who finished as the third-best individual performer in the LIV Golf League this season, took advantage of the format switch allowing captains to compete in either singles or foursomes at this year’s Dallas Team Championship.

Quarterfinal matchups were announced Thursday at Maridoe Golf Club, with Garcia opting to join Fireballs teammate Abraham Ancer in a foursomes match against Majesticks GC’s Lee Westwood and Sam Horsfield. That leaves Eugenio Chacarra and David Puig – the two youngest players competing in the quarterfinals – going up against Ryder Cup veterans/Majesticks co-captains Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter in the two singles matches.

“I’ve always enjoyed having someone to put my arm around or his arm around me when we’re on the course,” said Garcia, who has a stellar 12-4-3 Ryder Cup foursomes record. “That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been successful in both foursomes and fourballs.”

Garcia’s decision was one of several surprises revealed by the captains of the 10 quarterfinal teams. Two singles and one foursomes match are set for each of the five team vs. team matchups, with the team winning two of those matches advancing to Saturday’s semifinals, to be joined by the teams with the three byes – Crushers GC, Legion XIII and Ripper GC.

In addition to Garcia, four other captains opted to compete in foursomes instead of singles: HyFlyers GC’s Phil Mickelson will partner Brendan Steele; RangeGoats GC’s Bubba Watson will partner Matthew Wolff; and Stinger GC’s Louis Oosthuizen will join longtime friend Charl Schwartzel against Cleeks GC’s Martin Kaymer and teammate Richard Bland.

Of the five quarterfinal matches, the only one which pits captain against captain in singles is Smash GC’s Brooks Koepka vs. Iron Heads GC’s Kevin Na. With 4th-seeded Smash as the highest-seeded team competing Friday, Koepka had his choice of opponents and selected the No. 13 Iron Heads, the lowest-seeded team.

Captains did not find out their opponents’ lineup until Thursday’s reveal. For the rest of the Smash-Iron Heads matchup, Talor Gooch will face Danny Lee in the other singles, while Graeme McDowell-Jason Kokrak take on Jinichiro Kozuma-Scott Vincent in foursomes.

“This board kind of came up exactly how probably myself and Kevin kind of thought it was going to go,” said Koepka, the all-time LIV Golf leader in wins with five.

Said Na, whose team has is 0-6 in their previous quarterfinals matches: “Yeah, this is what I was expecting. I thought about throwing a curveball in there, but I talked to the guys, and everybody actually wanted to play singles, which is a good sign. I think everybody wants to show what they can do and what they’re capable of.”

It was Mickelson who threw the first curveball, opting to send out 2019 U.S. Amateur champ Andy Ogletree in No. 1 singles, knowing that his opponent would likely be Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann, who finished the year as the second-best player behind Individual Champion Jon Rahm.

That left Cameron Tringale (3-0 in his three LIV Golf singles matches) against Sebastián Muñoz, while Mickelson-Steele will take on Mito Pereira-Carlos Ortiz.

“Steely and I are really annoying to play against,” Mickelson said with a mischievous smile. “I’m annoying, but when you put me and Steely, it goes to another level. I feel like that could be a challenge just dealing with that.”

Said Niemann: “We thought Phil was going to play by himself, but we knew he could think about it and do something different like he just did.”

Then it came time for Garcia’s reveal. He’s putting big faith in his two youngsters – Puig is 22, Chacarra is 24 – against Stenson and Poulter, who are each 48 years old and have played in a combined 12 Ryder Cups. Garcia said his lineup is the best way for the Fireballs to sweep the Majesticks after beating them 2-1 in the quarterfinals a year ago.

“I don’t want to win just two,” Garcia said. “We want to try to get three.”

Garcia and Stenson good-naturedly jawed at each other. Although the Fireballs won last year, Stenson beat Garcia in singles, 1 up.

“I can see why he changed that from last year’s results,” Stenson said.

“I thought you were going to play foursomes,” replied Garcia. “That’s why I put myself there. But I guess you don’t want that.”

Oosthuizen, who had already made one semi-surprising move by opting to take on the 8th-seeded Cleeks instead of the 9th-seeded RangeGoats, then made another by removing himself from singles. Like Garcia, Oosthuizen was one of LIV Golf’s top performers this year, finishing sixth in points.

Branden Grace, one of five players relegated after this year, will take on Adrian Meronk in No. 1 singles while Dean Burmester faces Kalle Samooja, also relegated, in the other singles match.

Oosthuizen has a solid history with Schwartzel as a partner, plus they play the same golf ball, “which is huge in foursomes,” he said. But again like Garcia, maybe he just likes having a partner for 18 holes. “I want to have some good conversation on the course,” he smiled.

Oosthuizen was surprised that Kaymer didn’t use Bland in singles. But it makes for an intriguing matchup. Oosthuizen and Schwartzel have each won a major; Kaymer has won two; and Bland won two senior majors this year.

“Yeah, we’ve got more majors than they have,” Bland said. “It’s going to be a tough game. I think we kind of had Louis and Dean playing singles, so a little surprising to see Louis there in foursomes.”

RangeGoats captain Watson was the only captain to finish in the Drop Zone this year, so it’s not a big surprise that he opted to play foursomes against the 4Aces. Maybe it also shouldn’t be a surprise that he picked Wolff, the team’s top-ranked player, as his partner. They’ll face Harold Varner III-Pat Perez, while Peter Uihlein plays Dustin Johnson, and Thomas Pieters takes on Patrick Reed in the two singles matches.

Uihlein, a 2010 U.S. Amateur champ, is 3-0 in LIV Golf singles. Pieters plays a different ball from Watson. So, Wolff was the choice. “He’s fun to be around,” Watson explained. “So, me and him can talk video games and talk other things and then golf gets in the way. It’s going to be blast.”

Fun and surprises. That was the theme during Thursday’s press conference. Expect it to carry over when the first tee balls are struck on Friday.