The LIV Golf League season concludes with the Team Championship. The previous two season finales have taken place at Trump National Doral in Florida, but this year there is a change of venue as the teams head to Maridoe Golf Club in Dallas.
The regular season comprised 13 events, beginning with LIV Golf Mayakoba and ending with last week’s tournament at Bolingbrook Golf Club in Chicago.
Much of the attention in Chicago was on the conclusion of the season-long Individual Championship title, with John Rahm eventually overcoming closest challenger Joaquin Niemann for the $18m bonus payout, while there were also matters at the foot of the standings, with five players finishing in the Drop Zone.
However, throughout the season, there has also been a Team Championship, where all 13 of the four-player teams have been jostling for position in the standings, which were finalized at the Chicago event.
That determined the seedings for this week’s $50m finale, with the top three teams in the standings, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, Rahm’s Legion XIII and Cameron Smith’s Ripper GC, having the biggest advantage heading into this week’s event.
The first two days of the Team Championship will see match play of foursomes and singles, while the third day will feature a round of strokeplay to determine the Team Champion. There is a field of 52 (13 teams of four) with no place for regular-season wildcards Anthony Kim and Hudson Swafford.
Thanks to their performances across the season, the top three teams are already through to Saturday’s semi-finals, with Friday’s quarter-finals featuring the 10 teams seeded 4-13. That’s a slight difference to the 2022 and 2023 editions, which handed byes to the teams seeded 1-4.
For the quarter-finals, the highest-ranked teams get to choose their opponents, and all 40 players then begin in a shotgun start.
Each of the five head-to-head match-ups will consist of three matches, with two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match.
Matches will continue until a winner is found. There are no ties, and the winner of each match receives a point. The five teams to claim at least two points over the day will progress to the semi-final stage.
Eight teams will compete in Saturday's semi-finals, with the five that progressed from the quarter-finals joined by the top three seeded teams.
Like Friday, the top seeds select their opponents, and they then play in an identical format to the quarter-finals.
Four teams will have at least two points by the end of the day, and they will have the chance to compete for the Team Championship in the final on Sunday.
In a change to previous editions, captains can opt to participate in the singles or foursomes matches during the first two days of match play.
Sunday’s final sees all 52 players compete in a round of strokeplay in a shotgun start, similar to a round of a regular event. The individual scores of all four contribute to their team’s overall points score.
However, only the four teams who won at the semi-final stage have the chance to win the top prize. They compete for positions 1-4, with the beaten semi-finalists competing for positions 5-8. That leaves the five teams knocked out at the quarter-final stage, who play for positions 9-13.
The team with the lowest score of the four that reached the final will be crowned LIV Golf Team Champion.
The final position of each team will determine the prize money, with the winning team earning $14m, the team finishing second earning $8m and the team finishing third claiming $6m. The team that finishes 13th will earn $600,000.
Of the money the teams earn, 60% will be reinvested into the franchises, with 40% being distributed among the players. That means the winning team will be boosted by $8.4m, with the four players each receiving $1.4m.
LIV Golf Team Championship Format - At A Glance
Quarter-Finals
- Teams seeded 1-3 will receive a bye
- Teams seeded 4-13 will compete in head-to-head match-play competitions
- Highest-ranked teams select their opponents
- All 40 players among those 10 teams will compete in a shotgun start
- For each head-to-head team matchup, three matches will take place: two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match
- Matches will be played until a winner is determined; there will be no ties. Each match winner receives one point
- The five teams earning two points will advance to Saturday’s semifinals
Semi-Finals
- Teams seeded 1-3 will join the winning five teams from Friday for another day of head-to-head team match play
- Highest-ranked teams select their opponents via draft
- All 32 players among those eight teams will compete in a shotgun start
- Teams compete in the same format as Friday: two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match, with each match winner receiving one point
- Matches will be played until a winner is determined; there will be no ties
- The four teams earning two points will compete for the Team Championship title in Sunday’s finals
Team Championship Final
- All 52 players among the 13 teams will compete in a shotgun start with one round of stroke play
- All four individual scores count towards the team’s score
- The four semifinal winners will compete for 1st through 4th place
- The four teams defeated in the semifinals compete for 5th through 8th place
- The five teams defeated in the quarterfinals compete for 9th through 13th place
- Prizes are awarded to teams based on their finishing position
- The lowest team score on Sunday among the four teams that advanced to the finals is crowned the 2024 LIV Golf League Team Champions
