The 13th-seeded Iron Heads GC added another chapter to their amazing Cinderella story at the LIV Golf Dallas Team Championship, sweeping the top-seeded and defending champions Crushers GC in Saturday’s semi-finals at Maridoe Golf Club.
But Kevin Na’s squad isn’t the only team authoring a compelling run to Sunday’s championship round.
Legion XIII entered the week as the No 2 seed with a league-high four wins but lost captain Jon Rahm, who withdrew prior to Saturday’s semi-final with flu-like symptoms. Rahm won the season-long Individual Championship last week.
The all-Australian Ripper GC, captained by Cameron Smith, won twice in the regular season, including an epic playoff victory in their home country at Adelaide, and can now look to complete their own dream season.
And Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC, who won the inaugural Team Championship in 2022, seek to redeem themselves after a disappointing regular season that was very un-Ace-like, resulting in the 10th overall seed.
But it’s the Iron Heads who have easily been the biggest surprise in the first two days at Maridoe. After defeating No 4 seed Smash GC in the quarter-finals, they crafted another upset against the Crushers.
Danny Lee’s 2-up win in singles over Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau, a Dallas-area hero and reigning US Open champion playing in front of his hometown fans, registers as arguably the largest shock in the young history of the Team Championship.
“I felt like I took down a Goliath today,” Lee said. “It’s Bryson DeChambeau, the most popular golfer on the planet right now.”
Meanwhile, Scott Vincent beat Paul Casey 1-up while Na and Jinichiro Kozuma – the hero in Friday’s foursomes win – beat Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III, 3 & 1.
“I’m really proud of my boys,” Na said. “It’s a great feeling, a confidence boost the last two days going into Sunday. I’m telling my boys, anything can happen.”
The Iron Heads have never won a tournament as a team and have just one podium finish in the 35 previous LIV Golf events, none this year. Until this week, they had never won a single match at the Team Championship, much less advanced to the next round. Lee’s individual title last year in Tucson remains the only trophy won by any Iron Heads player.
But now they are one of four survivors with a chance to claim LIV Golf’s biggest team prize. Sunday’s championship round will be stroke play, with every score counting for each team’s total.
“Iron Heads are highlighting the underdog story,” Casey said. “Everybody loves an underdog story. You’ve got a lot to cheer about them … They are a great story. I mean, in a weird way, you always kind of root for the guy that beat you. So, I’m always a Crusher, but maybe, we’ll be secretly cheering for those guys.”
The unexpected development in losing Rahm didn’t derail Legion XIII against HyFlyers GC. Reserve player John Catlin took his place in No 1 singles and pushed Cameron Tringale to 20 holes before losing.
Meanwhile, Tyrrell Hatton beat Andy Ogletree 5 & 4 in the other singles while youngsters Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent handled HyFlyers Captain Phil Mickelson and Brendan Steele, 4 & 3, in another surprising outcome.
“It would have been nice to have him playing today,” Hatton said of Rahm. “He’s a pretty special player. But ultimately, we still have to go out there and give it our best, and thankfully we were able to advance to tomorrow.”
Smith said his decision to play foursomes with Matt Jones wasn’t a risky one, given that they both play the same ball. But it looked to backfire when they lost to Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia and Abraham Ancer.
“Jonesy and I have very similar games, and we play the same ball, so it was really a no-brainer for us, although probably from the outside it looked like a bit of a squiff decision,” Smith said.
Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert both had to rally to beat their opponents in singles for Ripper to advance. Leishman had to make a clutch par putt to beat Eugenio Chacarra on the first playoff hole.
“That might have been the most I felt my heartbeat, ever,” an emotional Leishman said.
The 4Aces also had to rely on their singles players after the Stinger GC duo of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel beat Pat Perez and Harold Varner III in foursomes. Johnson outlasted Dean Burmester and Patrick Reed beat Branden Grace in matches that each went 18 holes.
“Obviously, we’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves tomorrow,” Johnson said. “If we all four play well and we win the whole title, then yeah, you kind of forget about the rest of the year.”
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