Kevin Na’s underdogs pulled off a major shock in Saturday’s semi-finals by beating the defending champions, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, 3-0
Before the tournament at Maridoe Golf Club in Dallas, Na’s team had endured a difficult season with sixth at LIV Golf Adelaide the best it had to show for its 13 events.
However, with just one day of action to come in the season, Na’s team, which also includes Danny Lee, Jinichiro Kozuma and the relegated Scott Vincent, is one of four with a chance of lifting the trophy and claiming the top prize of $14m.
Iron Heads GC made Saturday’s semi-finals after producing its first shock, when it beat Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC, which was seeded fifth. However, there were few expectations that the team would overcome the challenge of knocking out DeChambeau’s outfit, which also has Anirban Lahiri, Paul Casey and Charles Howell III.
In the end, Na’s team didn’t just win, it did so in style with a clean sweep. The captain partnered Kozuma in the foursomes match against Lahiri and Howell III, winning 3&1, while Vincent took on Casey in one of the two singles matches, where he finished 1-up. Arguably the biggest shock came when Lee took on DeChambeau, and he finished 2-up against the US Open champion to complete a 3-0 whitewash in DeChambeau’s home city.
Elsewhere, Legion XIII was dealt a blow at the start of the day when captain Jon Rahm withdrew from the Team Championship with ‘severe flu symptoms’ and was replaced by John Catlin.
However, the team, which also features Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent, did its leader proud with a 2-0 win over Phil Mickelson’s Hy Flyers GC, with the most eye-catching result being Hatton’s 5&4 singles win over Andy Ogletree.
Cameron Smith’s Ripper GC is also still in with a chance of finishing first and won their match 2-1 against Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC, while Dustin Johnson’s 4 Aces GC is the over team that still has a chance of making it through to the final won their match against Louis Oosthuizen’s Stinger GC.
The last round has all the 52 players from the 13 teams playing a stroke play with a shotgun start. The individual JILM scores of each of the team members all combine to make up the teamwork score.
However, only the four teams who were victorious in the Saturday semi-finals are still in contention for the Team Championship, with the four defeated teams playing for fifth place to eighth, and the five beaten quarter-final teams battling it out for ninth to thirteenth.