Cam Smith To Face Phil Mickelson In LIV Team Championship Knockouts

Two of LIV Golf's highest-profile players face off in a singles match on the Team Championship's opening day

Cameron Smith and Phil Mickelson
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The match-ups for the first day of the LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral in Florida have been revealed with Cameron Smith against Phil Mickelson a standout singles match as the Australian's Punch GC face Lefty’s HyFlyers GC.

Smith has been one of the outstanding players of 2022, first on the PGA Tour, and then with LIV Golf where he won the Chicago event. Mickelson has struggled by comparison. However, with six Majors to his name, he is undoubtedly a player who thrives on the biggest occasions and cannot be written off.

The quarter-finals of the Team Championship sees the teams seeded 5th to 12th face off in two singles matches and one (alternate shot) foursomes match. Other intriguing match-ups include Smash GC’s Brooks Koepka’s singles match against Niblicks GC’s Harold Varner III. Meanwhile, Joaquin Niemann, who will be hoping to help his Torque GC team progress against Cleeks GC, faces former World No.1 Martin Kaymer in another singles match.

Earlier in the week it was revealed that Majestics GC captain Lee Westwood had swapped roles with Ian Poulter for this week's season-closing finale. It was speculated that the reason for the swap may have been to allow Poulter to play in a singles match given his unbeaten track record in Ryder Cup singles matches, with Westwood in the foursomes. While Poulter is playing a singles match, against Iron Heads GC's Kevin Na, so is Westwood, who faces Sihwan Kim, adding confusion as to why the change was made after Westwood was captain in the previous six tournaments.

The winners from the quarter-finals will progress to the semi-final, where the top four seeds – including Dustin Johnson’s number-one seeded 4 Aces GC - will enter the competition.

All 32 players will play simultaneously in a shotgun start and matches will be played until a winner is found. Each match winner receives one point. The first team to reach two points goes through to Saturday’s semi-finals.

Below is the full list of match ups for the opening round.

LIV Team Championship Day One Match-Ups

  • Smash GC vs Niblicks GC
    Foursomes: Jason Kokrak/Chase Koepka vs Turk Petit/Hudson Swafford
    Singles: Brooks Koepka vs Harold Varner III
    Singles: Peter Uihlein vs James Piot
  • Majesticks GC vs Iron Heads GC
    Foursomes: Sam Horsfield/Henrik Stenson vs Phachara Khongwatmai/Sadom Kaewkanjana
    Singles: Ian Poulter vs Kevin Na
    Singles: Lee Westwood vs Sihwan Kim
  • Torque GC vs Cleeks GC
    Foursomes: Adrian Otaegui/Scott Vincent
    vs Graeme McDowell/Richard Bland
    Singles: Joaquin Niemann vs Martin Kaymer
    Singles: Jediah Morgan vs Laurie Canter
  • HyFlyers GC vs Punch GC
    Foursomes: Bernd Wiesberger/Cameron Tringale
    vs Matt Jones/Wade Ormsby
    Singles: Phil Mickelson vs Cameron Smith
    Singles: Matthew Wolff vs Marc Leishman
Mike Hall
Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 


He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 


Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 


Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.