Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood win as Majesticks advance to semi-finals of LIV Golf Team Championship
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Updated 29/10/2022 at 14:25 GMT
Team golf was the focus of attention on Friday as LIV Golf's season-ending event got underway at Trump Doral. It is the Team Championship, and the quarter-finals took place on Friday. Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are seasoned match play veterans from their Ryder Cup days with Team Europe and their Majesticks teams proved too good for the Iron Heads.
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Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter’s Ryder Cup careers may be over, but they showed their match play skills are still sharp by helping Majesticks through to the semi-finals of LIV Golf’s Team Championship.
After seven events which saw Dustin Johnson win the individual prize, focus shifted to the team event at Trump Doral.
The top four teams from the opening seven events were handed byes to the semi-finals, leaving the other eight teams to fight it out.
Poulter, Westwood, Sam Horsfield and Henrik Stenson are Majesticks players, and they took on the Iron Heads.
Poulter led the team off against Iron Heads captain Kevin Na and proved too good.
Despite his latest Ryder Cup appearance ending in disappointment at Whistling Straits last year, match play is still Poulter’s favourite format of the game.
And he proved too crafty for Na, who led early but was swamped by his opponent.
Na won the third hole with a birdie, but Poulter hit back two holes later to draw level.
Poulter did not have to be at his best, as he won two holes to par and closed out a 4&2 win.
Like Poulter, Westwood fell behind early on to Sihwan Kim, but powered back in impressive fashion. He won three holes on the spin mid-way through the round to secure a comfortable 4&3 win.
By that point the Majesticks had booked their place in the semi-finals, but Horsfield and Stenson made it a clean sweep with a 4&2 win over Sadom Kaewkanjana and Phachara Khongwatmai.
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Asked for his feelings about dropping behind early, Poulter said: “I did not like it. He drew first blood and he walked it in and I was like ‘FU’. I am going to make this hard.
"I played great, no bogeys, rolled in a few nice putts and it was head down and focused.
“I was behind, down early doors, but turned it around quick and stayed in front.”
Looking forward to the semi-finals, Poulter said: “I don’t care (who I play). The reason I don’t care is I am going to knock them down one by one. It is the only way in match play. It gets me fired up and I love this format.”
Brooks Koepka was the individual winner in Jeddah a couple of weeks ago, but he was beaten 4&3 by Harold Varner.
Koepka was still able to celebrate as Peter Uihlein beat James Piot 5&3, and Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka took out Turk Pettit and Hudson Swafford to secure a 2-1 win for Smash over Niblicks.
The match of the day was between Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith. The captains of Hy Flyers and Punch respectively were involved in a titanic duel, with both producing top-class golf.
With the points shared in the other two matches involving the teams, it boiled down to a shootout between the six-time major winner and the Open champion.
There was never more than a hole between the pair, and it went to the final hole. Both missed the green with their second shots and played only average chips, Smith from the rough and Mickelson the sand.
Mickelson missed his putt and left the door ajar for Smith. The Australian broke Rory McIlroy’s heart with his putter in the Open at St Andrews, and he rolled it into the centre of the cup for the win.
Graeme McDowell's Cleeks beat Torque to wrap up the quarter-final winners to join the Aces, Crushers, Fireballs and Stingers in Saturday's semi-finals.
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