The first LIV Golf season wrapped Sunday at Trump National Doral with the 4 Aces GC claiming the 2022 LIV Golf Team Championship crown. Led by captain Dustin Johnson, the all-American squad of Talor Gooch, Patrick Reed and Pat Perez successfully fended off Cameron Smith’s Punch GC, translating a memorable regular season into an even more lucrative year.

After narrowly getting by Cleeks GC in the semifinals match-play portion of the team championship, the top team from the regular season was able to utilize a well-balanced approach to reach a cumulative score of 7 under. This total was enough to skirt past Punch GC by a single stroke and both the Crushers GC and Stinger GC with margin. 

Despite the team championship turning into a two-team race, there were still plenty of pivotal moments unfolding late in the day. The marquee pairing of Johnson and Smith delivered theatrics as the Champion Golfer of the Year signed for the round of the day with a 7-under 65, and Johnson turned on the after burners by delivering down the stretch to come in with a 2-under 70.

While the two headmen for their respective squads were the final pair on the golf course, the battle between the two teams ultimately came down to their teammates. Smith’s teammates Matt Jones, Marc Leishman and Wade Ormsby collectively shot over par, while Johnson’s were more than able to hold their own. 

Perez was their biggest question mark coming into the week but contributed in an impressive fashion for the 4 Aces with a 2-under 70 after a poor regular season.

“I get a lot of grief, people saying I never show up, so I did today,” said Perez, whose best individual finish was a T15 at LIV Boston. “So, everybody can shut up.”

Gooch added a 1-under 71 while Reed carded a 2-under 70 to give the 4 Aces four under-par rounds. Reed’s final stroke proved to hold the most importance as the former Masters champion connected from roughly 10 feet for birdie on his final hole to break the deadlock between the top two teams. A par from Johnson on the 18th hole then secured the team title for the 4 Aces.

With its victory at the 2022 LIV Golf Team Championship, the 4 Aces won a total of five times in its first season together. Raising the trophy at each event held in the United States, the checks will continue to roll in as their effort at Trump National Doral came with a $16 million payday ($4 million per player).

All members of the 4 Aces will be eating good, but especially Johnson as his on-course earnings adds up to roughly $35 million for the season. Finishing the year as the top individual and leading his team to the ultimate prize, the two-time major champion was the clear star of LIV Golf in 2022.

“It has been amazing,” said Johnson. “Obviously, the fans are what makes it. This week has been incredible. The whole season has just gotten better and better and then obviously this finale has been unbelievable. … Coming down the stretch here, you couldn’t draw it up any better with me and Cam [Smith] battling it out to win the team championship.”

The other teams won’t be left scraping their plates as Punch GC earned $8 million for finishing runner up with Smash GC collecting $6 million and Stinger GC taking home $4 million.

Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC were in the mix early and tied for the lead halfway through the round until collective disaster struck for the LIV Golf Jeddah winners. Koepka carded four bogeys over a six-hole stretch while his brother Chase Koepka signed for a pair of double bogeys and sent their name down the leaderboard. 

Stinger GC was never in the fight as LIV Golf Portland winner Branden Grace signed for a quadruple-bogey seven in his third hole of the day and sealed the fate for the South African squad with an 8-over 80.

Here are all the scores from the final day of the 2022 LIV Golf Team Championship

1. 4 Aces GC (-7)

2. Punch GC (-6)

3. Smash GC (+4)

4. Stinger GC (+10)

We’ve got reaction and analysis to the Bermuda Butterfield Championship and LIV Miami. Follow and listen to The First Cut podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  

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LIV Golf is now more than halfway through its inaugural season after completion of play in Chicago. Making headlines both on and off the golf course, LIV Golf has taken its battle to the courtroom, social media and beyond. While the actual play in LIV Golf has been compelling at times, the overall structure, presence and future of the organization remains its most intriguing component in the context of men’s professional golf.

Plenty of questions have been answered since its inaugural event in London from June 9-11, but still more remain without a response. What will the future of this rival tour look like? How will the team aspect of the competition clash with the individual side? Will LIV Golf be able to recruit some of the best players in the world with its Official World Golf Rankings status in the air? Is a court date with the PGA Tour inevitable?

At every step along the way, answers about this league have only produced more questions and clarification has only made the future more complicated. 

The breakdown below is our attempt to share with you everything that’s known to this point as we head into the whatever LIV Golf is going to look like in the future. Whether this turns out to be a fork or bump in the road of professional golf remains to be seen (only the future will retroactively determine that), but it does feel monumental in the moment.

LIV Golf, empowered by its unlimited war chest of resources to throw at the best players, is officially at odds with the PGA Tour. It’s a period of time that has been promised for a long time, and is finally taking place. Let’s take a look at what we know and what we can expect in the weeks, months and years ahead as LIV Golf wraps up its first season at the end of October.

What is LIV Golf?

LIV Golf is a rival golf league to the PGA Tour where the tournaments consist of 54 holes, the fields are limited to 48 golfers and the purses are an astronomical $25 million. Twelve, four-man teams will compete in each event, and the individual purses will be $20 million while the other $5 million will be divided up among the best teams each week.

Who leads LIV Golf?

LIV Golf Investments runs the league, and its CEO is two-time major champion Greg Norman. It is funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which is effectively the financial arm of the Saudi Arabian government. These funds are seemingly limitless as the league has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to players just to guarantee their appearances at the LIV Golf Invitational Series events.

Who is playing for LIV Golf?

It began with Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson headlining the London event and has since grown into a respectable roster. Major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed quickly followed the lead of their fellow Americans. 

More recently, and more importantly, world No. 3 and Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith made the leap after the completion of the 2022 Tour Championship. He was joined by young Chilean Joaquin Niemann as two international players who chose to forgo the Presidents Cup in lieu of playing in the LIV Golf event in Boston. While the initial demographics skewed towards older players like Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Mickelson, there has been an influx of younger talent with Abraham Ancer and Harold Varner III among others.

Here’s a look at the 49 men who currently play for LIV Golf and their Official World Golf Rankings (Bubba Watson is a non-playing captain and is set to compete once fully recovered from injury).

What is going on legally between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour?

Originally, 11 LIV Golf players were a part of an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. This suit also sought a temporary restraining order for Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones and Talor Gooch to participate in the 2021-22 FedEx Cup Playoffs — which was ultimately denied and barred them from playing in the PGA Tour postseason.

Since then, slowly but surely, more and more of the original members have removed their names from the lawsuit. Previously, Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Jason Kokrak and Pat Perez left the suit. More recently, Talor Gooch, Mickelson, Poulter and Swafford followed in their footsteps. 

This leaves only three players seeking punitive damages in a legal battle with the PGA Tour: Bryson DeChambeau, Peter Uihlein and Jones. The trial is set to begin in January 2024.

The Tour has over and over again pointed back to its rules and regulations in this matter and remains set on keeping those who have played on LIV Golf off the PGA Tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan was asked at the Tour Championship if there was any chance LIV Golf members would be welcomed back onto the PGA Tour to which he blatantly answered, “no.”

How has the PGA Tour reacted to LIV Golf?

After a players-only meeting at the BMW Championship led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, sweeping changes have been made to the PGA Tour schedule and the treatment of its star players. Here are the spark notes of this new-look PGA Tour starting this season.

• Top players will commit to at least 20 PGA Tour events: These tournaments will include the eight elevated events as previously designated, four additional elevated events with purses of at least $20 million (to be announced), The Players Championship, the four major championships and three other FedEx Cup events of players’ choosing.
• The PIP will be expanded: The PIP has been increased from the top 10 players to the top 20 for 2022 and 2023. Not only has the player pool expanded, so has the prize pool, which will now total $100 million, double the $50 million previously announced. It is from these top 20 lists that “top players” will be defined.
• Modifications  made for Lifetime Membership: No longer will 15 seasons of membership be necessary. Once a player reaches 20 wins, he will be eligible. With this change, McIlroy has secured his lifetime membership with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth only being a handful of wins away.

Will LIV Golf receive Official World Golf Rankings points?

LIV Golf is still awaiting the status of its OWGR application despite its best attempts to expedite the process. All 49 players recently sent a letter to the OWGR chairman requesting that world ranking points be retroactively applied to its events. Comparing the OWGR without LIV to college football without the SEC or FIFA without Belgium, it is unlikely this holds any merit. 

Meanwhile, players have begun to tee it up on the DP World Tour with some consistency on weeks in which there is no LIV Golf event. The top 50 players in the OWGR at the end of the calendar year will be invited to the 2023 Masters making it a mad dash for players to accumulate as many points as possible before then.

Will the majors allow golfers to play?

That’s an even better question that has at least some clarity. The answer in the short term is: yes. The major organizations — PGA of America, USGA, R&A and Augusta National — likely won’t announce suspensions or bans of players who participate. There is a potential that qualifying criterias are modified in the future, however as of now if a LIV player gains entry through previous exemptions or the adequate OWGR (points which LIV has yet to secure) he should be able to compete.

What is the LIV Golf schedule?

Five events have already taken place in 2022, with three remaining. Here’s a look at what’s left on the schedule for the inaugural season.

• Bangkok, Thailand: Oct. 7-9
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Oct. 14-16
• Miami, Florida: Oct. 27-30

LIV Golf has released a tentative schedule for 2023 with 14 stops around the globe spanning Washington D.C., Spain and Australia. This is unofficial as details have yet to be confirmed.

• February: Florida (course TBD)
• February: California (course TBD)
• March: Tucson (Dove Mountain or the Gallery)
• April: Australia (Sydney or Queensland)
• April: Singapore (Sentosa)
• May: Washington D.C. (CBS Sports can confirm Trump National DC the week after PGA Championship)
• June: Philadelphia (course TBD)
• July: London (Centurion)
• July: Spain (Valderrama the week before The Open)
• August: New Jersey (Trump National Bedminster)
• August: West Virginia (The Greenbrier)
• September: Chicago (course TBD)
• September: Toronto or Mexico (course TBD)
• September: Florida (Trump National Doral)

What does LIV Golf’s season finale look like?

It will not look like the Tour Championship, that is for certain. Taking place from Oct. 28-30, the top four teams in LIV will receive a bye on the first day while teams 5-12 will compete in match-play competitions with the higher-ranked teams selecting their opponents. For each matchup, three matches consisting of two singles matches and one alternate-shot match will take place.

The same format will be used for Day 2 of competition with the four victors from Day 1 and the four teams which received a bye all playing. From there, the four winners from Day 2 will advance to the final stage which will be different.

The four winning teams will compete in stroke play on the final day of competition. All 16 players will compete and all four scores will count towards the team’s score. The lowest team score will be crowned the LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Champion.

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For Cameron Smith, it lacked the historic nature of his final round at this year’s Open Championship or the lights-out golf of his last 18 holes at the Tournament of Champions or the dramatic finale at TPC Sawgrass when he took the Players Championship in March.  But the result Sunday at LIV Golf Chicago as he shot 69 in the final round of his second LIV event to finish at 13 under was exactly the same: he lifted a trophy.

Nobody would compare this trophy — which he won over Dustin Johnson, who finished at 10 under and Peter Uihlein, who also came in at 10 under — with any of his other three this year, but the field Smith conquered was solid and he took home more money ($4 million) than he did at any of the other three events where he was the champion.

Smith, who shot 64, 65 and 66 in the final three rounds of his other wins in 2022, posted was just 1 under through 16 holes after firing 66 and 68 over the first two days at Rich Harvest Farms but shut things down before they could get too dramatic with a birdie-birdie finish to put first place completely out of reach. Johnson, who shot 63 in Round 1 and curiously followed it with a 73-70 finish, could not chase him down on Sunday after ceding an early tournament lead to him in the second round on Saturday (they swapped 1-2 spots on the top of the leaderboard). It was actually Uihlein who gave the best effort, firing 66-69 over the last two days and securing his best finish yet (T2) in the LIV Golf League.

Smith has proven himself an elite closer in big time events, but he can also be a menace to try and catch because of how few big numbers he makes on account of his elite short game. He made just four bogeys on a tough golf course over the final two days at Rich Harvest Farms and cruised to a victory in which he was far and away the top player in the field.

“I think I have to prove to probably myself and some other people that I’m still a great player,” Smith said after his victory. “I’m still out here to win golf tournaments. I’m proud of how I hung in there today. I didn’t really have my best stuff the first eight or nine holes, but stuck it tough and made a few putts coming in. It was nice.”

It’s true that Smith, who started on the first hole in the shotgun start format, did not have his best stuff early. Two of his four bogeys on the weekend came on the first six holes on Sunday, but he righted the ship over the last 12 holes and played them in a combined 4 under to pull away from Uihlein and D.J., who Smith noted provided a nice benchmark for great play in LIV.

“He’s probably the one on the group of players here that you look at and you think he’s going to be pretty close to the top of the leaderboard every week,” Smith said. “I hope he thinks the same about me, and hopefully we can keep this going.”

The duo finished in the top five at the LIV Boston event as well with D.J. taking the trophy in a playoff, and Smith missing that playoff by a single stroke.

It was actually D.J.’s team — the 4 Aces — that pulled through for the team win with D.J. making a birdie at the last to seal the victory. His squad of Talor Gooch, Pat Perez and Patrick Reed squeaked out its fourth consecutive LIV Golf win (all but one of the five team finishes have gone to the 4 Aces) by a single stroke over Smash GC, made up of the Koepka brothers (Chase and Brooks), Jason Kokrak and Uihlein, who anchored them this week against the Aces.

Smith’s word choice after the win was interesting. He said he felt like he needed to prove himself to himself “and some other people” after moving over to LIV, even after winning the final major of the year in The Open at St. Andrews. Certainly Smith has heard from chirpy fans that he sold out to go to LIV and that his game will fall off as he moves away from the most competitive tour in the world, and it was clear in this week that he wants to prove that wrong.

Only time will tell how that plays out. However, his three round at Rich Harvest Farms this week were a reminder of what has been very clear over the last nine months, which is that Smith is unequivocally one of the top three players in the world, just as he’s been for all of 2022.

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The two best players in the field at the LIV Golf event in Chicago remain the top two players on the leaderboard after 36 holes. However, they switched positions on Saturday. Dustin Johnson followed his 63 on Friday in Round 1 with a 73 on Saturday — his first over-par round in LIV Golf — and fell back to 8 under. He’s two back of Cameron Smith, who backed up his 66 in Round 1 with a 68 in Round 2 to get to 10 under and take the lead going into the finale on Sunday.

Smith and Johnson are the class of the field by almost any measure, and they have dominated the first two days of LIV’s first event in Chicago (or at least the first event near Chicago). They should be the two that duke it out on Sunday as they play in the final group starting on the first hole.

The task ahead for Johnson is formidable. Smith is the reigning Players champion and Open Championship winner, and in his three victories this year he has shot 65-66-64 in those final rounds. D.J. is looking for his second consecutive LIV victory, but his play has been inconsistent so far this week with one round in the low 60s and the other one ballooning over par. It’s unclear what’s in store for Sunday, and Smith is the only player in the field to shoot 68 or better in each of the first two rounds.

“It was tricky out there today, and I think I got a couple of breaks and D.J. didn’t quite make the putts he usually does,” said Smith.”It’s going to be tight, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

When asked if there was any part of his game that needed work going into Sunday, Smith declined.

“It all feels pretty good to be honest.” 

It all looked pretty good as well. Smith went out in 32 before making an early bogey on the back, which he erased with two birdies on his final two holes. When he’s driving it accurately — which he was for the most part on Saturday — he is perhaps the best player in the world. Every other part of his game is world-class.

Fittingly, D.J.’s team (4 Aces) and Smith’s team (Punch GC) are fighting for the top spot in the team competition this week as well. For the first time since LIV started, D.J.’s score was not used for his team — only the top two scores are used in the first two days — but Pat Perez (-1) and Patrick Reed (-3) picked him up on Saturday. The 4 Aces are -15, one shot ahead of Punch GC, which used Smith’s 4-under 68 and Matt Jones’ even-par 72.

As for who could challenge Smith and Johnson on Sunday, the list is not lengthy. Peter Uihlein shot the best round of the day on Saturday to slide into third at 7 under, and he’s three back of Smith and one back of Johnson. Beyond that, Laurie Canter and Charl Schwartzel are 6 under, and Bryson DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Lee Westwood are all 5 under.

Sunday is likely going to be what Friday and Saturday were: a Johnson-Smith showdown for $4 million and the fifth LIV Golf title of the year. LIV Golf has been (rightfully) criticized in a lot of ways, but it’s undeniable this week that it’s a league providing a strong Sunday clash between two of the 10 best players on the planet currently. Even though it remains difficult to contextualize what a win for either would mean as it relates to the bigger picture, it should be a fun final 18 holes as Smith and Johnson try to do what they’ve done for the first 36 holes of this tournament: stay ahead of the rest of the pack.

Individual leaderboard

1. Cam Smith: -10
2. Dustin Johnson: -8
3. Peter Uihlein: -7
T4. Charl Schwartzel: -6
T4. Laurie Canter: -6
T6. Bryson DeChambeau: -5
T6. Lee Westwood: -5
T6. Charles Howell III: -5

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At the LIV Golf Chicago event on Friday, Dustin Johnson picked up where he left off a few weeks ago at the LIV Golf Boston event, where he claimed his first title. Shooting an opening round of 63, D.J. leads Cam Smith by three strokes going into Round 2 on Saturday. He also helped his team, 4 Aces, to a total of 11 under, which puts them in line for what would be their fourth consecutive team win.

Johnson, who started on the first hole on Thursday, went out in 30 and only missed one or two shots over the five hours of play in Round 1. With a chance at 59 lingering, he stalled out a bit in the end but was still pleased with his performance, despite playing the last six holes in just 1-under par.

“I struck the ball really well obviously … it was really solid all day,” said Johnson. “Hit it really close. I didn’t have many long putts, but I holed a lot of putt inside 10 feet. I struck it really, really well today.”

When D.J. gets hot, this is what he does. He has the tendency to rip off multiple events in a row no matter where he’s playing or whom he’s playing against. This happened most notably back in 2017 when he won three straight tournaments leading into the Masters before withdrawing from the first major of the year with an injury. He was asked after his round Friday how he was maintaining such a high level of play despite probably playing less competitive golf than he’s ever played in his life (Johnson has played just six times since the PGA Championship in May).

“Right now I feel like I got my swing in a nice groove,” he said. “For me, as long as I hit a couple balls every other day then I can keep it there. Right now, I’m just swinging really well. Fortunately, I’m keeping it going.”

In addition to Johnson’s score, the 4 Aces also counted Talor Gooch’s 2-under number and lead the Punch GC squad — which counted Cam Smith’s -6 and Matt Jones’ -4 — by a single stroke going into the second round.

And if it’s Johnson who is the hottest LIV player going right now, it’s Smith who has been the best LIV player all year, albeit mostly on the PGA Tour and in the major championships. After winning the Tournament of Champions, Players Championship and Open Championship at the Old Course in July, Smith moved over to LIV Golf and finished T4 in his first event in Boston behind D.J. and two other players.

While Smith doesn’t have the beautiful game of Johnson when it comes to ball-striking, he’s been a better scorer throughout the entire year. Whether that’s enough to overcome a three-stroke deficit and the machine-like ball-striking performance D.J. has been putting on of late remains to be seen, but Smith has his Punch GC squad in position to end the mini-run the 4 Aces have been on and get his first post-PGA Tour victory at Rich Harvest Farms this weekend.

Regardless of what you think about LIV, the PGA Tour or the ongoing feud between the two, we can all agree that a Smith-Johnson battle over the weekend would be a delight. The towering, effortless game of a two-time major champion in Johnson facing off against the biggest “he’s got that dog in him” player alive today in Smith. A battle for the ages in the fifth LIV event of the year? Probably not, but the golf should still be great.

Leaderboard

1. Dustin Johnson: -9
2. Cam Smith: -6
3. Matthew Wolff: -5
T4. Charles Howell III: -4
T4. Matt Jones: -4
T4. Henrik Stenson: -4
T4. Lee Westwood: -4

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