{"id":287338,"date":"2023-04-19T03:06:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T03:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=287338"},"modified":"2023-04-19T05:58:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T05:58:48","slug":"rivals-candid-smith-admission-ahead-of-aussie-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=287338","title":{"rendered":"Rival's candid Smith admission ahead of Aussie first"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Masters<\/a> over Easter, two LIV Golf<\/a> stars finished in a tie for second, while a third was just a shot further back in a tie for fourth.<\/p>\n

Brooks Koepka<\/a> led through the first three rounds, before losing his way on the fourth day to finish second<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson<\/a> went the other way – starting the final round just one-under, 'Lefty' charged up the leaderboard with a five-under back nine to tie with Koepka for second.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Warner survives axe as Ashes squad named<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Patrick Reed<\/a> could have been right up there too, had it not been for a double on the par-five second, to go with bogeys on 12, 14 and 17. They all finished behind PGA Tour loyalist John Rahm.<\/p>\n

Barely a week and a bit later, those three – along with the 45 other golfers who make up LIV's 2023 roster – are settling in at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide for the breakaway tour's first venture south of the equator.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Mickelson is more than ready.<\/p>\n

"I certainly am excited to keep playing, to get into competitive mode and be here in Australia with this kind of support coming off of the finish at Augusta," he told 9News Adelaide.<\/p>\n

"I'm starting to play some really good golf, I'm excited about where my game is headed, and I'm looking forward to getting back in the mix."<\/p>\n

Mickelson is captain of the High Flyers, who currently languish in 10th of the 12 teams on LIV's standings.<\/p>\n

He insists his side is a chance this week, although he knows the all-Australian Ripper GC – captained by reigning British Open champion Cam Smith – will be favourites, at least among the crowd.<\/p>\n

"The Rippers are going to be tough here, Cam Smith is going to have a lot of support here, and we're appreciative of that.<\/p>\n

"But I'm just hoping to have a chance, because that's what's so fun about playing competitive golf."<\/p>\n

\"Speith's<\/p>\n

Where and when is LIV Adelaide being held?<\/h3>\n

LIV Adelaide is being held at The Grange Golf Club, just outside the Adelaide \ufeffCBD. It will run for three days from April 21-23.<\/p>\n

What's the prizemoney?\ufeff<\/h3>\n

Each LIV Golf event boasts a prize pool of \ufeffabout $30 million, with the individual winner guaranteed $6 million of that.<\/p>\n

Finishing the teams event in last place still nets those golfers about $180,000.<\/p>\n

\ufeffHow does the format work?<\/h3>\n

LIV Golf events are held over three days and 54 holes (that's where the name comes from – LIV is 54 in Roman numerals), as opposed to the more traditional four days and 72 holes on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

The other big difference between the two tours is the shotgun start format of LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

Instead of teeing off on the first tee in groups one after the other, all players start on different holes at the same time.\ufeff<\/p>\n

There are 14 events scheduled for this season. Adelaide is the fourth stop on the 2023 calendar.<\/p>\n

Players are competing for individual and team titles across 13 events of stroke play.<\/p>\n

Players are awarded points based on their individual finishing position, and the player with the most points at the end of the season wins.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

After the 13th event, the individual title is locked up, and the teams are given a seeding.<\/p>\n

At the 14th and final event, teams compete in a knockout style competition to eventually crown a winner.<\/p>\n

The 2022 season was taken out by 4 Aces.<\/p>\n

As seen in other sports, players can in theory move between teams during the season, and each team's roster is not set in stone – two teams have five players on their roster for only four spots.<\/p>\n

The top 24 individual players are locked in for the following season. Finish in the bottom four positions, and that golfer's position could be jeopardy for the following season, with their position filled by a graduate from the LIV International series.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Who is playing in Adelaide?\ufeff<\/h3>\n

These are the line-ups for each of the 12 teams. Italics denotes the captain.<\/p>\n

4 Aces GC |<\/strong> Dustin Johnson<\/em>, Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein\ufeff<\/p>\n

Cleeks GC |<\/strong> Martin Kaymer<\/em>, Bernd Wiesberger, Richard Bland, Graeme McDowell<\/p>\n

Crushers GC |<\/strong> Bryson DeChambeau<\/em>, Paul Casey, Anirban Lahiri, Charles Howell III<\/p>\n

Fireballs GC |<\/strong> Sergio Garcia<\/em>, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra<\/p>\n

HyFlyers GC |<\/strong> Phil Mickelson<\/em>, James Piot, Brendan Steele, Cam Tringale<\/p>\n

Iron Heads GC |<\/strong> Kevin Na<\/em>, Scott Vincent, Danny Lee, Sihwan Kim<\/p>\n

Majesticks GC |<\/strong> Ian Poulter<\/em>, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Sam Horsfield<\/p>\n

RangeGoats GC |<\/strong> Bubba Watson<\/em>, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters, Harold Varner III<\/p>\n

Ripper GC |<\/strong> Cameron Smith<\/em>, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Jed Morgan<\/p>\n

Smash GC |<\/strong> Brooks Koepka<\/em>, Chase Koepka, Matt Wolff, Jason Kokrak<\/p>\n

Stinger GC |<\/strong> Louis Oosthuizen<\/em>, Branden Grace, Dean Burmester, Charl Schwartzel<\/p>\n

Torque GC |<\/strong> Joaquin Niemann<\/em>, Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, David Puig<\/p>\n

Is there a party hole?\ufeff<\/h3>\n

Yes – the par-3 12th hole at The Grange is a dedicated 'Party Hole'.<\/p>\n

Organisers have appropriately called it 'The Watering Hole', and it has a mix of open-air party \ufeffor rave areas, and more sophisticated hospitality set-ups.<\/p>\n

It's not going to be quite as raucous as the famous 16th at TPC Scottsdale, but \ufeffit will give it a nudge.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Masters over Easter, two LIV Golf stars finished in a tie for second, while a third was just a shot further back in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287352,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287338\/revisions\/287352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/287341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}