Majesticks GC beat Iron Heads GC 2-1 on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the LIV Golf Team Championship Michigan.
The two teams finished at the bottom of the LIV season standings, requiring them to play in LIV’s first-ever play-in match.
It was the work of the singles players for the Majesticks at The Cardinal at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Mich., that sealed the victory over the Iron Heads.
Lee Westwood defeated Danny Lee and Sam Horsfield topped Yubin Jang, both with 1-up finishes, to send Majesticks to the next round. In foursomes play, Iron Heads’ captain Kevin Na and Jinichiro Kozuma defeated Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter 4&2.
The two singles matches were even through the first 16 holes, with both Westwood and Horsfield seizing control on the par-4 17th hole by making birdies.
“We weren’t really giving anything away,” Westwood said of his match with Lee. “I think both of us were struggling to get going and get any momentum.”
Westwood was 2-up after 12 holes, but Lee caught up by winning the next two holes.
“He gave me a good read on a putt on 17, and I made it from I guess about 18 feet to go 1-up,” Westwood said. “Then I got a really lucky/good drop for line-of-sight on 18 and then played a great shot from under the trees and made the most of it, got it in there to about 6 feet, and that was really the game done then.
“A little bit fortunate. It was a good game. I think a half would have been probably a fair result, but happy to nick it.”
Horsfield was 1-up after 14, but Jang tied the score with a birdie on No. 15 ahead of the decisive 17th hole.
“I was just trying to fight for the boys, and I felt like I played pretty well today,” Horsfield said. “Yubin obviously holed some pretty nice putts. He chipped in on me. So to get the win was really nice.”
Stenson, one of Majesticks’ three captains, will be hoping for a better end to the season for both himself and his team. He faces relegation for failing to finish in the top 48 by the time the individual season ended Sunday at LIV Golf Indianapolis.
“Yeah, obviously it’s not been a great season for us as a team, or we wouldn’t have been here playing this morning. I think we have a chance to redeem ourselves in that sense,” Stenson said.
“On a personal note, yeah, obviously a disappointing season and a disappointing Sunday for me, having done some good work on Friday and Saturday to put myself in a pretty good position, but had a bad start and couldn’t rally back on Sunday. I made a couple of birdies coming home but not enough to make up for the start.
“Yeah, all in all, a disappointment there, but yeah, this is the last week. This is the team event, so we’re going to go out and try our hardest here for the next three days, Friday through Sunday, and see if we can finish it off on a brighter note than we felt we did on Sunday.”
Legion XIII, captained by individual season winner Jon Rahm, are the top seed entering the weekend.
They are followed by Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC, captain Joaquin Niemann and Torque GC, and 4Aces GC, led by captain Dustin Johnson.
–Field Level Media
