Balls Magazine Volume 10

As you may or may not know, the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area gamely braved a Blizzard of epic proportions. I got mine with Crushed Oreos.

As much as it was hyped, like most hyped things, it didn’t really amount to everything it was hyped up to be. We got some much needed rain in LA proper and beautiful snow in the mountains, but no major damages or problems.

The only thing is that means that I didn’t get a chance to play golf or practice.

However, I did want to utilize this week’s post to talk about the big golf thing that did happen this weekend: the first event of the LIV Golf schedule!

I’ve talked about this before and I know that LIV has been and continues to be controversial. Like last time, I want to focus only on the sporting side and not the political.

It seems the LIV folks have listened to some of the criticism from last year and have made some tweaks. To tell you the truth, it’s a lot easier to follow this year. Here is the nitty gritty.

Things that are the same:

• 54 holes
• Shotgun start
• 48 player field
• No cut
• Simultaneous Team and Individual competition

Things that are different:

Team rosters are set at the beginning of the year. The “draft” of team members for each tournament is gone. Instead, there were 12 team captains chosen at the beginning and they picked their team for the whole year. From my understanding, there can be trades during the playing year, but, for the most part, the same players should be on the same team all year long.

There are exemptions, of course, in case of injury, so a player can be added as a replacement to a team at any point in time. In fact, this happened in the first tournament as the captain of Cleeks GC could not play due to a wrist injury.

There are themes and patterns to the teams. There is one team, Rippers GC, made up of only Australian players. Similarly, there is a team made up of only Spanish-speaking players. I think that makes it easier to root for some teams or to pick a team to root for. In addition, LIV have developed a tool on their website to help you pick a team based on your personality.

There is now relegation of players. This was a big thing that I didn’t understand from the first year. LIV have now created a feeder series. The top golfers from that feeder series will get spots on next year’s LIV Tour while the worst individual performers from this year will go down to the feeder tour.

LIV now has broadcast partners. In the US, The CW will carry all tournaments live while major broadcasters in other countries (such as Seven in Australia) will also air them live. There is also a LIV Golf App that will stream the broadcasts for free.

The number of events has doubled from 7 to 14. In addition, the locations are international. 6 out of the 14 events are outside the United States. In fact, this week’s event was in my home country of México, in the gorgeous Mayan Riviera close to Playa Del Carmen.

The Teams

Here are the 12 teams with team members listed and fun facts:

4Aces GC

Dustin Johnson (captain), Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein

This team won the inaugural team competition last year. The roster is made up of all American players. Three of the four finished in the top four in the individual competition last year.

Fun Fact: YouTube golfing sensation Fat Perez is not related to Pat Perez, who has a smoking hot wife that likes to talk shit at Tiger Woods.

Cleeks GC

Martin Kaymer (captain), Graeme McDowell, Richard Bland, Bernd Wiesberger

This team has won 3 majors between them but captain Martin Kaymer is out with a wrist injury. Laurie Canter has taken his roster spot.

Fun Fact: A Cleek is a name for a long iron that was used back in the old days of golf.

Crushers GC

Bryson DeChambeau (captain), Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri

Bryson DeChambeau is known as one of the longest hitters in golf, hence the team name. The team finished second in last year’s competition. Paul Casey had been ranked #3 in the world prior to LIV players being excluded from the rankings.

Fun Fact: Charles’ middle name may or may not be Thurston.

Fireballs GC

Sergio Garcia (captain), Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra

This team is made up of all Spanish speakers. It is one of the new teams that were created this year.

Fun Fact: Miniature bottles of Fireball whiskey do not actually contain whiskey, which prompted a lawsuit.

HyFlyers GC

Phil Mickelson (captain), Cameron Tringale, James Piot, Brendan Steele

Has anyone noticed that Phil Mickelson has lost some serious weight? He’s not pudgy like he used to be.

Fun Fact: This is Tiger Woods’ favourite team….to poop on!

Iron Heads GC

Kevin Na (captain), Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, Danny Lee

This was almost the All Asian Team but they threw in white boy Scott Vincent. If it raycess to say they did that for the female Asian fans? You make the call!

Fun Fact: Top performers on the Asian “International” tour get spots on the main LIV Tour.

Majesticks GC

Ian Poulter (co-captain), Henrik Stenson (co-captain), Lee Westwood (co-captain), Sam Horsfield

They sure have a lot of captains, don’t they? At least there are some famous names on this team.

Fun Fact: The Majesticks’ team motto is “Better Together”. I’m pretty sure that’s a Brexit dig.

Rangegoats GC

Bubba Watson (captain), Harold Varner III, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters

Those team used to be the Niblicks and changed its name. Their logo of a goat has prompted the golf world to refer to them as Satan’s Team and I’m alright with that.

Fun Fact: The GOAT part refers to “golfers on a tee”, not greatest of all time. Allegedly.

Ripper GC

Cameron Smith (captain), Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Jed Morgan

As Aussie as you can get. Should they win a tournament, I guarantee you they will celebrate by doing a shoey. All players are Australian.

Fun Fact: April’s event will be held in Adelaide and I’ll be shocked if they don’t win it.

Smash GC

Brooks Koepka (captain), Matthew Wolff, Jason Kokrak, Chase Koepka

The brothers Koepka have teamed up with their friends Jason and Matthew to form this year’s team. No word on whether the “smash” refers to their golfing or drinking abilities. Probably both.

Fun Fact: Brooks’ wife is not shy.

Stinger GC

Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel,Branden Grace, Dean Burmester

I remember Oosthuizen from old tournaments and crossword puzzles. Someone stole an e and an s from Mr. Schwartzel.

Fun Fact: This is an All South African team which is why their logo is green and yellow.

Torque GC

Joaquin Niemann (captain), Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, David Puig

This is branded as an All Latin team as the team members are from Chile, Colombia, and Spain. It is also the youngest team in the competition. At the very least, the post-match interviews should be interesting.

Fun Fact: Colombia is the leading country in butt-boosting technology.

I know people have very heated opinions about LIV but I watched the Saturday and Sunday coverage and it was fun. The golf course in México was spectacular.

Incidentally, the Team competition was “crushed” by Crushers GC while the Individual competition was won by Charles Howell III. No word on how Gilligan did. Yes, I will beat that joke into the ground like I was an NFL player and it was my wife or girlfriend.

One thing I forgot to mention is that David Feherty is on the announcing team and he was hilarious as always. He made the broadcast fun and interesting.

I will go back to the usual format next week, weather permitting. There is another tournament coming up with an unusual format that should be a lot of fun.

See you next time.