MIAMI – Dustin Johnson isn’t messing with the formula too much. After all, the 4Aces Golf Club captain knows how to win a team championship on the LIV Golf League.
Johnson’s 4Aces GC entered this week as the No. 1 seed in the team standings and earned a first-round bye at the Team Championship in Miami. While he watched eight teams battle it out Friday during the quarterfinals, he had a conversation with his teammates on who they wanted to pick to play in Saturday’s semifinals.
It didn’t include any deep-dive statistics or matchup philosophies. They went with what felt right.
“We're going to play the HyFlyers,” Johnson said. “I was sitting over here with the team and they wanted to play the HyFlyers, so I said OK.”
That means Johnson will face HyFlyers Golf Club captain Phil Mickelson in a star-studded feature. Another fantastic matchup will pit 4Aces GC star Patrick Reed and HyFlyers standout Cameron Tringale. The team match play pairing will see James Piot and Brendan Steele of 4Aces GC against Peter Uihlein and Pat Perez of 4Aces GC.
“The Aces are the strongest team on LIV,” Mickelson said. “They won it last year. They've led throughout the year this year. We're looking forward to the opportunity.”
While Johnson and his team appear to have the upper hand, there has been a big change since last year. Talor Gooch was on 4Aces GC when it won the team championship in 2022, but this year Gooch played for RangeGoats Golf Club and went on to have the best season of any player. He won the individual championship last week at LIV Golf Jeddah and won three events this season.
Taking Gooch’s spot for 4Aces GC this year has been Peter Uihlein, who has played extremely well. He finished 12th in the season-long individual standings and had five top-10 finishes.