FANTASY PREVIEW AND PICKS FOR MIAMI TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

4Aces GC enters Miami in pole position as Dustin Johnson’s team seeks to win the Team Championship for a second straight year. Crushers GC, Torque GC and RangeGoats GC rounded out the top four teams from the regular season, all which receive a first-round bye and advance straight to the semifinals. 

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Stinger GC, Fireballs GC, Ripper GC and Smash GC make up seeds five through eight, allowing them to draft their opponents for the Quarterfinals. The same selection process will happen for the Semifinals, where the higher-seeded teams selected the club they want to face among those to advance out of the quarterfinals. 

As was the case a year ago, each matchup in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals will feature three matches – two singles matches and a two-man alternate-shot match. The first team to two points will advance to the next round. If there are any ties after 18 holes, the match will continue until a winner is determined. 

New to the 2023 Team Championship, though, is the Sunday stroke play competition in which all 12 teams and 48 players will be on the course fighting for positions. The four winning teams from the Semifinals will compete for 1st-4th place in the Team Championship; the four losing teams from the Semifinals will compete for 5th-8th place and the four losing teams from the Quarterfinals will compete for 9th-12th place. Last year only the top four teams – 16 players in all –were on the course in the final round. 

All scores from Sunday will be used to calculate the final finishing position, so every shot truly does count. 

Fantasy Tips for Miami Team Championship

LIV Golf Fantasy will look a little different for Miami. Instead of making a roster mostly made up of individuals, users will earn points in a bracket-style format by selecting how far they think each team will advance in the Team Championship. No adjustments will be permitted once the event begins, so picks for all rounds will need to be entered by the shotgun start on Friday at 1 p.m. EDT. 

There is some strategy to be used when making your selections. We know the Quarterfinal matchups already and can just pick the team you think will win each matchup. However, we will not know who the top four seeds select to face off in the Semifinals. It's unlikely chalk holds in the Semifinals, but picking against one of the top four seeds to advance will be risky. 

For example, say you are high on No. 7 seed Ripper GC – which finished second last year – and think the Aussies can advance out of the Semifinals. You would want to match them up against one of the top four teams you believe is not going to advance from the Semifinals, even though that team might not actually pick Ripper GC to take on in the Semifinals. 

Finally, when you make your picks for the final ranks of all 12 teams, make sure to fill 1-4 with only the teams you selected to win the Semifinals matches, 5-8 with only the teams who you picked to lose in the Semifinals and 9-12 with only the teams you picked to lose in the Quarterfinals. This will give your entry the highest possible chance to achieve maximum points. 

Now that we are covered on the format, let's make some picks for each round of the Team Championship at Trump National Doral:

Quarterfinals Picks

Stinger GC (5 seed) vs. Iron Heads GC (12)

Kevin Na is an excellent match play golfer who will be tough for Louis Oosthuizen to handle. However, the depth of Stinger GC should simply be too much for Iron Heads GC in the remaining two matches. 

Winner: Stinger GC

Fireballs GC (6) vs. Majesticks GC (11)

Fireballs GC vs. Majesticks GC may be the most entertaining of the quarterfinal matches with a ton of Ryder Cup experience on the board. However, the Fireballs’ surging youngsters of Carlos Ortiz and Eugenio Chacarra will make the difference in this one. 

Winner: Fireballs GC

Ripper GC (7) vs. Cleeks GC (10)

Cleeks GC is coming off its first podium of the season in Jeddah, but Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman will be too much to handle in the two singles games. This Aussie team finished second in the Team Championship last year, so they know how to get it done.

Winner: Ripper GC

Smash GC (8) vs. HyFlyers GC (9)

You must wonder what the dynamic will be like with captain Brooks Koepka basically saying Smash GC has only three players – a reference to Matthew Wolff. Take HyFlyers GC in this one with their trio of veteran players. 

Winner: HyFlyers GC

Semifinals Picks

4Aces GC (1) vs. HyFlyers GC (9)

4Aces GC will get the first pick of the teams to advance out of the Quarterfinals and they will take the lowest seed. While they won't have Talor Gooch, this year’s Individual Champion, to lean on this time around, the defending champions added a bomber in Peter Uihlein, who is finding his early-season form. Ryder Cup veterans Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed will be too much to handle for the HyFlyers. 

Winner: 4Aces GC

Crushers GC (2) vs. Ripper GC (7)

Ripper GC figures to again hide it bottom two players – Matt Jones and Jediah Morgan – in alternate shot and hope Smith and Leishman can pick up the necessary two points in singles. Crushers GC, though, is just so deep with Bryson DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri all performing well the last few events. They also have a Ryder Cup veteran in Paul Casey.  

Winner: Crushers GC

Torque GC (3) vs. Stinger GC (5)

Torque GC passes on the lowest available seed this time, which allows them to avoid a hot Fireballs GC team and take their chances against Stinger GC, a squad with zero individual finishes better than 20th over the last two events. The ball-striking of Mito Pereira, Sebastián Muñozand Joaquin Niemann will be a lot for any team to deal with. 

Winner: Torque GC

RangeGoats GC (4) vs. Fireballs GC (6)

RangeGoats have the top individual player in Gooch as well as Harold Varner III coming off a third-place finish in Jeddah, but Thomas Pieters has not been the player the team was expecting this season and captain Bubba Watson has just two top-20 finishes. On the other hand, every Fireballs GC player finished top-18 in the last two events and will be very tough to knock off in a match-play format. 

Winner: Fireballs GC

Finals Picks

Team Rankings

1. 4Aces

2. Fireballs

3. Crushers

4. Torque

5. RangeGoats

6. Stinger

7. HyFlyers

8. Ripper

9. Smash

10. Cleeks

11. Iron Heads

12. Majesticks

4Aces GC goes back-to-back in the Team Championship after holding off a Fireballs GC group that made a strong effort but runs out of steam after starting the week in the Quarterfinals. The experience of Johnson and Reed – along with the fact that both have wins at Doral – will simply be too much for the rest of the teams that advanced out of the semifinals. A difference of 18 strokes separated the first- and fourth-place teams in the final round of the Team Championship last year but expect a much tighter battle between these stout four teams. 

RangeGoats GC wins the 5th-8th battle with Gooch and Varner firing a pair of rounds in the mid-60s. Stinger GC has six podium finishes this season, which is tied for the second most in the league. I expect them to end the season strong after a rough last two events. 

A return to stroke play will be welcome for Smash GC, where Brooks Koepka and Jason Kokrak will lead the way in besting the other three teams that went out in the Quarterfinals. Cleeks GC will be hot on their heels along with the scrappy Iron Heads, while Majesticks GC will ends the season in last place, a position they have finished in two of the last three events. 

Ryan Andrade has covered golf, college basketball, and motorsports for RotoWire since 2016. He was nominated for "DFS Writer of the Year" in 2021 by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association.