21 October 2023 , 20:51
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Sergio Garcia has echoed fellow LIV Golf captain Bryson DeChambeau in calling for the format of the breakaway league's Team Championship to be changed.
All 48 LIV players are in action at the season finale in Miami this weekend, as the team element comes into play. Having been seeded, the Saudi-backed league's 12 teams compete against each other, before Sunday's final round is a stroke play event across 18 holes.
The event kicked off on Friday, with the eight lowest ranked teams facing off in four quarter-final clashes. Once the fixtures are decided, the captains from either team face off in a singles match, before electing one of their players to compete in the second one-on-one match. The remaining two players from either team then link up to take each other in a foursomes matchplay clash.
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Garcia and DeChambeau, though, would like to see more leniency when it comes to making pairings. "I'm a huge advocate for that [changing the pairings format]," DeChambeau claimed on Friday.
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"I think if you're the captain of a team, you should be able to facilitate your players out there in a way you want to. It's a huge component of strategy and the team competition format. I think that's what we need to do." The American was quickly backed up by Garcia who shared a similar point.
"Yeah, I agree with that," the Spaniard commented. "I think that it's nice -- obviously it's appealing to have captains playing captains, and there's nothing wrong about that. But to have the possibility of putting whoever you want wherever you want, it gives a little bit more surprise effect. It gives you more possibilities to play around. We'll see."
Bryson DeChambeau had his say on a change to the format (AP)Both DeChambeau and Garcia will be gunning for a spot in Sunday's stroke play finale, with their two teams in quarter-final action Saturday. For DeChambeau his Crushers GC take on the lowest-ranked team left in the competition in the Cleeks.
This will see DeChambeau take on fellow captain Martin Kaymer, whilst Paul Casey faces Richard Bland in the second singles. Their clash will be finished off in the foursomes as Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III take on Bernd Wiesberger and Graeme McDowell.
For Garcia, his Fireballs team will take on the RangeGoats with the Spaniard playing former Ryder Cup rival Bubba Watson in the captain's clash. The second singles match will see Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra play Talor Gooch, whilst Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer take on Harold Varner III and Thomas Pieters.