The Legion XIII team, without its captain Jon Rahm due to flu, qualified this Saturday for the LIV Golf team final in Dallas (USA). However, the Fireballs team, whose captain is Castelln native Sergio Garca, was left out of the final and lost in the semi-finals.
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Legion XIII, results
The organization announced this Saturday that Rahm is suffering from a strong flu and would be absent this weekend from the team final of the Saudi circuit. The Basque player had just won the individual title of LIV Golf last week, which gave him 18 million dollars.
He also pocketed four million more for winning the final tournament in Chicago. Without the player from Barrika at the helm, the Legion XIII won 2-1 in their semi-final duel against the HyFlyers led by the American Phil Mickelson.
However, Sergio Garcia's Fireballs, which also includes Spaniards Eugenio Lopez Chacarra and David Puig and Mexican Abraham Ancer, fell 2-1 to the Ripper, led by Australian Cameron Smith. The other two teams that will participate in this Sunday's final will be the 4Aces and the Iron Heads, captained by Americans Dustin Johnson and Kevin Na, respectively.
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The winning team this Sunday in the LIV Golf team final will take home 14 million dollars. LIV Golf is a professional men's golf circuit created in 2021, the first edition of which was held in 2022. The creation of this international circuit aims to restore the image of Saudi Arabia led by Mohammed bin Salman through sport called "sportswashing" and "soft power".
Funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) whose director is Yasir Al-Rumayyan with the former Australian golfer Greg Norman as general director of the circuit, this closed circuit which selects its players based on annual contracts presents itself as a dissident league to the PGA Tour and other circuits by poaching many players present in the world's top 100.
The season is played over fourteen events played over three days and not four days in a 54-hole format without a cut, with a team ranking. Among the players who have joined this closed league are many Grand Slam tournament winners such as Dustin Johnson, Charl Schwartzel, Henrik Stenson, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Martin Kaymer, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garca, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Louis Oosthuizen and Jon Rahm.
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This brings a confrontation between the PGA Tour loyalists such as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and the dissident players.
