Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC swept in semifinals of LIV Golf Dallas Team Championship

CARROLLTON — No more than two dozen scattered spectators populated the tight-quartered 17th green and 18th tee box at Maridoe Golf Club when the LIV Golf Dallas Team Championship neared its finish Saturday afternoon. The “GOLF BUT LOUDER” branding on the nearby video board stood in irony and the “SHHH” placards held up by attendants might’ve been more for show.
The audience doubled in size when the Iron Heads GC’s Kevin Na and the Crushers GC’s Anirban Lahiri arrived. It tripled when Scott Vincent and Paul Casey played through next. Then — in some sort of great migration from the 16th green and up the 17th fairway — the largest individual crowd that’d trekked the course all day followed the local start-up toward his final hole.
Bryson DeChambeau — a Grapevine resident and SMU alum — had sought to bring the upstart tour to North Texas since he joined it two years ago. He did this week. The fans followed him in turn.
They’ll need to reconfigure their Sunday plans to watch a trophy get lifted.
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DeChambeau’s top-seeded Crushers (which includes DeChambeau, Casey, Lahiri and Charles Howell III) were swept out of the semifinals in the team format match play tournament by the Iron Heads. Danny Lee beat DeChambeau two-up, Vincent beat Casey two-up and the duo of Na and Jinichiro Kozuma beat Lahiri and Howell 3 and 1 in the foursomes match.
“In match play,” Na said, “anything can happen.”
That, frankly, might double as the league’s slogan.
The less-polite, more-party tour might hope for it.
“This is the future of golf,” the course emcee belted out as DeChambeau took his last few putts on the practice green before his 11:45 a.m. tee time, “and the future is right now.”
The emcee then demanded that spectators “scream at the top of your lungs” while a video board countdown ticked toward the shotgun start as Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome To The Jungle” played on the first tee. DeChambeau swung his driver while “First Person Shooter” by Drake and J. Cole played, and he was serenaded by cheers and a handful of Mustang-related shouts as he worked his way down the fairway. Pop music from the viewing deck and club seats could be heard throughout.
Hey, it’s not the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. DeChambeau fired 6-under par to win his second major championship there in June. He never held an advantage on Saturday vs. Lee. The 31-year-old shot even par in his first five holes before he birdied six, seven and eight to tie Lee. DeChambeau, the world’s 10th-ranked golfer, fell two back of Lee after the latter birdied 10 and 12, but sank an eagle putt on 13 to tie the match. Lee won two of the last three holes — 16 and 18 — to help secure an upset.
Na’s Iron Heads also upset the Brooke Koepka-lead Smash GC in Friday’s opening round. DeChambeau’s Crushers had a bye.
“Feels pretty damn good,” Na said. “I’m really proud of my boys. They fought hard. When they needed to, they were there, and got the job done. It’s a great feeling. I think [we have] a confidence boost the last two days going into Sunday. I’m telling my boys, anything can happen.”
Anything but a Crushers title. DeChambeau’s team — alongside Hyflyers GC, Freebirds GC and Stinger GC — will compete in the Tier 2 finals on Sunday to decide the fifth-through-eighth finishes. Iron Heads GC, Legion XIII, Ripper GC and Aces GC will play an 18-hole stroke play event to decide a team champion.
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