Plymouth Township ― Next up, stroke play.
And the burning question is: How will The Cardinal, the two-year-old course playing this week at under 7,000 yards, hold up against the 48 players who tee it up in Sunday’s final round of the LIV Golf team championship? More specifically, will there be a 59, or even better?
“That’s a good question,” Chris Rasaasen, general manager of Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces Golf Club franchise, said on the driving range Saturday morning, before Day 2 kicked off on an overcast Saturday at Saint John’s Resort. “We saw 59 last week, so I think it’s definitely in play.”
Sebastián Muñoz of Torque GC shot 59 last week at The Club at Chatham Hills in Indianapolis, doing it by making 13 birdies in his last 14 holes on a course that played much longer than The Cardinal. Muñoz’s 59 actually included a double-bogey, believed to be a first for anyone shooting golf’s magic number at the highest level of pro golf.
There have been three sub-60 rounds on LIV Golf, in its fourth season. There have been 14 on the PGA Tour, most recently Jake Knapp this year.
The Cardinal features several short par 4s ― three are considered to be drivable ― as well as two modest-length par 5s, playing to a par 70 this week. The course plays to a par 72 for public play.
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“The Cardinal is a great resort course,” said Ray Hearn, the west Michigan-based architect who built The Cardinal, which opened in 2024 and landed LIV Golf’s signature event just months later.
“These are some of the best players in the world. Time will tell.”
There’s never been a sub-60 round in a high-level tour tournament in Michigan.
Will we see that change in Sunday’s final round of the LIV Golf team championship, which starts at 1:05 p.m.?
“You could,” said David Feherty, lead broadcaster for LIV Golf. “You could.”
“No, rough’s too thick,” said Brendan Steele, of Phil Mickelson’s HighFlyers GC. “Maybe if someone hits every fairway.”
The general consensus is the best scores will be in the 7, 8 or 9 under range for Sunday’s final day, which will crown the fourth LIV Golf team champion.
In the hunt are Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII and Louis Oosthuizen’s Stinger GC. Each team will count all four scores, and the lowest cumulative score will take home the title and split a $14-million prize.
The first two days of the team championship were head-to-head match play, which can have a different game plan than stroke play. One thing’s the same: The aggressiveness will continue in stroke play on a course that’s drawing overwhelmingly positive reviews from all the golfers, especially the course condition and the greens. The rough, thickest it’s ever been here, is the course’s main defense.
“I hope it’s low tomorrow for our team,” said DeChambeau, trying to become the first captain to win a second LIV Golf team championship (the Crushers GC also won in 2023). “We’ve got to focus on playing stroke-play golf and going as low as possible. It’s gettable. Barring a few holes, try and birdie every hole.”
“We’ve got to focus on playing stroke play golf and going as possible, try and birdie every hole.”
Joaquin Niemann (59, in 2024) and DeChambeau (58, in 2023) have the other sub-60 rounds on LIV Golf.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
