Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka Losses Headline LIV Golf Invitational Series 2022 Day 1

LIV Golf held the quarterfinals of its team championship on Friday at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.

Below, we'll take a look at the scores and key moments from the day of golf.

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Results

Smash GC def. Niblicks GC, 2-1

• Brooks Koepka lost to Harold Varner III, 4&3
• Peter Uihlein def. James Piot, 5&3
  
• Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka def. Turk Pettit and Hudson Swafford, 2&1

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Majesticks GC def. Iron Heads GC, 3-0

• Ian Poulter def. Kevin Na, 4&2
• Lee Westwood def. Anthony Kim, 4&3
• Sam Horsfield and Henrik Stenson def. Sadom Kaewkanjana and Phachara Khongwatmai, 4&2
  

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Cleeks GC def. Torque GC, 2-1

• Shergo Al Kurdi lost to Joaquin Niemann, 5&3
• Laurie Canter def. Jediah Morgan, 1 up
  
• Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland def. Scott Vincent and Adrian Otaegui, 2 up
  

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Punch GC def. Hy Flyers GC, 2-1

• Cameron Smith def. Phil Mickelson, 1 up
• Marc Leishman def. Matthew Wolff, 4&2
  
• Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby lost to Bernd Wiesberger and Cameron Tringale, 3&2

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Highlights

The most anticipated match of the day was Smith facing Mickelson, and it lived up to the hype, coming down to the final hole, where Smith prevailed:

The two players drew even on 13 of the 18 holes, with Smith winning three and Mickelson two.

Credit to Mickelson, who made things interesting against one of the most talented golfers in the game:

Chase Koepka, meanwhile, nearly had the shot of the day with a beautiful tee shot that was oh-so-close to being an ace:

As for the most dominant performance of the day, that would go to Majesticks, with the clean 3-0 sweep:

So the semfinals are now set, with Aces GC set to take on Cleeks, the Crushers facing Stinger, Fireballs taking on Punch GC and Smash GC facing Majesticks.

The Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series remains a controversial competition, with its critics accusing it of being a sportswashing enterprise existing to gloss over Saudi Arabia's history of human-rights violations.

The Trump National Doral Golf Club is owned by former President Donald Trump's Trump Organization. Trump is currently the subject of various congressional, federal and state investigations, ranging from his potentially illegal business practices to his reported withholding of sensitive government documents after he was no longer president.