Vincent's ace and Kozuma's clutch putts lead Iron Heads to victory over Koepka's Smash in LIV finale

Published Sep. 20, 2024 5:31 p.m. ET

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CARROLLTON, Texas (AP) — Scott Vincent made a hole-in-one that sparked a rally for the lowly Iron Heads, and Jinichiro Kozuma finished it off with two clutch putts to eliminate the Smash team of Brooks Koepka and advance to the semifinals of the LIV Golf Team Championship on Friday.

HyFlyers defeated Torque, Fireballs had no trouble against Majestiks, 4Aces held off RangeGoats, and Stinger defeated Cleeks to join Iron Heads in Saturday's round.

Defending champion Crushers, Legion XIII and Ripper all had byes.

Koepka did his part with a 6-and-5 victory over Kevin Na, but Danny Lee got off to a hot start and beat Talor Gooch. It came down to the foursomes match, and Graeme McDowell and Jason Kokrak appeared to have it in hand with a 4-up lead and seven holes to play.

Vincent made his ace on the par-3 14th at Maridoe Golf Club. Iron Heads won the next hole with a par. Trailing by one on their final hole at the par-5 second, Kozuma made a 10-foot birdie putt to extend the match.

On the par-3 third, with both teams having missed the green, Kozuma made a 30-foot par putt to win the match and eliminate Koepka's team.

Iron Heads finished last among the 13 teams in the regular season.

Four more matches follow on Saturday — two singles and a foursomes, with the team reaching two points advancing. The Sunday finals will be stroke play in which the scores from all four players on each of the remaining four teams count toward the overall score.

Phil Mickelson and his HyFlyers were 12th in the 13-team league. Mickelson and Brendan Steele rallied from an early 3-down deficit to win the pivotal foursomes match, 2 and 1.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

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Jason Kokrak

Graeme McDowell

Talor Gooch

Danny Lee

Kevin Na

Dustin Johnson

Phil Mickelson

Brooks Koepka