Danny Lee leads Iron Heads to LIV Golf stroke-play finals

CARROLLTON, Texas — Danny Lee took control of a back-and-forth match against U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau by holing a hard-breaking birdie putt on the 16th hole to lead his Iron Heads past DeChambeau’s defending champion Crushers in the LIV Golf Team Championship on Saturday.

Iron Heads joined Legion XIII, Ripper and 4Aces in Sunday’s stroke-play finals.

“Like I’ve said all week, in match play anything can happen,” said Iron Heads captain Kevin Na, who teamed with Jinichiro Kozuma in alternate shot to beat Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III 3 and 1.

Lee closed out his 2-up win over DeChambeau with an eagle on the par-5 18th at Maridoe Golf Club.

“As well as Danny has been playing and the momentum he’s been on and the confidence he’s got with the putter right now, I wanted to put him in singles again,” Na said.

Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm, who won the LIV individual title last week, did not play because of severe flu symptoms. His replacement, John Catlin, lost in 20 holes to Cameron Tringale, but Tyrell Hatton beat Andy Ogletree 5 and 4, and Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent teamed in alternate shot to beat Phil Mickelson and Brendan Steele, 4 and 3, and eliminate Mickelson’s HyFlyers.

“We exchanged a few messages probably 10 minutes ago,” Hatton said of Rahm after his match. “He sounds like he’s doing a little bit better, which is good to hear.”

In the finals, the scores from all four players on each team will count toward the overall score.

Dustin Johnson beat Dean Burmester of Stinger 1 up and Patrick Reed beat Branden Grace 1 up for 4Aces, which won the inaugural LIV team title two years ago.

The Johnson-led 4Aces were 10th in the 13-team league entering the week.

“Yeah, this year we struggled a little bit, but I feel like everybody is playing well now,” Johnson said. “Obviously, we’ve got a lot of confidence going into tomorrow, and anything can happen.”

Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert won their matches to lead Ripper, the all-Australian team captained by Cameron Smith, past Fireball.