LIV Golf UK Preview: HyFlyers GC look to reverse trend in UK
Team: HyFlyers Golf Club
Previous event team finish: 11th at LIV Golf Andalucía
Season-long team standings: 12th
Top finisher from previous event: Phil Mickelson, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele (all finished T27)
Fun stat: During the final round at Valderrama, Brendan Steele led all players in Driving Distance with an average of 339.3 yards.
Preview
The goal is simple for HyFlyers Golf Club this week. With only four events remaining before a team champion is crowned, it’s time to make some noise.
The team enters LIV Golf UK at No. 12 in the season-long team standings. The task of making a major move up will be challenging, but not impossible. The talent is there, the team has flashed nicely multiple times, but it will come down to getting all four players posting special scores to make a jump.
The team has finished 10th or worse in the last two events, but it wasn’t that long ago when the HyFlyers had three straight top-eight finishes, including a third-place podium showing in Adelaide, where Brendan Steele won the individual title. Those positive memories are still firmly in the players’ minds, and it would not be shocking to see them make a run during the backend of the schedule.
Captain Phil Mickelson is coming off a nice showing at The Open at Troon last week. The six-time major champion made the cut while many of the world’s best players failed to make it to the weekend. He finished T60 but proved his game is sharp.
Mickelson, Cameron Tringale and Steele finished T27 two weeks ago at LIV Golf Andalucía, and Steele is the team’s highest placed player on the season-long individual standings at 20th. Tringale isn’t too far behind at No. 37 and is just three events removed from a top-10 finish in Houston. Teammate Andy Ogletree, who made the cut at The Open and finished 79th, will have to dig deep after finishing outside the top 40 in four straight LIV Golf events, but perhaps he can find the magic he had in Adelaide where he finished T3.
Mickelson’s T27 at LIV Golf Andalucía might look like a middle-of-the-road result on paper, but considering the historically difficult conditions at Valderrama, it was a superb finish for the World Golf Hall of Famer. He showed his world-renowned short-game skill and intellect while traversing one of the game’s finest layouts.
The challenge this week for HyFlyers GC at LIV Golf UK will be finding a comfort level at JCB Golf & Country Club. The course is new to the LIV Golf League, but it has a spectacular reputation throughout the golf world, from top professionals to amateurs alike.
JCB Golf & Country Club is in Rocester, United Kingdom, and stretches more than 7,200 yards. It’s considered a modern masterpiece and is sculpted from the picturesque English countryside. The layout is illuminated by island greens, rolling meadows and a rambling stately home, where aristocrats once ruled.
Seemingly every hole is laden with trouble, but the long and snaking 18th might prove to be the toughest test. It’s heavily guarded like a Medieval citadel, and like every other hole on this course, strategy and scrambling will be keys to success.