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Smith-led Aussies into LIV team final

Cameron Smith has a lucrative year but may fall at the LIV tour's final hurdle.

Cameron Smith has a lucrative year but may fall at the LIV tour's final hurdle. Photo: AAP

Cameron Smith is in line for yet another big pay day on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour after reaching the final of the team championship in Florida.

The 29-year-old British Open champion and his all-Australian Punch GC topped Sergio Garcia and Firebirds GC 2-1 on Saturday.

Queenslander Smith went down 2&1 to Spaniard Garcia, but Marc Leishman defeated Carlos Ortiz 1-up and then Matt Jones combined with Wade Ormsby to win by the same margin over Eugenio Chacarra and Abraham Ancer.

Dustin Johnson’s season of big LIV money will finish with another seven-figure check.

Johnson and his 4Aces GC team are into Sunday’s decider, with $US16 million ($25 million) — $US4 million ($6.2 million) for each of the four players — awaiting the winning roster in the season-ending event at Trump National Doral.

Johnson’s team got there by beating Cleeks GC 2-1, with the winning point coming when Pat Perez and Talor Gooch held off Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland in extra holes.

“For us, it’s all about the competition,” Johnson said.

“We want to win the first championship in LIV Golf. It’s anybody’s ball game. Every team up here obviously is playing well. There’s no favourites in my eyes.”

Also headed to the final are the Louis Oosthuizen-captained Stinger GC, who won when Oosthuizen beat Bryson DeChambeau in 23 holes to seal a 2-1 win over Crusher GC and the Brooks Koepka-captained Smash GC, who beat Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Majesticks GC 3-0.

“I’m just glad we made it to Sunday,” Oosthuizen said.

The first two rounds in Miami were match play. Sunday’s will be stroke play, with the scores of all 16 players — four players on each of the four teams — counting toward a total.

“I’m very pleased with how everyone’s playing,” Koepka said.

“Anything can happen (Sunday) … It could make for a pretty exciting finish.”

That means all 16 players who tee off Sunday will show up already assured of pocketing at least $US1 million ($1.6 million) in the season’s eighth and final LIV event.

“We’ve had a really good year,” Johnson said.

“And whatever happens tomorrow, we’ve had a really good year.”

Johnson is going to finish the 2022 calendar year with up to $37.3 million ($58.1 million) in prize money and that’s all on top of the reported $US125 million ($A195 million) he got for signing with LIV, though it’s unknown how much of that bonus he actually has received to this point.

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