Stars from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will deliver golf fans a Christmas cracker this year.
Eamon Lynch of Golfweek first reported that Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler of the PGA Tour will face Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka of the LIV Golf League in a December match.
Representatives from all four sides confirmed to Golfweek the made-for-TV match will happen in Las Vegas, a city that has previously hosted editions of The Match, a series of exhibition golf events.
It has now been confirmed in a press release that this event will be called The Showdown and will be played in an innovative match play format. It will be the first public event to harness the PGA Tour-LIV Golf rivalry which has rocked the sport in the last three years.
Broadcast details of The Showdown will be announced at a later date. The event has been created by BZ Entertainment, led by producer Bryan Zuriff and EverWonder Studio. Lynch reported two sources say there will be an appearance fee for each player and no prize money.
“The Showdown in Vegas is designed to provide fans with the excitement of head-to-head match play, like the intense competition seen in team events like the Ryder Cup,” said McIlroy.
“We all want to see more of the best golfers in the world going head-to-head, battling it out on the back nine of a tournament. At a time where the professional game has felt divided, we believe this event can bring fans an incredible day of entertainment.”
“It’s time to give the fans what they want to see, bringing the best players in the world together to compete outside of the major championships,” said DeChambeau. “We look forward to doing just that on December 17. I am excited to be a part of The Showdown and deliver a phenomenal and entertaining experience for fans. Once enemies, now teammates, Brooks and I are ready to go to work.”
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McIlroy agonisingly lost in an unforgettable battle with DeChambeau at the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst, where the Northern Irishman missed two short putts in the last nine holes to hand the title to the American. In 2021, DeChambeau and Koepka went through a supposed feud in public that didn’t last very long and seems to be patched up.
As for Scheffler, he has towered above his peers this year with seven PGA Tour wins, including the Masters and the Tour Championship. He also threw in the Olympic Golf Medal in France for good measure.
This match could also indicate tension between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League is cooling. The brand-new circuit commissioned by Greg Norman and funded by the near trillion-dollar-worth Public Investment Fund has nabbed the likes of DeChambeau, Koepka, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson since its first event was held in June two years ago, much to the PGA Tour’s great expense.
Each regular event in the LIV Golf League is worth $25 million. The winner receives $4 million and each of the aforementioned quartet allegedly received nine-figure sums of money to leave the PGA Tour and hop to the other side of golf’s fence.
The PGA Tour and the PIF have been locked in peace talks since June 2023, but no final agreement has been signed and there is no longer a timeframe on when this could happen.
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What do we make of the PGA Tour vs LIV Golf match?
It is entirely out of the blue and feels surreal that the teams of all four players have confirmed their participation, writes NCG’s Tour Editor Matt Chivers.
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Some golf fans might not like these exhibition hit-and-giggles. A few times, they have felt self-indulgent to me as if the only people actually enjoying it are the players themselves.
The humour and the trash-talking have also been sub-standard and quite cringey on occasion. Hopefully, this side of it changes.
You might also take with a pinch of salt what this means for the sport’s civil war. On the surface, although it sounds fun, it is something the players will almost certainly enjoy more than the viewers, with no doubt hefty appearance fees in their back pockets.
But this independent concept which we’ve previously seen in The Match has allowed for an environment where this type of thing can happen. I’m curious to see if its reach will expand to YouTube where LIV Golf still lives and provides a feed for UK fans.
If this is accessible to UK golf viewers, I think it would grab a large viewership, particularly at the time of the year when golf is in the freezer.
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What do you make of the LIV Golf vs PGA Tour match? Tell us on X!
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