Just a few days after it was teased, more details have emerged for The Match: Champions for Change. We’ll see Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley face off against Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry.
If that somehow doesn’t get you going, perhaps the further details will help you buy in. Here’s everything we know about the late November golf match for charity.
Who is involved?
One pro golfer! That’s it. But it’s the five-time major-winner Mickelson, pairing up with Charles Barkley, basketball hall-of-famer and noted golf enthusiast. Barkley starred in a non-playing role during May’s match between Mickelson, Manning, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods.
Manning, a future pro football hall-of-famer, will be paired with Curry, a future basketball hall-of-famer and plus-handicap. So, in short, it’s one of the greatest golfers ever, paired with a forever hacker, against two elite athletes who are very good at golf. Who will win? It’s impossible to say. We’ll leave the odds up to Vegas.
Where’s Tiger?
Not involved! Woods has been involved in both editions of The Match thus far, losing to Mickelson in a 1-on-1 battle in 2018 and enacting revenge alongside his partner, Manning, during the PGA Tour’s pandemic break this past spring. Woods will not be involved in this version of The Match. Will we see him get back into the action in the future? It is unclear to this point. He didn’t exactly prove to be an exciting character for TV viewers.
When is it being played?
Friday, Nov. 27th, beginning at 3 p.m. ET. Set your calendars! That’s Black Friday, so get your shopping done earlier that day or risk having to catch up with the highlights later on. The match will likely not take much longer than three hours.
Where are they playing?
At times, the most enticing aspect of The Match has been the host courses. When the banter and golf shots get slow, the at-home audience can at least get interested in the course. This match’s host will be Stone Canyon Golf Club in Arizona, just north of Tuscon, which is owned by Mickelson Golf Properties.
In a press release, Mickelson called Stone Canyon, “a place that I’m extremely proud of and excited to show how special it is.” We really haven’t seen much of it publicly as the private club is not open to the public. If the match isn’t decided by the end of 18 holes, there is a 107-yard par-3 19th hole to help settle matches. We could have used that during the initial match.
What will the format be?
This is important, too. With different levels of play, handicaps will certainly be involved. The format will be modified alternate shot match play, which is one of the formats used during the match in May. All players will hit tee shots, after which each team will choose their preferred tee ball to play toward the hole.
Yes, that means we’ll have Mickelson and Barkley alternating their way to the hole and could potentially see a Barkley tee shot, followed a perfect Mickelson 5-iron, and then Barkley putting from 20 feet for birdie with Phil reading his putt. What more could you want?
What is at stake?
As with all the other matches we’ve seen, proceeds from this event will go to charity, with HBCUs (historical black colleges and universities) as the primary recipients of donation funds. It was Curry who, just last year, agreed to help fund and develop men’s and women’s golf teams at Howard University. This match falls right inline with the goals of his foundation “Eat. Learn. Play.”
How can I watch?
The event will be broadcast live on TNT and will once again include players being mic’d up, with cameras inserted in their golf carts, similar to the Match we saw in May. Turner has been the broadcasting partner of every Match to date, so we can expect a similarly fun broadcast to the one six months ago.
