As details of the forthcoming match — pitting the PGA Tour pair of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against a LIV Golf team of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka — trickle out, something bigger picture is taking shape. This event may not just be a one-off but a sign of things to come.
The Showdown, as it is named, is scheduled for Tuesday, December 17, at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, (perhaps not so coincidentally) the same day as the NBA’s In-Season Tournament finishes, also in Vegas. The golf will be broadcast on TNT — the longtime home of many made-for-TV matches — and will be some version of match play.
According to a source familiar with the event, it will feel distinct from various iterations of The Match that fans have seen in recent years, and is being viewed as the basis for future matches between tours. If this is a 2 v 2 showdown, parties involved see the potential to bring in additional players from LIV and the PGA Tour for a bigger battle down the road, with as many as six or eight players on each side. While the logistics of an investment deal between the PGA Tour and LIV’s owner, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), drag on in boardrooms, those involved see this as an area where players can push the envelope in the interim.
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“Look, I think all of us know we want to get this game back in good standing,” DeChambeau said at LIV’s Chicago event last month. “We want to bring this game back to a place where I would say everyone has the opportunity to see the greatest play a lot more than four times a year. I think it’s a great opportunity to showcase how we evolve that over the course of time.”
When asked if this is an idea that has kicked around among players for awhile, DeChambeau offered:
“Oh, yeah, remember we always wanted to have a PGA Tour and LIV sort of battle a couple years ago?” he said. “We always thought that would be pretty cool and whatnot. But I think it’s going to develop over the course of time and hopefully give the people what they want.”
When news first broke of this match, McIlroy was keen to say it is not “sending a message” to PGA Tour management, but offered a similar sentiment to DeChambeau.
“It’s a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward,” he said. “I’ve been saying this for a long time. I think golf and golf fans get to see us together more than four times a year.”
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If that’s the goal, The Showdown is likely to achieve it. Organizers see a future where the event or something like it is played once every 12 months, if not more, at least while negotiations between the PGA Tour, the PIF and the DP World Tour continue and tour regulations maintain exclusivity on where certain players play their golf.
Just last weekend, McIlroy acknowledged that there should be some clarity on a Saudi PIF investment (or lack thereof) into PGA Tour Enterprises by the end of 2024, but that we could see multiple years of simply “a bit of crossover” between the tours and not full integration.
As ever, these are fluid times. We are 16 months removed from a signed Framework Agreement between PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF, but more than nine months removed from the deadline passing for a Definitive Agreement. And while the initially frigid relations between warring sides have somewhat thawed — Tour commissioner Jay Monahan played some very public golf with PIF leader Yasir Al-Rumayyan last weekend — everything isn’t rosy for everyone. LIV golfers are still not allowed to compete on the PGA Tour, and receive fines and suspensions from the DP World Tour for each event they play while a member of the DPWT. Those fines don’t disappear when a player resigns his membership, either — Lee Westwood has been barred from competing in the Senior Open Championship due to unpaid fines. Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm had to file appeals of those sanctions to compete in DP World Tour events this fall, just to maintain a path to play the Ryder Cup next season.
One reason why details of the match have trickled slowly is that assembling competitors from different tours, with different schedules and different events around the globe is difficult. The event was originally slated to take place at Stanwich Club in the summer, but was shifted to Vegas in the winter when scheduling issues took place. According to Sports Business Journal, as of last month, organizers were still seeking $8-10 million for a title sponsor.
Separately, whenever a PGA Tour event is taking place, anywhere in the world, members of the PGA Tour cannot compete elsewhere without receiving a conflicting event release form. Luckily, or very purposefully, mid-December is one of the few times of the year when the PGA Tour is not hosting an tournament. During the week in question, McIlroy and Scheffler would only need to receive a media rights release so their Name, Image and golfing Likeness can be used by the broadcast and marketing of the match. The PGA Tour would absolutely plan to approve this type of request, even if it is not affiliated with the event in an official capacity. This is the same orchestration Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods went through to organize the original made-for-TV match back in 2018. In that case, Turner paid $1 million to the Tour for media rights of the players involved.