Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy will be on opposite sides of this week's Showdown.
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Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss The Showdown, Scottie Scheffler’s 2025 prospects, Tiger Woods’ reappearance and more.
The Crypto.com Showdown kicks off on Tuesday when Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka take on Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. Why does this one have the promise to be the best made-for-TV match yet — and why might it flop?
Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): Sometimes the golf can take a backseat in these matches (and, for what it’s worth, I’ve been game to watch ’em every time), but here the emphasis is squarely on the golf, and that’s a good thing. They’ve got four appointment-viewing golfers. They’ve got LIV vs. the PGA Tour. If they just play and don’t try too hard, this should be terrific. As for why it might flop? It’s football season. During football season there’s not much oxygen left for any other sport.
Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): Par won’t do much good here so it will be four of the best in the game playing no-holds-barred, birdie-or-bust golf. That makes for decent entertainment, especially with the LIV vs Tour overlay. Fairly or not, many will take it as a measuring stick of the rival tours. Dylan is right. Football season is tough competition. But ratings aside, it could be a bust if the banter is as cringe-inducing as it often gets in these miked-up confections. There’s a reason none of these guys has been asked to host a Comedy Central roast.
James Colgan, news and features editor (@jamescolgan26): Here’s the exciting reality: It might not stink! And that pretty much makes it the best made-for-TV golf event since the Brady/Manning/Tiger/Phil match back in 2020. If you’ve decided to assume these events will be insufferably corny until proven otherwise, I think that’s fair. But I also think these are the right characters competing under the right structure, to make something that might be enjoyable to diehards and casuals alike. That’s good enough for me.
If Bryson DeChambeau — already the YouTube influencer he is — is the most important piece of this match being a hit, which player is the second-most important to its success?
Dethier: McIlroy. He’s not the PGA Tour standard-bearer that he was at the beginning of this LIV-Tour rivalry, but he still moves the needle as much as any non-Tiger-Woods golfer in the world. There’s not a weak link here, though — everybody brings something.
Sens: Agreed. Any of the four is capable of putting on a scorching show. But next up after Rory has to be Scheffler, the world’s best player coming off an epic season, with a chance to put yet another punctuation on his dominance.
Colgan: Scottie is the first long-term, no-brainer World No. 1 in like, a dozen years, and I’d argue golf’s ability to convert his dominance into viewers is the biggest challenge facing the sport after reunification.
Tiger Woods returns to the course this week for the first time since July when he’ll team up with his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship in Florida. Will we learn anything about Woods’ form and health this week — or should we just sit back and enjoy some family golf?
Dethier: We’ll see him swing and we’ll see him walk and we’ll even see him hit some pressure putts! Let’s not get carried away — not by Woods’ form nor by his son’s. But yeah, I think what we see this week from Woods will give us some sort of hint at what to expect from his 2025.
Sens: To borrow from Bobby Jones, there are two types of golf, tournament golf and hit-and-giggle father-and-son golf, and they are not at all alike. For one thing, Tiger will be allowed to use a cart. You can’t do that at Augusta. That’s just one of many reasons why we shouldn’t use this as a barometer of anything more than what it is.
Colgan: It’s Tiger playing in a televised golf event. Can we convince ourselves we’ve learned something? Obviously yes. We will, whether we should or not.
Scottie Scheffler won PGA Tour Player of the Year honors for a third consecutive season, matching a feat only accomplished by Tiger Woods. (Tiger won five in a row once and three in a row another time.) If you’re Vegas, what are you setting the odds at for Scheffler to make it four in a row next season? And who would you give the second-best odds to?
Dethier: Sheesh — this is a good question. Golf is a fickle game, even for World No. 1s, but given Scheffler’s dominance you can’t go longer than about 2-1 odds. Xander Schauffele is second, with McIlroy just a tick behind him.
Sens: For a brief time, it seemed like Scheffler’s putter might undo him. But he straightened that out well enough. Nor did becoming a father slow him down, as it has other players. I’d put him at close to even money, though Dylan’s right again. The next has to be Schauffele. Unless there’s a sudden truce with LIV, the Tours merge, and Bryson gets back into the full-time mix.
Colgan: I would make Scottie a prohibitive favorite — maybe even odds. He’s been that good. And nobody (sans Schauffele, who just won two majors in one year and STILL lost POTY) is particularly close.
Speaking of Scheffler, his famed 2012 GMC Yukon XL (with 184,000 miles on it) has been put up for auction with a starting bid of $50,000. Proceeds from the sale will support the Triumph Over Kid Cancer charity. Forget a green jacket or claret jug, what random piece of golf memorabilia would you most like to get your hands on?
Dethier: If we’re handing out cars I’ll take just one of the two Genesis whips Will Zalatoris won at Riviera last year. Or, I dunno. Maybe an old Top Flite hat. Good vibes there.
Sens: I’m not much of a merch guy or a souvenir collector, and I’ve got no romantic attachment to any golf artifacts. But if someone wants to hand me the first-place check from the FedEx Cup at season’s end, I’d accept it.
Colgan: Jim Nantz, if you’re reading this, please let me get a hands on a game-used version of one of those sweet, sweet Vineyard Vines ties.
