In early September, it was reported that PGA Tour players Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler would face LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a made-for-TV match. Now, details have emerged on where it will be held and when.
Per Golfweek's Eamon Lynch, who also broke the original story, the match, which is billed as The Showdown, will take place on Tuesday, December 17 at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas with TV coverage on TNT. Lynch also reports that it's understood it will be an 18-hole contest with a mixture of best-ball and alternate shot formats.
Players will not earn prize money from the event but they are - according to Front Office Sports - all receiving equity in the match, which has agreed a six-year deal and will alternate between Shadow Creek and an international location in alternate years moving forward.
The week after the news broke last month, McIlroy played in the Amgen Irish Open. Beforehand, he was asked whether the match is meant to send a message given the protracted talks over a peace deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf.
McIlroy denied that was behind the reason for the contest but admitted that it was intended not just to offer excitement to golf fans, but to demonstrate what could be possible more often in the future.
He said: “I wouldn't say it's meant to send a message. It's more we wanted to do something that, I guess, all golf fans could get excited about.
“It's a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward. 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. I think that's what we've tried to do.”
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been at loggerheads ever since the Saudi-backed circuit was launched in 2022. That caused a number of players to take sides, with a host of star names including Cameron Smith and Jon Ram parting ways with the US-based tour, as well as Koepka and DeChambeau.
McIlroy has not shied away from stating where he stands on the division either, frequently almost acting as a spokesman for the PGA Tour. Time has healed some rifts, and after a huge backtrack, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan shook hands with PIF counterpart Yasir Al-Rumayyan on a deal last year.
Regardless of the motivation for hosting the match, the appearance of four of the world’s best players from either side of the men’s game’s great divide is sure to raise expectations that a deal between the PGA Tour and PIF can be agreed.
The latest update about the match comes just a week after it was confirmed that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan had been paired together for the opening round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
It will not be the first time the venue has hosted a similar match. In 2018, it was the location of another made-for-TV contest, The Match: Tiger vs Phil, where Mickelson, who is now also with LIV Golf, beat the 15-time Major winner. Three years later, it hosted the LPGA Tour’s Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.
Shadow Creek is not only regarded as one of the best courses in Las Vegas, but the entire country. It was designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1989. Nowadays, it has golf’s most expensive green fee, with the cost of playing it reportedly rising from $1,000 to $1,250 in 2023.
