PGA TOUR stars Rory McIlroy and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler will face LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in an exhibition event in Las Vegas in December organisers announced on Wednesday.
The 18-hole, made-for-television event between four of the biggest names from the upstart Saudi-backed LIV series and the PGA Tour will be staged at Shadow Creek.
Scheffler, who won the Masters and Olympics among his eight titles this year, and McIlroy, a four-time major winner, will partner against two-time US Open champion DeChambeau, who edged McIlroy for this year’s US Open crown, and five-time major winner Koepka — the only players to win majors while active LIV members.
The PGA Tour and LIV’s backers, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), are in merger talks but have been unable to complete a deal to reunite golf’s elite players.
The LIV-PGA billed as ‘The Showdown’, McIlroy said last month at the Irish Open, is less about trying to push those long-stalled negotiations and more about bringing some joy to golf fans annoyed by the three-season split.
“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,” said McIlroy.
“You’ve got the best player in the world. You’ve got two guys in Bryson and Brooks that have won majors in the last two years. You’ve got me in there who — I haven’t done what those guys have done the last couple years but I’ve definitely been I feel one of the best players in the world.
“It’s a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward.”
With LIV players banned from PGA Tour events since the upstart series swiped big-name players from the PGA in 2022, major championships have been the only place where LIV and PGA stars compete against one another.
“It’s in the middle of December. There’s not a lot going on in the game of golf. So trying to get people excited about something before the season starts again,” McIlroy said.
“We all thought it was a good idea and something that hopefully is a sign of things to come in the future.”
In June at Pinehurst, McIlroy had a chance to win his first major since 2014 but lost to DeChambeau by one stroke on the final hole at Pinehurst.
Makes a mockery of any previous high moral ground taken by
McIlroy and the PGA
Ultimately money talks and it’s doing so again
Professional golf is now just about very rich men getting richer.
Any respect I had for anything to do with any of them is long gone
Professional golf is no longer a game.
It is a circus
@Patrick Boylan: Professional golf at its best is exhilarating. Elite professional golf is about tremendously talented players competing at an exceptionally high level to win and yes they get very rich as a result of that. They are the very small minority. Most professional golf is about payers struggling to get to the next level. It’s not an easy way to make a living. Have a look at the highlights
@Patrick Boylan: of the Challenge Tour. That’ll open your eyes to the reality of life for most professional golfers.
@Richard Ford: or in the second/third divisions of all other professional sports – Football, Basketball, Tennis, Baseball, NFL, Rugby, motorsports etc etc.
Probably more millions being paid to already overpaid millionaire’s to play a round of golf.
@Jp Cleary: if a whole lot of ordinary people weren’t willing to watch it, it wouldn’t happen, and they wouldn’t be millionaires in the first place.
I’m a huge fan of Mcilroy but wish he’d stay out of these kind of exhibitions.
I for one wont be watching silly golf season now