Golf stars to battle in PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf primetime match

Golf followers will lastly get their first PGA Tour vs. LIV showdown.

As first reported by Golfweek and confirmed by GOLF.com, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy will group up as PGA Tour loyalists to face reigning U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and five-time main champ Brooks Koepka of LIV Golf in a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas later this 12 months.

The match will air on TNT, which broadcasted the earlier 9 editions of “The Match,” an exhibition sequence that began in 2018 with a matchup of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and most lately noticed McIlroy tackle Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson this previous February.

Per Golfweek, the match might be produced by Bryan Zuriff’s BZ Leisure, the developer of “The Match” sequence and EverWonder, though GOLF has realized the matchup won’t be aired underneath “The Match” branding.

McIlroy and the brokers of the opposite contributors confirmed the occasion to Golfweek.

“I’m thrilled to associate with Scottie in what guarantees to be an thrilling duel in opposition to Bryson and Brooks in Vegas this December,” McIlroy stated through textual content message. “This isn’t only a contest between a few of golf’s main champions; it’s an occasion designed to energise the followers. We’re all right here to placed on an awesome present and contribute to a goodwill occasion that brings the perfect collectively once more.”

It’s the primary time since LIV Golf’s launch in 2022 that gamers from each the PGA Tour and the breakaway rival league will face off in opposition to one another in an exhibition match. The matchup comes because the PGA Tour faces rising stress to finalize a framework settlement of a merger with LIV Golf’s guardian, the Saudi Arabian Public Funding Fund, which was initially struck in June 2023.

Since LIV’s launch, the league’s gamers have been barred from PGA Tour-hosted competitions and thus have solely competed in opposition to the highest gamers on the PGA Tour in main championships and choose occasions world wide. LIV gamers are additionally operating out of exemptions to stated majors because the league doesn’t award Official World Golf Rating factors, the first qualifier for main championships.

Koepka and DeChambeau are the one two gamers to win main championships since becoming a member of the league. The 2 main winners additionally had an intense social media-fueled rivalry in 2021 that even noticed them face off in opposition to one another in “The Match V” on Black Friday of that 12 months. Because the duo joined LIV Golf, the feud has basically disappeared.

McIlroy has performed in two editions of The Match and quite a lot of different made-for-TV exhibitions. Scheffler is making his debut into exhibition golf and is coming off a banner season by which he received the Olympic gold medal and 7 occasions on the PGA Tour, together with the Masters and the Tour Championship, the place he took residence the $25 million first-place bonus for the FedEx Cup.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State College, incomes levels in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his highschool golf group and lately returned to this system to function head coach. Jack additionally nonetheless *tries* to stay aggressive in native amateurs. Earlier than becoming a member of GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but additionally producing, anchoring and even presenting the climate. He might be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.