Match Game '24: PGA Tour vs. LIV
Scheffler-McIlroy/DeChambeau-Koepka ... oh my; LIV unrolls '25 schedule glimpse
Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau (Mike Ehrmann, Jeff Haynes, Chris Keane/USGA)
The golf powers in charge so far are unable to make a deal happen to reunify the game, so the players, apparently, decided they will do it themselves — at least for one night.
A planned match pitting four superstars from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will undoubtedly be made out to be a grudge match between rival tours, but perhaps it is more about giving fans what they want and enjoying a day of competition with the bigger issues still to be resolved.
Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch reported Wednesday that Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will take on Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a made-for-TV match in December. All four players confirmed the plans to Golfweek.
The showdown doesn’t solve the bigger issues in the game, nor does it bring any closure to the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf.
But maybe it is telling the negotiators to get moving on a deal to heal golf’s rift.
McIlroy confirmed the match to Golfweek via text, a telling sign that he didn’t want this to be some off-the-record sourced story. It suggests he wanted it out there, and that he didn’t want any behind-the-scenes interference.
The PGA Tour will be able to extract a fee from the organizers since McIlroy and Scheffler, as tour members, are required to get permission when they compete in any kind of televised or streamed competition. This seems a move to make sure the PGA Tour didn’t pre-empt the reported match, as it would be mighty difficult now for this to get scuttled since the news is out there.
The PGA Tour has yet to comment as the deal is not finalized. A course has not been chosen, nor has a television outlet, although TNT is believed to be the broadcaster as it has been for several other iterations of “The Match.”
But the network also has not yet signed off, which again perhaps is a sign that McIlroy and the others wanted this news out there while the details are still being hashed out.
The Golfweek story said the players would be paid an appearance fee with no prize money at stake, and no format was disclosed.
Last week at the Tour Championship, McIlroy voiced is his concerns over the lack of progress in finalizing a deal between the tour and PIF.
“I think anyone that cares about golf, I think has to be frustrated,” McIlroy said. “I think anyone that cares about the PGA Tour has to be frustrated because … we’re not putting forward the absolute best product that we can.
“I get the argument that these guys (who went to LIV Golf) left and that was their choice and whatever. I just think that it’s gone on long enough. We’ve got to try to … I mean, I think everyone is trying to find a solution. It’s just a solution is hard to get to.”
McIlroy then noted that his drama-filled final day at the U.S. Open with DeChambeau — who parred the last hole from a bunker to win after McIlroy missed a short putt on the green in front of him — can’t occur in the current climate outside of the majors.
“I go back to … even though I was on the wrong side of things like the U.S. Open with Bryson (DeChambeau) and … you’re only really going to get that four times a year at most. I think the game of golf deserves having those sort of things happen more than just four times a year,” he said.
“The Match” isn’t a major championship, not even close. But it will give golf fans something to talk about and perhaps be an impetus to spur a deal to get these guys together a bit more often.
LIV’s popular Adelaide event will play opposite PGA Tour’s Riviera stop (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf)
LIV’s first four ’25 events will butt heads
LIV Golf has signaled it will build a more global schedule next season, and that certainly appears to be the case with a partial release of the 2025 slate, which will see the league visit Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore before ever touching U.S. soil.
The way things set up, it is unlikely that LIV Golf will play a tournament in the United States until just before the Masters, a gap of six months following its upcoming two-tournament end to the current season in Chicago and Dallas.
But it’s the timing of these events that is at least curious.