PGA Tour vs. LIV: Scheffler, McIlroy to play DeChambeau, Koepka in TV match
So far, the ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has only resulted in a rift in the men’s professional game and disillusioned fans. Now it will be the focus of a made-for-TV competition later this year.
The PGA Tour’s Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will take on LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a primetime match on TNT. Golf week reported the news first, but it was confirmed The Athletics through a person who was aware of the agreement but who was not authorized to speak publicly about the match.
The event, held in Las Vegas in mid-December, will naturally capitalize on the growing tensions between the two leagues to bring the game to the public for the first time since the start-up league was founded in 2022. The “framework agreement,” announced live on CNBC on June 6, 2023 by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yassir Al-Rumayyan, promised to bring the game of golf back together.
Since then, the PGA Tour and the PIF, which funds LIV Golf, have missed their deadline to conclude negotiations. They have continued to discuss solutions behind closed doors, with no new deadline on the calendar. Monahan met with the media at last week’s Tour Championship and insisted the PGA Tour and the PIF are in “regular dialogue” despite the lack of updates on the proposed unification of the game.
There have been nine editions of TNT’s “The Match” — the last featuring Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang earlier this year — but it’s not yet clear if the new LIV versus PGA Tour exhibition will be part of that series.
Koepka and DeChambeau famously participated in an earlier installation of the event as a way to settle their simmering online rivalry. Now, they’ll team up as LIV Golf’s two hottest representatives against the world No. 1 and a four-time major champion. McIlroy and DeChambeau are just months removed from their tense duel at the end of the U.S. Open at No. 2 Pinehurst, where McIlroy missed two short putts to allow DeChambeau to grab his second U.S. Open trophy. Scheffler has yet to be a part of the primetime match series. He’s coming off one of the most dominant seasons in golf history.
“Brooks and Scottie are very excited to be a part of this unique event and look forward to sharing more soon,” Blake Smith, the agent for both Koepka and Scheffler, said in a statement.
The PGA Tour declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Required reading
(Top photo of Scottie Scheffler, left, and Brooks Koepka: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
