Golf stars to battle it out in the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf in the main event

Golf fans will finally have their first PGA Tour matchup against LIV.

Like the first reported by Golf week and confirmed by GOLF.com, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy will join as PGA Tour stalwarts to face reigning US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and five-time major champion Brooks Koepka of LIV Golf in a match made. televised match in Las Vegas later this year.

The match will be broadcast on TNT, which broadcast the previous nine editions “The Match”, a series of exhibitions that began in 2018 with a match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and most recently saw McIlroy face Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson last February.

for golf week, match will be produced by Bryan Zuriff’s BZ Entertainment, developer of “The Match” series, and EverWonder, although GOLF has learned that the match will not be broadcast under “The Match” branding.

McIlroy and the agents of the other participants confirmed the event Golf week.

“I’m excited to join Scottie in what promises to be an exciting duel against Bryson and Brooks in Vegas this December,” McIlroy said via text message. “This is not just a contest between some of golf’s great champions; is an event designed to energize fans. We are all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again.”

It is the first time since LIV Golf began in 2022 that players from both the PGA Tour and the rival breakaway league will face each other in an exhibition match. Matching comes as The PGA Tour faces increasing pressure to finalize a framework agreement of a merger with LIV Golf’s parent, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which was originally struck in June 2023.

Since LIV’s inception, league players have been banned from PGA Tour-sponsored competitions and thus have only competed against the best players on the PGA Tour in major championships and select events around the world. LIV players are also running out of exemptions for the aforementioned categories as the league does not award Official World Golf Ranking points, the main qualifier for major championships.

Koepka and DeChambeau are the only two players to win major championships since joining the league. The top two winners also had an intense rivalry fueled by social media in 2021 that they even saw each other in “The Match V” on Black Friday of that year. Since the pair joined LIV Golf, hostility has essentially disappeared.

McIlroy has played in two editions of The Match and a number of other made-for-TV exhibitions. Scheffler is making his debut in exhibition golf and is coming off a banner season in which he won the Olympic gold medal and seven times on the PGA Tour, including the Masters and the Tour Championship, where he took home a bonus of 25 million dollars for first place. for the FedEx Cup.

Jack Hirsch

Editor of Golf.com

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A native of Pennsylvania, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also *tries* to remain competitive in the local amateurs. Prior to joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a television station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a multimedia journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.