Will the LIV-PGA Tour Showdown work?

Sign up every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in sports and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss The Showdown, Scottie Scheffler’s 2025 outlook, Tiger Woods’ resurgence and more.

of Crypto.com Deal begins Tuesday when Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka take on Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. Why does this promise to be the best made-for-TV match yet – and why might it fail?

Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): Sometimes the golf can take a backseat to these matches (and, for what it’s worth, I’ve been game to watch them every time), but here the focus is squarely on the golf, and that’s a good thing. They have four players watching matches. They have LIV against the PGA Tour. If they just play and don’t try too hard, that should be great. But why can it fail? It’s football season. During football season there isn’t much oxygen left for any other sport.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): Par won’t do too well here, so it’ll be four of the best in the game playing golf without a bogey, birdie or bust. This makes for good fun, especially with the LIV vs Tour overlap. Fair enough or not, many will take it as a measuring stick of the rival tournament. Dylan is right. Football season is a tough competition. But ratings aside, it could be a bust if the joke is as creepy as it often is in these confections. There’s a reason none of these guys have been asked to host a Comedy Central roast.

James Colgan, news and features editor (@jamescolgan26): Here is the exciting reality: It may not smell bad! And that makes it just about the best made-for-TV golf event since the Brady/Manning/Tiger/Phil matchup in 2020. If you’ve decided to assume these events will be unbearable until proven otherwise, I guess that it is right. But I also think that these are the right characters competing under the right structure, to make something that can be enjoyable for the brave and the casual. That’s good enough for me.

If Bryson DeChambeau — now a YouTube influencer — is the most important part of this game being a hit, which player is second most important to his success?

Dethier: McIlroy. He’s not the PGA Tour standard he was at the start of this LIV-Tour rivalry, but he still moves the needle as much as any non-Tiger-Woods golfer in the world. However, there is no weak link here – everyone brings something.

Meaning: Agreed. Each of the four is capable of putting on a scorching performance. But next in line behind Rory should be Scheffler, the best player in the world coming off an epic season, with a chance to put another punctuation mark on his dominance.

Colgan: Scottie is the longest-running No. 1 in the world, mindlessly, in a dozen years, and I’d argue that golf’s ability to translate its dominance into viewers is the biggest challenge facing the sport after reunion.

Tiger Woods returns to the course this week for the first time since July, when he will join his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship in Florida. Will we learn anything about Woods’ form and health this week – or should we just sit back and enjoy family golf?

Dethier: We’ll see him swing and we’ll see him walk and we’ll even see him hit some pressure shots! Let’s not get carried away – neither by Woods’ form, nor by his son’s. But yeah, I think what we see this week from Woods will give us some sort of hint as to what to expect from his 2025.

Meaning: To borrow from Bobby Jones, there are two kinds of golf, tournament golf and father-son golf with a shot and a laugh, and they are not the same. For one thing, Tiger will be allowed to use a wheelchair. You can’t do that at Augusta. That’s just one of the many reasons why we shouldn’t use this as a barometer for anything more than what it is.

Colgan: It’s Tiger playing in a televised golf event. Can we convince ourselves that we have learned something? It is clear that it is. We will, whether we have to or not.

Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Tour Player of the Year award for a third consecutive season, matching a feat accomplished only by Tiger Woods. (Tiger won five straight once and three straight another time.) If you’re in Vegas, what are the odds Scheffler makes it four straight next season? And who would you give second best chances?

Dethier: Sheesh – that’s a good question. Golf is a fickle game, even for the world No. 1, but given Scheffler’s dominance, you can’t go more than 2-1 odds. Xander Schauffele is second, with McIlroy just a tick behind him.

sense: For a brief time, it looked like Scheffler’s pitcher might undo it. But he explained it well enough. Becoming a father didn’t slow him down either, as there are other players. I’d put it near the money, though Dylan is right again. The next one should be Schauffele. Barring an unexpected truce with LIV, the Tours merge and Bryson returns to the mix full-time.

Colgan: I’d make Scottie an overwhelming favorite – maybe even odds. He has been so good. And no one (sans Schauffele, who just won two majors in one year and still lost the POTY) is particularly close.

Speaking of Scheffler, his famous 2012 GMC Yukon XL (with 184,000 miles on it) is up for auction with a starting bid of $50,000. Proceeds from the sale will support the Triumph Over Kid Cancer charity. Forget a green jacket or a tee, what random piece of golf memorabilia would you like to get your hands on?

Dethier: If we share cars, I’ll only take one of the two Genesis whips that Will Zalatoris won at Riviera last year. Or, I don’t know. Maybe an old Top Flite hat. Good vibes there.

sense: I’m not much of a souvenir dealer or collector, and I don’t have a romantic attachment to any golf facility. But if someone wants to hand me a first-place check from the FedEx Cup at the end of the season, I’d take it.

Colgan: Jim Nantz, if you’re reading this, let me get my hands on a game-used version of one of those sweet, sweet Vineyard Vines links.

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