Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are to face Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a made-for-TV 18-hole shootout in Las Vegas later this year that is being billed as PGA Tour v LIV Golf League match up.
The fourball, two-team match will air on TNT, which broadcast the previous nine editions of ‘The Match’, an exhibition series that started in 2018 with a match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and most recently saw McIlroy take on Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson in February.
“I’m thrilled to partner with Scottie in what promises to be an exciting duel against Bryson and Brooks in Vegas this December,” McIlroy said. “This isn’t just a contest between some of golf’s major champions; it’s an event designed to energize the fans. We’re all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again.”
McIlroy has played in two editions of The Match and a number of other made-for-TV exhibitions. Scheffler is making his debut into exhibition golf and is coming off a season in which he won the Olympic gold medal and seven PGA Tour events, including the Masters and the Tour Championship, where he took home the $25m first-place bonus for winning the FedEx Cup.
The match comes as the PGA Tour faces increasing pressure to finalise a framework agreement of a merger with LIV Golf’s financial backers, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which was initially struck in June last year, but has to date shown no signs of bringing together the two parties.