Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler have officially set the four-man teams their forthcoming golf exhibition, the Golf Channel Games, which is slated for Wednesday, Dec. 17 at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter in South Florida. Each squad will feature a good friend to the de facto captain, a familiar face from Bethpage Black and somewhat of a wildcard selection.
McIlroy’s team consists of Shane Lowry, Haotong Li and European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald. Scheffler will trot out a lineup that includes Sam Burns, Luke Clanton and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley.
There will be five formats that competitors will need to traverse through at Trump National Jupiter. The first is a timed drive competition where players compete head-to-head with two minutes on the clock, launching drives onto a scoring grid.
In the short-game competition (chipping and putting), players will compete individually and chip the ball within a certain distance of the pin and hole a specific number of feet of putts all within the three minutes set on the clock.
Next, players will compete in a 14-club challenge with two competitors facing off. The teams of two will pull clubs from the same golf bag and strike shots from predetermined distances in the fairway during a closest-to-the-pin contest. Once a club is used, it is eliminated, meaning each player will strike seven different shots with all 14 clubs used.
All eight players in the competition will compete across four head-to-head matchups.
Team strategy will be involved in the next format, as a timed shootout features four-player alternate shot across three holes. Teammates will be staged in certain positions — one on the tee, one in the fairway, two on and around the greens — and whichever side finishes with the best score in the shortest amount of time wins.
Finally, McIlroy and Scheffler will go head-to-head in a captain’s challenge. Each player will strike shots from various distances, a bunker, greenside and putts of 30 feet and 10 feet. Whoever has the lowest combined distance from the hole for the shots will win.