Up to now the continuing battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has solely resulted in a fracture within the males’s skilled sport and disillusioned followers. Now, it will likely be the centerpiece of a made-for-TV match later this 12 months.
The PGA Tour’s Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are set to face LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a primetime match on TNT. Golfweek first reported the information, nevertheless it was confirmed to The Athletic by way of an individual briefed on the settlement, who was not approved to talk publicly concerning the match.
Set to be held in Las Vegas in mid-December, the occasion will naturally make the most of the rising tensions between the 2 leagues to have interaction an viewers for the primary time because the emergence of the start-up league in 2022. The “framework settlement,” introduced on Jun. 6, 2023, stay on CNBC by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yassir Al-Rumayyan, vowed to carry the sport of golf again collectively.
Since then, the PGA Tour and the PIF, which funds LIV Golf, have missed their deadline for finishing negotiations. They’ve continued to debate options behind closed doorways, with no new deadline on the calendar. Monahan met with the media finally week’s Tour Championship and insisted that the PGA Tour and the PIF are in “common dialogue” regardless of the dearth of updates surrounding the proposed unification of the sport.
There have been 9 iterations of TNT’s “The Match” — the most recent that includes Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang earlier this 12 months — however it’s not but clear whether or not the brand new LIV versus PGA Tour exhibition will probably be part of that collection.
Koepka and DeChambeau had been famously contributors in a earlier set up of the occasion as a option to settle their boiling on-line rivalry. Now they’ll group up as the 2 hottest representatives of LIV Golf towards the world No. 1 and a four-time main champion. McIlroy and DeChambeau are only a few months faraway from their tense duel down the stretch of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, throughout which McIlroy missed two quick putts to permit DeChambeau to grab his second U.S. Open trophy. Scheffler has not but been part of the primetime match collection. He’s coming off probably the most dominant seasons in golf historical past.
“Brooks and Scottie are very excited to be part of this distinctive occasion and look ahead to sharing extra quickly,” Blake Smith, the agent for each Koepka and Scheffler, mentioned in an announcement.
The PGA Tour declined to remark by way of a consultant.
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(High picture of Scottie Scheffler, left, and Brooks Koepka: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Photos)
