Monday, December 2, 2024

Date announced for PGA Tour vs LIV Golf exhibition – Irish Golfer Magazine

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The exhibition match starring Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler vs Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau will take place on December 17th at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

The exhibition between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf stars which is the latest edition of “The Match” will be broadcast on TNT Sports.

It will be the first time that PGA Tour players have competed against LIV Golf players outside of the majors and the Olympics, with DeChambeau and Koepka both unable to feature on the PGA Tour since joining the Saudi-backed circuit in 2022.

Shadow Creek previously hosted the 2018 iteration between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson where the pair played for a purse of $9 million.

Rory McIlroy is coming off a string of near misses in 2024, including losing the US Open to DeChambeau at Pinehurst.

Since McIlroy won his fourth major title in 2014, DeChambeau has won two US Opens, Scheffler has two Masters Green Jackets while Koepka has overtaken McIlroy to five majors after winning the 2023 PGA Championship.

Details on the format of the event have not been released but it is expected to be a match play competition.

The event takes place amid ongoing talks between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund as golf still aims to strike a peace deal although hope was renewed that negotiations are nearing a conclusion after Jay Monahan and Yasir Al Rumayyan played the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship together last week where 14 LIV players were present at the DP World Tour event including winner Tyrrell Hatton.

The match was announced last month and came just a week after PGA Tour commissioner Monahan said he had been encouraged by “enhanced” negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, but warned no deadline had been set for a deal to be agreed.

When this latest match was announced, there was speculation that the PGA Tour-vs.-LIV angle doubled as McIlroy sending a message to those in charge, taking measures into his own hands in the hope it would prompt them to speed up the negotiation process.

“I wouldn’t say it’s meant to send a message,” McIlroy said at last month’s Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down. “It’s more we wanted to do something that all golf fans could get excited about.

“You’ve got the best player in the world,” McIlroy continued. “You’ve got two guys in Bryson and Brooks that have won majors in the last two years. You’ve got me in there who, I haven’t done what those guys have done the last couple years, but I’ve definitely been I feel one of the best players in the world. It’s a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward. I’ve been saying this for a long time: I think golf and golf fans get to see us together more than four times a year.

“I think that’s what we’ve tried to do. It’s in the middle of December. There’s not a lot going on in the game of golf. So trying to get people excited about something before the season starts again. I think we all thought it was a good idea and something that hopefully is a sign of things to come in the future.”

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