Report: Date And Venue Set For 'The Showdown' Featuring McIlroy, Scheffler, DeChambeau And Koepka
Golfweek has reported details on the venue and date for the made-for-TV contest featuring Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka
In early September, it was reported that PGA Tour players Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler would face LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a made-for-TV match. Now, details have emerged on where it will be held and when.
Per Golfweek's Eamon Lynch, who also broke the original story, the match, which is billed as The Showdown, will take place on Tuesday 17 December at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas with TV coverage on TNT.
Lynch also reports that it's understood it will be an 18-hole contest with a mixture of best-ball and alternate shot formats. A formal announcement is expected imminently.
The week after the news broke last month, McIlroy played in the Amgen Irish Open. Beforehand, he was asked whether the match is meant to send a message given the protracted talks over a peace deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf.
McIlroy denied that was behind the reason for the contest but admitted that it was intended not just to offer excitement to golf fans, but to demonstrate what could be possible more often in the future.
He said: “I wouldn't say it's meant to send a message. It's more we wanted to do something that, I guess, all golf fans could get excited about.
“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.”
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The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been at loggerheads ever since the Saudi-backed circuit was launched in 2022. That caused a number of players to take sides, with a host of star names including Cameron Smith and Jon Ram parting ways with the US-based tour, as well as Koepka and DeChambeau.
McIlroy has not shied away from stating where he stands on the division either, frequently almost acting as a spokesman for the PGA Tour. Time has healed some rifts, and after a huge backtrack, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan shook hands with PIF counterpart Yasir Al-Rumayyan on a deal last year.
Regardless of the motivation for hosting the match, the appearance of four of the world’s best players from either side of the men’s game’s great divide is sure to raise expectations that a deal between the PGA Tour and PIF can be agreed.
The latest update about the match comes just a week after it was confirmed that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan had been paired together for the opening round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
It will not be the first time the venue has hosted a similar match. In 2018, it was the location of another made-for-TV contest, The Match: Tiger vs Phil, where Mickelson, who is now also with LIV Golf, beat the 15-time Major winner. Three years later, it hosted the LPGA Tour’s Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.
Shadow Creek is not only regarded as one of the best courses in Las Vegas, but the entire country. It was designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1989. Nowadays, it has golf’s most expensive green fee, with the cost of playing it reportedly rising from $1,000 to $1,250 in 2023.
Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories.
He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.
Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.
Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.
- Michael WestonContributing editor
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