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A golf match play event featuring a team of PGA Tour players taking on LIV Golf players will take place later this year. according to Eamon Lynch of Golfweek.
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will face Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in the latest edition of “The Match,” which airs in December on TNT.
“It’s not just a competition between some of golf’s greatest champions; this is an event designed to energize the fans,” McIlroy said in a text to Lynch. “We are all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again.”
Previous editions of “The Match” featured Tiger Woods against Phil Mickelson, as well as other sports stars like Steph Curry, Charles Barkley, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes, among others, on teams with golfers from PGA Tour.
This year’s “The Match” will be set against the backdrop of the PGA Tour’s battle against LIV. But as golf’s civil war continues, it won’t be the first time players from different tours have faced off against each other since the split. LIV players have participated in all four major tournaments: The Masters, PGA Championship, US Open and The Open. DeChambeau won this year’s US Open for the second time since 2020 and Koepka won the PGA Championship for the third time in 2023.
PGA/LIV talks continue
The PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia announced a “framework agreement” on June 6, 2023. Little has been finalized since and negotiations continue past the self-imposed deadline of December 31, 2023 .
PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan said last week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta that they still don’t have a schedule or a new deadline. Although he insisted that the negotiations be coherent and “strengthened”, it will continue to take time.
It is not clear what is delaying the negotiations. According to ESPN’s Mark SchlabachSignificant “sticking points” have been related to the future of team golf and whether or not LIV Golf members could return to the Tour without discipline.
McIlroy said last week that both sides were running out of time to make something happen.
“I think if that doesn’t happen soon, then honestly, I think the PIF and the Saudis are going to have to look at alternative options, right?” » said McIlroy. “I would say that’s the next step in all of this if something isn’t done.”