Four stars and their plan to mend the broken pro game.
One by one, four of golf’s biggest stars took their assigned places in a driving range teaching bay cramped by photo equipment and an anxious crew. At the risk of offending any of these titans, each worthy of top billing, we list them in alphabetical order – Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. They had assembled to take a family-style portrait, but the spectacle of seeing them together was a reminder that pro golf has been anything but one big happy family these past few years.
“it’s great looking in your eyes,” a posing Koepka said to DeChambeau.
“It’s my favourite thing,” DeChambeau deadpanned, the camera clicking and strobes firing.
“We’ve definitely been around each other too much the past few days,” a laughing Scheffler interjected.
Scheffler was referring to the quality time this formidable foursome had enjoyed working on a film project, which on this day mixed with other promotional video work as well as this Golf Digest portrait session led by fashion photographer Michelle Watt. Other than McIlroy, who was a couple of weeks out from defending his Race to Dubai title on the DP World Tour, this was off-season for this group. The next meaningful time these four will peg it is The Showdown, the first of a new exhibition golf series that will take place at Shadow Creek Golf Course on December 17.
The sun was setting at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, call-time had been pre-dawn and fatigue was setting in. Even two-time US Open champions like DeChambeau are not immune to getting ‘hangry’, but it was hard to spot any animosity among the four. Even the well-chronicled feud between the two LIV guys seemed more softened than the catered guac on set.
“It was nice to see an overall brotherly candour among them and hear them crack a few dirty jokes with each other,” said Watt, who staged the shoot hoping to produce timeless images befitting the quartet’s “mythic status” in the sport. “You can feel a sense of togetherness in the portrait.”
Of course, the divide continues. As of this writing, negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (LIV Golf’s financial backer) – to flesh out the infamously stale “framework agreement” and bring the game’s biggest names back together in competition more often – have not produced a reunited schedule. Despite rumours of a bigger cash infusion to placate golfers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour, any agreement will still be subject to approval by the US Department of Justice. LIV Golf isn’t going away anytime soon.
For now, Hollywood magic is extending beyond the camera, with long days on set helping to forge better relations.
“When we see each other on tour or at majors, we’re in our little world, our little bubble. Here, you’re just cutting up, hanging out pretty much the whole time,” Scheffler said. “It’s always fun getting to know guys in a more relaxed environment. That’s what’s fun about the team events.”
As for the aforementioned one-day team event in Las Vegas, Scheffler and McIlroy will represent the PGA Tour against the LIV duo of DeChambeau and Koepka. The 18-hole clash will essentially be three six-hole matches using the three formats familiar from the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup: four-ball, foursomes and singles, with McIlroy squaring off against Koepka and Scheffler taking on DeChambeau. McIlroy has played in two editions of The Match, another made-for-TV golf series on American network TNT, but senses a different vibe this time.
“There is a bit more buzz because of what’s happened in golf the past two years,” McIlroy said. “It’s more competitive and doesn’t feel as gimmicky.”
That’s what Bryan Zuriff, long-time producer of The Match and executive producer of The Showdown, is going for.
“This is intense, real golf,” Zuriff said. Ever since LIV’s inception Zuriff has thought about a new concept to pit the two rival leagues. The first major step to making it a reality was a conversation this past January with McIlroy’s manager Sean O’Flaherty at the Dubai Invitational. Zuriff’s producing credits include “Ray Donovan”, and like that show’s eponymous lead character, he relishes playing the role of a fixer in pro golf’s messy landscape. Originally, Zuriff pitched an individual battle for major tally supremacy between the four-time major winner McIlroy and five-time major winner Koepka, but after the former’s heartbreaking US Open loss to DeChambeau at Pinehurst, expanding seemed more sensible.
With the game’s biggest stars competing together only at the four major championships, it is no surprise the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are battling troubling TV ratings. The final round of LIV’s individual championship in September, won by former world No.1 Jon Rahm, drew only 89,000 non-streaming viewers on the CW. Even a Rahm-Koepka showdown at The Greenbrier in August produced half the ratings of pickleball on Fox that Sunday. The PGA Tour’s new series of signature events with limited fields playing for eye-popping purses saw an initial bump in 2023, but in 2024 big tournaments like the Phoenix Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational were down more than 30 percent in viewership. The final round of the tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, was down 15 percent despite Scheffler closing with a 64 to edge three top-10 players. Even Sunday at the Masters was down 20 percent, with Scheffler continuing his historic run and beating LIV Golfers like DeChambeau and Cam Smith. Are golf fans growing tired of both sides?
“The longer things drag on without clarity, the more a wounded tour is at risk of losing its crowd,” Golf Digest’s Jaime Diaz recently wrote. “Worse than being frustrated and angry, exhausted fans could simply stop caring and move on.”
NBA legend Charles Barkley, who will be a part of the TNT broadcast, put it more bluntly.
“I wish these fools would quit screwing around, LIV and the PGA Tour,” Barkley said during an October appearance on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. “I don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They’re so stupid. These guys are so idiotic. They need to be playing against each other [in more than] the majors. It would be beneficial for both tours.”
DeChambeau is optimistic the two sides will figure things out soon. He also thinks an event like The Showdown can bridge the gap between regular tour events and the YouTube golf audience, with which he is heavily engaged, and be a catalyst for the pro game to emerge even stronger.
“Anything that’s a disruptor is ultimately a net positive,” DeChambeau said. “There’s an opportunity to showcase the greatest golfers together, finally, for the first time in a long time.”
While DeChambeau, McIlroy and others have loudly called for unity at the game’s highest level, this Sin City match still stands to have a West Side Story Jets-Sharks feel, even if the four competitors have overlaps in sponsors, hometowns and managers, even if they’re business partners in this made-for-TV series and even if a deal gets done between the PGA Tour and LIV before future iterations. For now, and some time going forward, there’s sizzle.
“It’s a them-versus-us sort of mentality,” DeChambeau said. “We’ve been waiting on a grudge match like this for a while.”
One irony is that DeChambeau already played a grudge match against Koepka in the fifth edition of The Match. Koepka won that 12-hole match in convincing fashion to cap a couple of years in which the two sent multiple jabs (including one viral eye roll during the 2021 PGA Championship) at each other regarding everything from slow play to who had better abs. Now their newfound partnership (friendship?) seems genuine.
“It’s fun to pair up with somebody that, you know, somebody that…” DeChambeau said, pausing to find the right words. “We had a tough relationship in the past. We’ve come together and said, ‘You know what, it’s time to show them who we really are.’”
“I think they’re businessmen, and I think they see the power they have with Bryson’s YouTube following and Brooks’ coolness,” Zuriff said. “If they work together, they’re more valuable than being against each other, so they help each other.”
Of course, there’s little choice but for golfers to help one another when they are trying to survive a carwash of video stations and photo sets on a hectic driving range buzzing with multiple drones, managers and producers haggling in the background. Even a naturally compelling concept like The Showdown needs marketing assets. In a video challenge filmed by The Bleacher Report, Koepka coached a blindfolded Bryson into nearly making a 30-foot putt. “You nailed it, bro!” Koepka said, giving DeChambeau a big fist bump. “I gotta tip my cap. That was impressive.”
Moments later, they shared a laugh when Koepka pointed out one of the few regular golfers at the course that day who had driven his cart too close to a marshy area and gotten stuck. Hey, you can’t blame someone for rubbernecking at seeing four of the best players on the planet at his home club.
When asked to describe DeChambeau, Koepka didn’t hesitate. “Quirky, opinionated, but very passionate, very driven and very hard-working.” Careful, Brooks, you’re going to make Bryson blush!
“Hard worker, too, by the way,” DeChambeau pointed back at Koepka. “It’s funny, we have some of the same practice routines after a round. I’ve seen him hit golf balls for two hours.”
Shhh, Bryson! You’re going to ruin Brooks’ reputation!
Surprisingly, The Showdown will be Scheffler’s debut in a made-for-TV golf event. The 28-year-old Texan is a heavy favourite to win PGA Tour Player of the Year for the third consecutive season, and now he has the opportunity to show he has the type of personality to also be one of the game’s top draws. “I think it’ll be fun,” Scheffler said. “I feel like when I’m playing and competing on tour, I don’t love to be distracted, but with this being mic’d up and us talking more to each other than we would in a typical tournament, this will be more interactive, more relaxed, more like what I do at home.”
When asked why they’d win, Koepka quickly noted his team’s higher major championship total, then added a sharp dagger, although out of earshot of McIlroy, that the three younger players involved have won all nine of their majors since Rory won his last a decade ago.
On this day, however, McIlroy earned the biggest win, exploding a water balloon 30 paces away in a different TNT challenge with a stinging iron shot on only his second attempt. “Brooks and Bryson couldn’t do it,” McIlroy snickered. “I told you we were going to win.”
The easiest aspect of The Showdown to forecast is that the four golfers involved will be incentivised for it to be a success. Putting aside possibly affecting pro golf’s splintered situation, they are all partners creating a new franchise as well as building upon their own personal brands. Regardless of which team comes out ahead on December 17, both sides hope those watching will win as well.
“The public deserves this. They’ve been waiting for a long time,” DeChambeau said. “This isn’t just going to be a one-and-done sort of thing. This is about bringing the game back together.”
Say cheese, everyone.
The best iron players will win at Shadow Creek
A statistical analysis of The Showdown
By Edoardo Molinari
It is a fun but busy life being a player and a coach. I keep a full tournament schedule and serve as analytics adviser to many of the same guys I’m trying to beat. Recently, I partnered with Arccos Golf to track my game and use the Arccos platform to enhance what I’ve built. With so much information available these days, game tracking is the key to uncovering insights that can help any golfer score better. None of the players in The Showdown are individual clients, but I have access to shot data for all rounds they played in 2024 on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf and the majors. Golf Digest asked me to provide a statistical preview of the upcoming made-for-TV match, which will pit Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in three six-hole matches of fourball, foursomes and singles match play. Because the 2020 CJ Cup was held at Shadow Creek, there is adequate data to see how elite players fare on this layout. What jumps out to me most is the importance of middle to long irons on approaches from 175 to 225 yards.
Shadow Creek’s fairways are slightly tighter than the typical PGA Tour venue, and there is a high penalty for missing them. There are only three holes (sixth, 14th, 18th) where it truly pays to be aggressive off the tee. Overall, it’s a course that doesn’t reward long hitters because there are many tee shots where you are either forced to lay up to a certain number or where the fairway gets very narrow past 320 yards. As such, there are more shots than usual from 175 to 225 yards, and a player can separate himself because of how the greens are shaped and framed by trouble. At 2,000 feet above sea level, the ball will be flying, and distance control could become a greater challenge. Putting is always of top importance, especially in matchplay where you need to make a lot of birdies, but the stats suggest this showdown will come down to iron play.
SNAPSHOTS
Scottie Scheffler: Scheffler hands down is the best player in the world right now, though he’s been a little off the boil since the Open Championship. He’s the top iron player, and off the tee he’s a little longer than average with incredible accuracy and a great ability to avoid penalty shots. The reigning Masters champion is not only the hottest player of the four, his game is best fitted to Shadow Creek.
Rory McIlroy: McIlroy is at his best when he’s swinging freely and making lots of birdies. Scheffler could be the ideal partner for him, providing steady cover when McIlroy’s aggressive play doesn’t work out. Will McIlroy get into a long-driving competition with DeChambeau? Rory is the only one in the group with the firepower to challenge Bryson.
Bryson DeChambeau: DeChambeau played great on big stages in 2024, winning the US Open and nearly winning the PGA Championship. His driving and putting are outstanding. When he’s inconsistent, his approach play is his weakness. In his favour at Shadow Creek is that he is better with longer approach shots than he is with wedges and short game. He will not be able to take full advantage of his driving here.
Brooks Koepka: Koepka’s five major wins are the envy of this foursome and are testament to his ability to rise to the occasion. He didn’t have his best season in 2024, mostly because of his putter, though Shadow Creek is a great course for him as his approach play has been solid. He just needs to warm up the putter and then he could easily be at the same level as the other guys in this group.
Strokes Gained by type of shot
Data provided by arccos pro insights
Photographs by Michelle Watt
