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PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy and lead Scottie Scheffler will face LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in an exhibition event in Las Vegas in December, organizers announced Wednesday.
The televised 18-hole event between four of the biggest names in the new Saudi-backed LIV Series and the PGA Tour will take place at Shadow Creek.
Scheffler, who has won the Masters and the Olympics among his eight titles this year, and McIlroy, a four-time major winner, will team up against two-time U.S. Open champion DeChambeau, who edged out McIlroy for the crown of the US Open this year, and five-time major winner Koepka – the only players to win majors as active members of LIV.
The PGA Tour and LIV’s backers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), are in merger talks but have failed to reach a deal to bring together golf’s elite players.
The LIV-PGA billed as “The Showdown,” McIlroy said last month at the Irish Open, is less about trying to move these long-stalled negotiations forward than about bringing some joy to golf fans annoyed by the split of three seasons.
“I wouldn’t say it’s meant to send a message. Rather, we wanted to do something that I guess all golf fans could get excited about,” McIlroy said.
“You have the best player in the world. You have two guys, Bryson and Brooks, who have won majors in the last two years. You have me in there who – I didn’t do what these guys – there did.” I’ve done it for the last few years, but I definitely feel like one of the best players in the world.
“It’s a way to show golf fans around the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities in the future.”
With LIV players banned from PGA Tour events since the upstart series snatched big-name players from the PGA in 2022, major championships have been the only place where LIV and PGA stars compete.
“It’s mid-December. There’s not much going on in golf, so I’m trying to get people excited about something before the season starts,” McIlroy said.
“We all thought it was a good idea and something that is hopefully a sign of things to come in the future.”
In June at Pinehurst, McIlroy had a chance to win his first major since 2014, but lost to DeChambeau by one stroke on the final hole at Pinehurst.
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