PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf TV ‘Showdown’ Has International Ambitions

The made-for-TV team golf match featuring stars from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will be played Dec. 17 at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.

Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will face Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a new Ryder Cup–esque competition called The Showdown, which is a new entity in the space and separate from the previous nine iterations of The Match.

The format of the event is still being finalized; the Ryder Cup features pairs of teammates competing in alternate shot and four-ball matches, as well as singles. 

Broadcast details have not been announced, but Front Office Sports can confirm TNT Sports will have exclusive coverage, likely on linear TNT and streaming on Max. TNT was the broadcast partner for all editions of The Match, too.

Shadow Creek is where Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in 2018 played the first edition of The Match, which went on to feature McIlroy, DeChambeau, and Koepka in some later editions—in addition to other athletes like Steph Curry, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and even Charles Barkley. 

Hollywood producer Bryan Zuriff, who created The Match, is also leading The Showdown through a new partnership between his BZ Entertainment and EverWonder Studio, which is backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI (also an investor in FOS). EverWonder, which launched in 2023, was not involved in any editions of The Match.

The competition will be played across a traditional 18 holes, after recent iterations of The Match dropped to 12. “The Match turned into celebrity golf,” Zuriff tells FOS. “And 12 holes is good for celebrity golf. This is 18 holes of real golf and could even potentially expand in the future.” Plans are being made for hosting up to 5,000 fans at the course.

There will be no prize money up for grabs, but McIlroy, Scheffler, DeChambeau, and Koepka have equity in The Showdown. “This is more than money,” Zuriff says. “This is a lot of pride. There’s no amount of money that’s going to make anyone excited to watch something. These are guys that need to win this for many different reasons.”

The Showdown isn’t intended to be a one-off event, with a six-year deal in place for future editions rotating between the U.S. and international locations. MGM Resorts International, which owns Shadow Creek, has signed on to be the event’s Stateside host—meaning it’ll take place there every other year.

The Middle East is being targeted for Year 2, and Europe is under consideration for the future. It was in the United Arab Emirates that Zuriff first pitched McIlroy on the idea at the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational in January. RedBird IMI, led by Zucker, is a joint-venture partnership with Abu Dhabi–based International Media Investments.

December’s match will provide what is now a rare opportunity for PGA Tour and LIV Golf players to compete against each other outside of the major championships. “I don’t think we have to market or play that up,” Zuriff says. “I think it speaks for itself.” For now, it’s unclear how the rival tours will acknowledge the event. “We’re an independently operated event that’s not governed by either of these bodies,” Zuriff says. Zuriff hopes to grow The Showdown beyond four players in future editions, but admits that would have been too complicated this year. “Talent rules in this world,” he says. “You get big stars that want to do something, and want to bring together the game of golf, I think that’s what it takes.”