Golf’s next made-for-TV event will take place this December at a South Florida course owned by President Donald Trump, featuring Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, the world’s top two ranked players.
The Golf Channel Games will see Scheffler and McIlroy lead two four-man teams in various skills competitions at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter on Dec. 17. Golf Channel and USA Network—two of the cable channels being spun out from Comcast into Versant—will both broadcast the program in primetime.
Who exactly will join Scheffler and McIlroy will be announced in the coming weeks. LIV Golf athletes will not participate in the event, a source confirmed to Front Office Sports.
Last December, LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka competed against Scheffler and McIlroy in the Crypto.com Showdown, which aired on TNT Sports and was created by producer Bryan Zuriff’s BZ Entertainment and EverWonder Studio (Zuriff was also the brains behind The Match series that has featured pro golfers and celebrities). Scheffler, McIlroy, DeChambeau, and Koepka all starred together in the recently released Happy Gilmore 2.
Zuriff and EverWonder are also behind the Golf Channel Games, which are also being launched in association with PGA Tour Studios, which may account for any lack of presence of LIV.
The Crypto.com Showdown averaged 625,000 viewers on a Tuesday night; the Golf Channel Games will air on a Wednesday. The most-watched edition of The Match was in May 2020 (while most professional sports were on hiatus), when 5.8 million viewers tuned into a Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning vs. Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady showcase.
The Golf Channel Games will mark a departure from the match-play battles that have made up previous made-for-TV events, instead seeing teams compete in things like drive, chip, and putt; a 14-club challenge, a timed shootout; and a captain’s challenge.
It will also mark yet another golf event for a Trump property, as the PGA Tour will return to Trump National Doral in 2026 for the first time in a decade, and LIV is scheduled to play at a Trump course for its fifth consecutive season.
Editors’ note: RedBird IMI is the primary investor in both EverWonder Studio and Front Office Sports.
