Crypto bros and golf fans, rejoice! Two and a half years after LIV Golf split from the PGA Tour in a theatrical explosion of attitude and money, the golf world remains as divided as ever, with two groups of stars running on parallel tracks. The best of the game only comes together four times a year, in the majors… and, now, in a made-for-TV Christmas event called the “Crypto.com Showdown.”
Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, the first two stalwarts of the PGA Tour, the last two the most successful players on the LIV, will play at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas for what is billed as “the first multi-game “Professional sports prize pool of one million dollars in CRO cryptocurrency.”
The match will be broadcast on TNT, TBS and partner networks and apps, starting at 6 pm ET on Tuesday night. The “Inside the NBA” duo of Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson will broadcast the Showdown, presumably with a little less seriousness than that employed at Augusta National.
An interesting detail: this will be a team play event, with six holes of best ball, six holes of alternate shot and six holes of individual play. It’s like a mini-Ryder Cup! But given that LIV has brought the concept of regular team play to the forefront of golf, it’s entirely possible that this is a glimpse into the future of the game.
Credit to the Showdown organizers for putting four of the game’s best on one field. McIlroy hasn’t had a major win since 2014, but he’s still at the top of his game. Koepka has five majors and is a threat every time he plays in one of golf’s biggest events. DeChambeau won his second US Open last June. And Scheffler is simply unstoppable, with a Masters victory, an Olympic gold medal and a Tour Championship victory, all in 2024 alone.
Let’s be honest: It’s pretty ridiculous that the only way, outside of the major leagues, we can see the game’s best sharing a field is a made-for-TV event. They should play against each other a dozen times a year, at least.
The US Open duel between McIlroy and DeChambeau was one of the best majors of the last decade. When Koepka is engaged, he is as tough as anyone in the game. And Scheffler is so dominant that the rest of the field needs all the help it can get to slow him down.
Plus, these four, particularly DeChambeau, have the potential to be interesting personalities. There was a bit of what passes for trash talk in golf on the course Monday, when DeChambeau hit McIlroy on the course once again:
“I’d like to face Bryson and try to get him back for what he did to me at the US Open,” McIlroy said.
“To be fair,” DeChambeau responded, “you kind of did it to yourself.”
DeChambeau remains one of the game’s most fascinating figures, a budding social media superstar in a sport that otherwise struggles to find traction. Until he joined LIV, he was best known for his long-running feud with Koepka in the late 2010s. He spoke about it last week while promoting Showdown.
“We had our disputes,” DeChambeau said. “But we realized when we both went to LIV that we had quite a few things in common. In a sense, like stepbrothers. And we’ve developed a pretty solid relationship and now we respect each other a lot.”
“We all get older, we all mature a little bit, and then you realize Bryson is a good guy,” Koepka said. “I think he’s been seriously misunderstood and I think the world is starting to really see who Bryson DeChambeau is, which is great. “I’m the first person to admit it, I was wrong with my original thoughts.”
If Koepka and DeChambeau can get along… maybe all of golf can get along?
We are a long way from any reunification of golf. But at least for one night, golf fans can see four of the best golfers sharing a course for the first time since the Open Championship in July. Enjoy it, because it’s the last time it will happen until the Masters in April.