Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf had nothing to do with the long-awaited match, which took place in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. At Shadow Creek, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka played Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler in a match called “The Showdown.” And over the course of four hours, golf fans saw something they usually don’t see. It was LIV’s best game against the best on the PGA Tour in a non-major event. It was lit up, and the players were being mic’d up. It had to live up to the buzz, right?
Almost.
Here are 10 things we learned from our time in Vegas on Tuesday night.
1. This format worked!
A lot of talk has been made about how hard it is to keep people interested in an 18-hole golf match the whole time. The Showdown did it by splitting the 18 holes into three 6-hole games, each with its own rules. The first part was fourball, the second was a mini-match for foursomes (alternate shot), and the last six holes were singles matches. All of those games were worth one point, so there was still something to play for until (at least) the 15th hole, no matter what happened.
In a strange way, the match wasn’t even close—keep scrolling to see the outcome—but that’s often seen as a case for how it was set up. In this style, a match that wasn’t very close was still interesting to watch for four hours. Was it entertaining the whole time? That’s not the same thing. But it wasn’t until late that the result was known.
2. It didn’t matter if it was the best shot of the day.
When Bryson DeChambeau hit a perfect pulling 8-iron from 213 yards out on the par-5 4th hole, it felt like a turning point. He yelled at it to draw over and over again, and it did. It jumped on the front edge of the green and rolled out four feet. He and Brooks were down two in the fourball game and really needed a win.
Rory and Scottie were both about 40 feet away from the green but not quite there yet. The LIV team would be back to one down and on the move if Bryson made his birdie putt. They were not lucky because McIlroy hit his putt through the edge, up the hill, and into the jar, and he did a little fist pump to go with it. What is the old golf term for this? We were reminded of the Mongolian Reversal at this year’s Presidents Cup, which was made official when DeChambeau missed his birdie putt. All of a sudden, the PGA Tour pros had won the first round by scores of 3–2.
3. Yes, Rory did show up to play.
It was clear from the first hole that Rory was at his best, while his opponents may have been out of practice. McIlroy hit a dart into the first green and got a birdie. He made another birdie on the second hole, which gave his team a two-shot lead. The two of them won the first alternate shot hole and held the lead until Brooks and Bryson won their first hole of the day at 11 (their ninth hole).
Koepka said with a sneer as they got to the 12th tee, “Welcome to the tournament.” McIlroy had to make a three-putt on the 12th hole for bogey to win the game. He did just that, putting his 4-footer right in the middle of the cup. McIlroy kept his cool and birdied the first two holes of his singles match against Bryson. At that point, he pretty much had the win. When Koepka missed his birdie putt on the 16th hole, the Showdown was over. (This image should help you picture how their night went.)
5. Charles Barkley wants the Tour to join together. ASAP
Again, Barkley’s voice was the best thing about a made-for-TV golf match. He made random jokes about anything that caught his attention. One thing he talked about a lot was how he wants the two competing golf tours to join together, and he wants it to happen right away. Barkley said that he doesn’t agree with “some stuff going on in the background,” which puts LIV players at a disadvantage. Barkley made it clear that he wants the best players on both teams to play together a lot more often than they do now, but he didn’t say exactly what he meant.
Barkley didn’t hold back when he said, “I can say whatever I want to.” “I’m not scared of losing my job.”
But here’s the thing, Chuck. Yes, most of us agree with you.
6. Mic’d up golf still has bugs
Matches made for TV are hard to understand, mostly because players are now expected to be mic’d up all the time. The broadcast audio feed can be sent to the players’ AirPods on demand, but it is usually turned off so players can concentrate.
As long as it does what you ask it to do, this method is pretty good. Brian Anderson tried to talk to Scheffler and McIlroy for the first time as they went off the first tee, but neither player could hear him. The fact that it took minutes to fix the microphone problem shows that these broadcasts are still not perfect. DeChambeau took off his AirPods on the back nine for unknown reasons, which made the already bad sound even worse.
7. The desert is beautiful. And also very cold
The first date for this match was September, but it was moved to this week. This wouldn’t be a problem if the boys had teed off at noon, but they did so at 4 p.m. About 30 minutes after they started, the sun went down, making for a beautiful evening but also a very cold day. When the golfers got to the back nine, it felt like it was about 50 degrees outside. It was in the mid-40s by the end.
DeChambeau wore a jacket from the first tee on for the whole round. He quickly added a fleece vest with a hood. The golf carts had space heaters that blew warm air straight at the people riding in them. They were used a lot!
Because of this, Shadow Creek played tough. As firm as they could get, the greens made it hard for shots to land close to the hole. They ended up in tricky spots beyond the green. Koepka and DeChambeau had a hard time understanding the green speeds the whole time. Folks, that’s a lesson. We like golf that is firm!
8. They gave us more TALK
Since the first real made-for-TV match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in 2018, we’ve seen almost twelve of them. Everything we know about golf from the last six years is that it’s not very fun by itself. Instead, what makes it most enjoyable are the jokes, insights, and natural banter that the world’s best golfers share. It’s there because we see it every week in the Tuesday afternoon money games.
It was said that The Showdown would be a tougher fight than previous matches, but the competitors didn’t say much to each other. And because we sometimes had trouble getting to the microphone, it was hard to get ideas quickly. Three years of anger that has built up in the sport could be released if the players would just… scold each other a bit. The CBS host Colt Knost replied on Twitter with a very simple view: “Loosen this thing up!” Say some nonsense! Say something.
But we never got much. The golf shots and the announcers were the only things that entertained us, turning the whole thing into some background TV. While that’s fine for golf in December, it doesn’t live up to the high hopes that managers gave us.
9. Being sponsored is still a good thing
Sports Business Journal said that this event had a hard time getting a title sponsor for a while. But then Crypto.com came along and paid a lot of money for the right to use the name. They also gave a lot of cryptocurrency as a prize. The broadcast made it very clear about other relationships, such as the one with Wing, a company that sent golf balls to the match from the sky. Some people paid to put on the sessions, like Bass Pro Shops, which gave you the best-ball format. It got so bad that even LIV Golf bought some commercials. A lot of companies want to support golf content, especially when the best golfers in the world are involved, as this event showed.
10. Scottie doesn’t understand crypto
When we talk about sponsors, we had virtual press conferences with all four of the players last week. At each, one question was asked: what do you know or do not know about cryptocurrency? Koepka and DeChambeau both said they had interests in the non-traditional currency, but Scheffler and McIlroy said they did not. Now they all do, since the second group got their share of the $10 million worth of cryptocurrency.
As you’d think, Scheffler was honest when asked how that digital currency would fit into his life afterward.
He said with a laugh, “I don’t know much about crypto, but this is a good reason to learn more.” “Perhaps ask a few questions to see what’s going on.”
Certainly! Thanks, Scottie and Rory. And kind of to the PGA Tour.
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