The golf fans will finally get to witness something they have been waiting for a long time. Since the inception of LIV Golf, the top golf players have been divided, teeing up together only at the 4 majors. But now it will happen outside of that. On October 9, BZ Entertainment formally announced a collaboration between both leagues. The Showdown will be hosted at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas on December 17. 

The stars of the show will be Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy from the PGA Tour and Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau from LIV Golf. The 18-hole competition will be a made-for-TV match, pretty much like The Match series that was launched back in 2018. While all the participants and their teams confirmed their appearance at the match, back in September, when asked about it, the PGA Tour declined to make any comment. But as it turns out, the league now has a statement to make, with less than one month left for the tournament to kick off.

The Showdown between the PGA Tour and LIV stars has a title sponsor, Crypto.com. Josh Carpenter, the writer for Sports Business Journal, reported the news on his official X account. He stated that the organizers of The Showdown were seeking between $8 million and $10 million for the title sponsorship. He also added, “The news release says the purse will be paid entirely in cryptocurrency.” Further, he added, “A @PGATOUR rep does confirm that both Scheffler and McIlroy were granted releases to compete in this match.”

Pros getting release from Jay Monahan and Co. does not seem unlikely. The Tour has been in negotiations with PIF for almost 1.5 years now, and it has not been all smooth. So, to assume that there is a slight resistance is not incorrect. After the news of The Showdown came, players and fans were excited alike. “I’m thrilled to partner with Scottie in what promises to be an exciting duel against Bryson and Brooks in Vegas this December. This isn’t just a contest between some of golf’s major champions; it’s an event designed to energize the fans. We’re all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again,” said McIlroy.

“Brooks and Scottie are very excited to be a part of this unique event and look forward to sharing more soon,” said Blake Smith, who represents both Koepka and Scheffler. Brett Falkoff, DeChambeau‘s agent said: “Bryson looks forward to competing in Las Vegas this December in an event that is sure to provide great entertainment for the fans.”

The idea of this event was to help golf unite, and give something to the fans that has been missing for a couple of years. Fans’ hidered experience is reflected clearly in the viewership drop that golf has been seeing this year. The community which was eagerly waiting for updates regarding The Showdown reacted to the “getting releases” statement. 

The golf community is left in splits

From the beginning of 2022, the first season of LIV Golf, Jay Monahan has been pretty much against the league. He even suspended players from playing on the Tour who joined the Breakaway League. Some of them predicted that there might be a change in the perception of the PGA Tour Commissioner. Initially, he faced criticism from both players and fans for the PGA Tour’s rigid traditions, particularly amid the emergence of LIV Golf, which introduced a more entertaining, fan-centric format to the sport. 

But as it turns out, some of them finally appreciated him for understanding the benefits of the collaboration. Taking to this, one of them commented, “Ray Jay finally sees the light. Golf should be fun, and his Tour will benefit from this event, in terms of exposure to casual fans.”

However, some people believe that it was the only option that he had, and thus there was no other way out. Along with the fans, even significant players like Rory McIlroy and others had started showing their frustration towards the ongoing rivalry. And thus something had to be done to calm down the storm, and he had to agree to the collaboration. Taking to this, some of them left comments like, “As if they had a choice” and “Hostage claims he wanted to go with captor”.

During the inaugural event of The Match, the PGA Tour participants were asked to pay a whopping $1 million fee for playing in the championship. The players affected were Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who faced this fee as part of the PGA Tour’s policy for securing a release to participate in non-tour events. Such a release was necessary because it was organized outside the PGA Tour’s regular structure, involving substantial prize money and pay-per-view broadcasting rights.

Taking to the same concern, which might be an issue today, one of the fans wrote, “The question that anyone should be asking is: whether the PGA Tour got paid any amount in exchange for that release or if the release was a freebie? There is a big difference between a paid release and a free release! Especially for the non-elite players that can’t pay those amounts. In the past, the PGA Tour asked “The Match” participants for a 1 million US dollar payment in exchange for that release. Sadly, these days we don’t get the whole story, and the establishment golf journalists either don’t care, don’t want to report, or are complicit.”

While another frustrated with the daily ongoing politics of the golf world simply commented, “No sh-t”.

What are your thoughts about the partnership? Let us know in the comments section below!