The upcoming LIV PGA Tour match has an eye-catching name – and perhaps a future

As details of the upcoming match – PGA Tour duo Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against an LIV golf team of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka – emerge, a bigger picture is emerging. This event may not just be a one-time event but a sign of things to come.

The Showdown, as it is called, is scheduled for Tuesday, December 17th at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, (perhaps not so coincidentally) the same day that the NBA's in-season tournament also ends in Vegas. The golf match will be broadcast on TNT – the long-time home of many TV-only games – and will be a form of match play.

According to a source familiar with the event, it will be different from the various versions of “The Match” fans have seen in recent years and will be seen as the basis for future inter-tour games. If it is a 2-on-2 showdown, the parties involved see the potential to bring in additional players from LIV and the PGA Tour for a larger battle in the future with up to six or eight players on each side. As the logistics of an investment deal between the PGA Tour and LIV's owner, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), drag on in the boardroom, those involved see this as an area where players can raise the bar in the meantime.

“Look, I think we all know we want to get this game back in good shape,” DeChambeau said at the LIV event in Chicago last month. “We want to bring this game back to a place where I would say everyone has the opportunity to see the biggest games much more often than four times a year. I think it’s a great opportunity to show how we evolve over time.”

When asked if this is an idea that has been floating around among players for some time, DeChambeau replied:

“Oh yeah, remember a few years ago we always wanted to have a PGA Tour and some kind of LIV fight?” he said. “We always thought it would be pretty cool and stuff like that. But I think it will evolve over time and hopefully give people what they want.”

When news of the game first broke, McIlroy was keen to say it was not a “message” to PGA Tour management, but expressed a similar sentiment to DeChambeau.

“It's a way to show golf fans around the world that this could happen or that these are the possibilities for the future,” he said. “I've been saying that for a long time. I think golf and golf fans can see us together more than four times a year.”

If that's the goal, The Showdown will probably achieve it. Organizers expect the event, or something similar, to be played every 12 months, if not more frequently, in the future, at least while negotiations between the PGA Tour, the PIF and the DP World Tour continue and Tour regulations maintain exclusivity over it , where certain players play their games of golf.

Just last weekend, McIlroy acknowledged that there should be some clarity on a Saudi PIF investment (or lack thereof) in PGA Tour Enterprises by the end of 2024, but that we could simply see “a bit of crossover” between the tours for several years and no complete integration.

As always, times are fluid. We are still 16 months away from a signed framework agreement between the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF, but more than nine months away from the deadline for a final agreement. And although the initially cold relations between the warring sides have thawed somewhat – tour commissioner Jay Monahan played golf very publicly with PIF boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan last weekend – all is not rosy for everyone. LIV golfers will continue to be barred from competing on the PGA Tour and will receive fines and suspensions from the DP World Tour for each event they participate in as a member of the DPWT. These fines also do not disappear if a player cancels their membership – Lee Westwood was banned from competing in the Senior Open Championship due to unpaid fines. Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm had to appeal those sanctions in order to compete in DP World Tour events this fall just to secure a path to play in next season's Ryder Cup.

One reason details of the game have been slow to emerge is because it is difficult to assemble participants from different tours, with different schedules and different events around the globe. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the Stanwich Club in the summer, but was moved to Las Vegas in the winter when scheduling problems arose. Organizers were still looking for $8 million to $10 million for a title sponsor as of last month, according to Sports Business Journal.

Regardless, whenever a PGA Tour event occurs anywhere in the world, PGA Tour members may not compete elsewhere without receiving a conflicting event release form. Fortunately, or intentionally, mid-December is one of the few times of the year when the PGA Tour doesn't host a tournament. During the week in question, McIlroy and Scheffler would simply need to receive a media rights clearance to allow their name, likeness and golf likeness to be used in broadcasting and marketing the game. The PGA Tour would absolutely approve this type of request even if it is not associated with the event in an official capacity. This is the same orchestration that Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods did to organize the original teleplay in 2018. In this case, Turner paid the tour $1 million for the media rights of the players involved.