The LIV vs PGA rivalry is center stage in a brand new exhibition event between four of golf’s biggest names in The Crypto.com Showdown. While temperatures have cooled between the two professional golf leagues, there’s still a strong bit of pride between those who moved to the new league LIV and the old standard of the PGA that will play out over 18 holes.
To be clear, while it is a similar event, The Crypto.com Showdown is not another edition of The Match, the exhibition golf matches that have featured pro golfers and famous amateurs, including the recent Match: Superstars edition.
What makes it different? Where and when is it going to be played? And, most importantly, who’s playing in it? Read on to get all of that info.
The Crypto.com Showdown date
The inaugural Crypto.com Showdown takes place on Tuesday, December 17, at 6 pm ET. The event is going to air on TNT and stream on Max.
In order to watch on TNT, you need a traditional pay-TV provider or a live TV streaming service that carries the cable network; in the case of the latter that includes Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV. To stream the event on Max, you must be a subscriber to the platform, which currently is offering all subscribers the B/R Sports add-on as part of the base Max package.
At this time we don’t have any info on UK channels you can watch The Crypto.com Showdown on, so you’re best bet may be a VPN (we recommend NordVPN).
The Crypto.com Showdown golfers
Four of the best golfers in the world will square off in the event. Representing LIV are Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, while on the PGA side are Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.
DeChambeau and Koepka are both multi-major winners; two for DeChambeau (both US Opens) and five for Koepka (two US Opens, three PGA Championships). In fact, they are the only two LIV golf players who have won majors after they joined the new league. They each have also participated in The Match. DeChambeau played in a four-ball match with Aaron Rodgers against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady and won, then he went head-to-head with Koepka (Koepka’s lone appearance on The Match) and won.
Rory McIlroy is one of the biggest names on the PGA Tour as a four-time major champion (one US Open, two PGA Championships, one Open Championship) and with 25 has the most wins among regularly active PGA Tour players. Scheffler, meanwhile, is the top-ranked player in the world (LIV players don’t earn World Golf Ranking points from their league) and is coming off a record year where he won seven times, including The Masters and The Tour Championship and earned a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. As far as their past experience in these types of exhibitions, McIlroy has played in two (won one, lost one) while this is the first such event for Scheffler.
The Crypto.com Showdown format
The format for The Crypto.com Showdown is going to be a little different than The Match.
The 18-hole match will be played in three sections, six holes each, with each section assigned a point value. The first six holes will be played in best ball (where each player hits a shot and the team picks the result), followed by alternate show (one player on each team takes a shot, with their teammate playing the next) and then the final six holes with everyone playing their own ball.
Whichever team has the most points at the end of the match is going to be the winner, taking home the prize money, which will be given out in CRO Cryptocurrency.
The Crypto.com Showdown commentators
TNT Sports is the primary producer of The Crypto.com Showdown, and as such will have Ernie Johnson emceeing the event, joined in the booth by Charles Barkley, Trevor Immelman and David Feherty as analysts. Reporting from on the course will be Bubba Watson and Lauren Jbara.
The golfers will also be a part of the broadcast as they’ll be mic’d up.
The Crypto.com Showdown course
Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas is going to host The Crypto.com Showdown. Designed by Tom Fazio, Shadow Creek consistently is ranked among the best golf courses in the world by golf magazines.
The course is a par 72 that plays 7,560 yards.
Shadow Creek is the course where the first edition of The Match was played in 2018, when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson squared off in a matchplay event.
