On December 17 there will be an intriguing golf tournament happening in Las Vegas. At the Shadow Creek Golf Course, two of the elite players on the PGA Tour (Rory McIlroy of Holywood. Northern Ireland and Scottie Scheffler of Ridgewood, New Jersey) will compete in an exhibition event also featuring two of the elite players on LIV (Brooks Koepka of West Palm Beach, Florida and Bryson DeChambeau of Modesto, California. The event is being called “The Showdown.” However, on Friday, there was some big news coming out of the tournament. It was announced by Ben Smith of Golf Magic on Friday that McIlroy, Scheffler, Koepka and DeChambeau will each earn $4 million for just participating in the tournament.
13 Major Titles
All four golfers in this exhibition have won a combined total of 13 majors. Koepka leads the way with five majors as he won the 2017 and 2018 United States Open, and the 2018, 2019 and 2023 PGA Championship. McIlroy is a four-time major champion, but has not won a major in a decade, even though he is ranked third in the world. McIlroy has won the 2011 United States Open, 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship, and 2014 British Open. DeChambeau won the 2020 and 2024 United States Open, while Scheffler won the 2022 and 2024 Masters.
Where are the players ranked?
Scheffler is ranked first and McIlroy is ranked third in the official world golf rankings. DeChambeau is ranked 11th, and Koepka is ranked 64th. One must remember that LIV results are not counted in the OWGR.
How did DeChambeau and Koepka do in the LIV Tour?
In 2024, DeChambeau did win the United States Open, but not on the LIV Tour. Koepka actually won two LIV events as he won in Singapore and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Koepka was one of three players on the LIV Tour to come away with multiple victories in 2024. The other two were Joaquin Niemann of Chile, and Jon Rahm of Spain.
Should the event take place?
If you like exhibition, made-for-tv events. For me, I do not watch exhibition events in any single sport. I will give this event a miss.
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