Was The Showdown actually a win for golf?

Tuesday night saw the long-awaited arrival of The Showdown, pitting LIV Golf’s top talent — Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau — against the PGA Tour’s best — Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. McIlroy and Scheffler dominated, winning every single session of the match. But as a symbol for the times, the match was much more meaningful than it was competitive. 

We convened GOLF senior writers Dylan Dethier and Sean Zak to break down if the event was a success, where it lacked and what it means for the future of the pro game. 

Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier): Sean, it’s the morning after the Crypto.com Showdown and two things are stuck in my head. The first is that, no matter how many times he makes ’em, Charles Barkley’s jokes about losing money gambling get me every single time. They’ll show a shot of the Vegas skyline, Chuck will say something like, “I paid for three of them buildings. Dealer says double on 11 and gives you 14 every time,” and I will grin. And the second is a tweet that has stuck in my head. LIV Golf sent it alongside a picture of the four of them: “The game of golf, and its fans, won tonight”.

Look, I know this match came with the stated intention of giving a little something back to the fans. But now that we’re on the other side of The Showdown I can’t help but read that and roll my eyes. I can think of a bunch of winners of this match, and I want to get into them. But I’m not sure “the game of golf” is high up there. So I’ll ask you: Was “the game” last night’s biggest winner? And, if not, who was?

Sean Zak (@sean_zak): Firstly, that LIV tweet aligns with basically every bit of LIV communication from the last three seasons: everything they touch is not just good, it’s also for good, for fans, for the game’s best interests. The always-rosey lens through which LIV views itself is exhausting because it’s not always rooted in reality. (For context, I’ve been to five LIV tournaments, and will go to more!) 

But to your question, I found it to be a win having these four golfers competing against one other outside the months of April, May, June and July. As it turned out, this competition was nothing special. Brooks and Bryson struggled to establish any momentum against Rory and Scottie, and the match never once felt close. Still, it was worth a try.

Ironically, I think the biggest winner may have been the largely silent PGA Tour, which was hesitant to embrace this match to begin with. While I don’t believe this, the result is fodder for golf fans who think LIV players have lost some mph off their fastballs. Can you think of other winners?

Dethier: It’s funny you say the PGA Tour, though you make a good point — but I was going to start by saying that LIV can actually claim some small victory here. They embraced The Showdown. They clearly saw it as a win to get their players repping their league in front of a primetime national audience. There’s a reason the PGA Tour wasn’t crazy about this, and that’s because they had far more to lose than to gain by their top two stars giving LIV’s stars a big platform, while LIV had the chance to present itself on equal footing. LIV also had Charles Barkley chiding golf’s divide on the broadcast. And LIV even bought into the event as a sponsor, upping its brand exposure. That’s some sort of win.

But I guess I’m not wholly convinced by my own argument. Not only did its guys get smoked, LIV’s biggest wins continue to come outside the confines of LIV itself. Think Koepka’s 2023 PGA win, or DeChambeau’s 2024 U.S. Open, or even his massive YouTube viewership. So I’d make another winner “meaningful golf events.” As this match dragged on into the night and the four competitors looked increasingly chillier every time they jumped in their golf carts, it was a reminder that even with four of the game’s biggest stars, it’s the setting and the context that make a golf tournament, and we won’t see that until the new year.

Finally, I’d say that mostly it was these four individual players who won — with Rory and Scottie a clear 1-2. Their crypto wallets won. And their ability to stage an event outside the confines of the PGA Tour or LIV was a player-empowerment muscle-flex. Now if Scottie can just figure out what to do with his winnings…

Sean, what was your favorite part of the night? And what wasn’t?

Zak: My favorite part of the night was any time the players were caught speaking to each other, their caddies, themselves, etc., and not the broadcast team. We have seen nearly a dozen iterations of modern, made-for-TV matches and the singular through-line that each has proven is the words, actions, thoughts, insights that come naturally during a match are the most fascinating part. When Scottie and Rory are analyzing a high hook over a tree. When they’re yapping about creatine. When Brooks and Bryson discuss firmness of the greens and where they’re trying to place shots. All of these things came out naturally. 

But I’d like to make an important distinction: THERE WEREN’T ENOUGH OF THESE MOMENTS. 

For how much this match was billed as one rival tour’s best vs. another’s, there was zero banter about the divide in golf. There was zero trash talk about the issues and elements that have separated these guys. Brooks Koepka is one of the most confident-bordering-on-cocky golfers who has ever lived. We got nothing of that emotion from him. (It didn’t help that he played poorly.) 

I think two things have to happen for these matches to peak: 1) players need to be more comfortable talking out loud while they play, just as broadcasts need to devise a better way to capture every word, and 2) if we’re going to promote these matches as fierce competition — like this one was! — then the actors need to help us believe it. Apologies for being long-winded on this one, but it’s my strongest thought on the night. And should serve as a warning/lesson to the forthcoming TGL: WE NEED THE PLAYERS TO SPEAK, NOT JUST PLAY GOLF. 

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[deep exhale]

Was there any element you were particularly inspired by? Or, if not, something you felt was lacking? 

Dethier: I can’t tell if I’m in the minority or not here but on the whole I’d call this a successful event. Like, I enjoyed the watch. It was golf-first, the broadcast had its moments, Shadow Creek is a weird, fascinating place in a very Vegas way, and I was a fan of the format, too, which reset after four holes instead of taking us into a blowout. It was solid background viewing.

That said, you’re completely right about the best stuff being the banter and also about us not getting enough of that. I think this is really, really tough — how do you force interaction without making it forced? — but I actually think one way to do it might just be to mic up the guys but cut their connection to the broadcasters. Take a lesson from YouTube golf. No more earpieces except maybe when they’re in their golf cart. Let all four talk to each other instead. Lean into that piece of it.

The alternative would be getting Phil and Barkley on the mic and letting ‘em run wild.

Last question, Sean: does anything about this or [gestures vaguely] other stuff happening in golf have you feeling encouraged about a deal coming together?

Zak: I wonder if these matches had a hyperactive on-course reporter who could jump in to relay questions (from the broadcasters) at any time — I’m thinking Colt Knost lobbing in fun bits we’re all asking ourselves — if that might get them going…

Anyway, I’m encouraged (despite largely anonymous sourcing) that Bloomberg reported a deal was progressing. I choose to believe a deal can be made by March 1 (or within the first 100 days of the next presidency!), looking forward to 2026 as the beginning of reintegration of the Koepka, Rahm, Niemann types back into PGA Tour events. I’m not encouraged by the recent LIV signings, though, because they’re golfers I’ve never heard of. 

I think it’s encouraging that Rory McIlroy helped push this match into existence because he was taking reintegration into his own hands a bit. And he got the best golfer on the planet to join him. And they got the most visible golfer in the world to acknowledge how they want a future together. That all might be a bit too semantic for tired, annoyed, lusting golf fans, but like I wrote last week, at this point I’ll take it. 

Dethier: There are certainly signs. It seems like the PGA Tour’s new CEO position and LIV Golf’s new CEO position point toward a new future, one with a friendlier relationship between the tours. But while I’m optimistic by nature, I admit I still don’t quite see how that fixes everything. There are — well, forget it. This is a chat about a fun match with four fun golfers. I’d welcome another one.