Ryder Cup rivals McIlroy and Scheffler lined up for TV clash at Trump course
Ryder Cup stars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are being lined up to captain opposing teams in a made-for-TV golf contest later this year, according to US reports.
Masters champion McIlroy and world No1 Scheffler are set to lead four-man teams from the rest of the world and the US respectively in a skills-type format, the Sports Business Journal said.
The all-star contest is expected to take place in mid-December at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter in Florida, a course owned by the current US President.
It would come just weeks after a US team featuring Scheffler attempt to regain the Ryder Cup from Europe, including McIlroy, at Bethpage Black in New York.
The competition does not yet have a name but is reportedly being created by some of the team behind The Showdown, which pitted stars of the PGA Tour against those of LIV Golf last year.
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Scheffler and McIlroy played on the same team against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka on that occasion, although this year’s event is not expected to feature LIV Golf players.
More than two years after they announced an agreement in principle to pool their commercial assets, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are still to formalise a union between the rival circuits.
The televised contest is set to be shown in the US on the new Versant network of cable broadcasters, which includes the Golf Channel.
Versant is a new publicly-traded company spun out of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. Its logo appeared on McIlroy’s golf bag at the Open Championship.
The Showdown was not broadcast in the UK, although highlights were made available on YouTube.
Viewing figures in the US for the match fell below expectations, despite the big-name cast and made-for-TV features such as player mics, attracting just over 600,000 viewers.