Brooks Koepka can’t resist Rory McIlroy dig ahead of PGA Tour-LIV Golf ‘grudge match’

It’s arguably the most intriguing made-for-TV golf match since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson went toe-to-toe for a vault full of dollar bills in Las Vegas.

Six years on there is still plenty up for grabs, and although the prize pot is slightly different, there is an added edge this time around in Sin City.

The intriguing element of The Showdown, which will take place, as Tiger vs Phil did in 2018, at Shadow Creek, is that it is two of the PGA Tour’s hottest stars taking on the two biggest names on the LIV Golf roster.

And, as Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau came together for some promotional work with Golf Digest ahead of the 18-hole match, it was interesting to note the four very different approaches to the contest.

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Masters champ Scheffler, as expected, is taking it all in his stride.

“I think it’ll be fun,” he said. “When I’m playing and competing on tour, I don’t love to be distracted, but with this being mic’d up and us talking more to each other than we would in a typical tournament, this will be more interactive, more relaxed, more like what I do at home.”

McIlroy, meanwhile, preferred to inject a bit of needle.

“There is a bit more buzz because of what’s happened in golf the last two years,” the Northern Irishman said. “It’s more competitive and doesn’t feel as gimmicky.”

Of course, DeChambeau, the most recent major champion of the four having edged McIlroy in a thrilling US Open finish at Pinehurst, had the most to say.

“It’s a them-versus-us sort of mentality,” DeChambeau explained. “We’ve been waiting on a grudge match like this for a while.

“The public deserves this. They’ve been waiting for a long time. This isn’t just going to be a one-and-done sort of thing. This is about bringing the game back together.”

As for teeing up alongside Koepka, with whom he famously didn’t get along for several years, DeChambeau added: “We had a tough relationship in the past, but we’ve come together and said, ‘You know what? It’s time to show them who we really are.’”

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It was Koepka, though, who had the last laugh.

When asked why he believes the LIV pairing will win, in typical Koepka competitive spirit, he pointed out his team’s superior number of major championship titles, before adding that all nine of majors won by Koepka, DeChambeau and Scheffler have come since McIlroy’s last.

Ouch.

The Showdown, which will see the star quartet play a mini-Ryder Cup format of six holes each of fourballs, foursomes and singles, will take place on December 17.

Bring it on.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor