“It’s a them-versus-us" - Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau get together ahead of the Showdown

The Showdown will take place on December 17 at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. However, its four stars viz. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, have been meeting long before that.

The four players who will face off in The Showdown recently gave an interview to Golf Digest. They discussed this new project and posed for a photoshoot that resulted in the cover of the magazine's December 2024/January 2025 issue.

During the interview, Bryson DeChambeau summed up in a few words the feeling that inspired the idea of the Showdown event. Here's how he put it:

"It’s a them-versus-us sort of mentality. We’ve been waiting on a grudge match like this for a while."

However, Scottie Scheffler made it clear that The Showdown will also be an opportunity to do something different from the tournaments they usually play:

"I think it’ll be fun. I feel like 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."

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, noted that The Showdown has had such an impact because of the current state of men's professional golf and who the players are up against:

"There is a bit more buzz because of what’s happened in golf the last two years. It’s more competitive and doesn’t feel as gimmicky."

Near the end of the interview, DeChambeau spoke again about their motivation for producing the event:

"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."

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New details on The Showdown format

During the interview, Scottie Scheffer, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau revealed new details about The Showdown. The new information relates to the format in which the event will be played.

According to Golf Digest, The Showdown will be played over 18 holes in three different formats. Scheffler and McIlroy will play DeChambeau and Koepka in six holes of foursomes, six holes of four-ball and six holes of singles.

The information further states that the pairings for the singles matches are McIlroy vs. Koepka and Scheffler vs. DeChambeau.

This event is the first to pit a team representing the PGA Tour (Scheffler and McIlroy) against a team representing LIV Golf (Koepka and DeChambeau). Both representations are unofficial, however, as neither tour has sanctioned the event.

The players themselves own the event and plan to make it an annual spectacle. They also plan to take it outside the United States every other year.