Tuesday night at 6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports will air its latest foray into golf, The Crypto.com Showdown, featuring PGA Tour golfers Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler facing off against LIV Golf players Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a live 18-hole showdown at MGM Resorts’ Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
Ahead of that, Showdown creator Bryan Zuriff spoke to Awful Announcing about the series, saying he’s thrilled with the format and the players involved.
“I’m excited that we’re bringing four of the biggest names in golf together to compete in a new format that incorporates elements from the Ryder Cup into an 18-hole event,” he said. “Each six-hole component gets a point. The first six holes are best ball, it’ll be Bryson and Brooks versus Rory and Scottie, the next six holes are alternate shot. And then the final six holes will be one point for a singles match and then another point for another singles match.
“And that’ll be Rory against Bryson, which is a rematch of the U.S. Open so to speak [which DeChambeau won by a stroke over McIlroy this year]. And the other one is Brooks against Scottie, which pits a guy like Brooks who gets up for really intense things against Scottie, who’s clearly the best player in the world. So I think we have a really interesting format that sets up for a lot of drama coming down the stretch.”
TNT Sports to exclusively present “The https://t.co/ZdNgoAMk3X Showdown” tomorrow, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. ET across TNT, TBS, truTV & @SportsonMax. 🏌️♂️
⛳️@BKoepka & @brysondech vs. @McIlroyRory & Scottie Scheffler in an epic 18-hole duel in the desert!
More: https://t.co/MZWkVWtZ20 pic.twitter.com/bSq6hIwD1R
— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) December 16, 2024
Zuriff previously created The Match franchise, which has featured McIlroy (twice), Koepka, and DeChambeau over its 10 incarnations. However, while that series has sometimes seen only pro golfers involved (the first, fifth, seventh, and ninth installments), its other versions have featured athletes from other sports and celebrities (either with pro golfers or on their own). Zuriff said the Showdown franchise stands out from The Match for the partnership structure with players, and its focus only on top-level golfers.
“This is a new brand where the players are partners with me, and the old structure was not like that,” he said. “And this brand will always be about real golf over having a celebrity element to it. This is about creating rivalries in golf and bring them to the forefront of television, so the fans get what they want and matchups that they deserve to see that they’ve been missing for years.”
Zuriff said he’ll personally be working on the Showdown franchise going forward, as it’s closer to what he initially wanted to do.
“I’m personally pivoting to this. I think that The Match is great as a celebrity brand, but I’m more interested in this. And when I started with Tiger-Phil, that’s where I wanted to go with that. But things happened, and we pivoted for certain reasons. And we’re not going to pivot on this.
“The pivot on this is going to be to establish ourselves as a real golf brand that touches on unique formats to make it special. We’d like to add players in the future years. We plan on including more players and building this into a brand that hopefully can last for a long time.”
Despite the Showdown franchise’s differences from The Match, it’s still going to air on TNT Sports’ platforms (TBS, TNT, truTV, and Max with the B/R Sports add-on) and with their commentators (play-by-play voice Brian Anderson, analysts Charles Barkley, Trevor Immelman, and David Feherty, plus Bubba Watson as on-course correspondent and Lauren Jbara as course reporter). Zuriff said he appreciates what TNT Sports brings to golf, particularly with their ability to catch a wider audience.
“They do an incredible job in producing golf, and I think Charles brings an everyman feel to golf, so it expands golf. You know, golf is watched mostly by people who play golf. It’s different than football: it’s not like I play football, but everybody watches football, most of us don’t really play football. Golf is a game that’s mostly watched by people that play, and I think TNT has a flair that opens the audience more than some of the way the other networks present their golf.”
There were plenty of challenges in pulling together this event, especially with the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV Golf disputes. Zuriff said he spent significant time personally recruiting these golfers, starting with McIlroy, then worked to pull together a venue and the rest of the event arrangements.
“It wasn’t easy. I met with Rory and Sean [O’Flaherty], his manager, last January in Dubai to pitch the idea to them. I knew that that would be a good place to meet. I have visions of bringing this to the Middle East and around the world for a second edition: I feel like the world would like to see this. So I went there and met with them and pitched them my vision.
“And as the golf year unfolded, interesting rivalries emerge. And I thought that we were able to get the best rivalries in one setting in Las Vegas, which is now what I consider the American sports mecca, and Shadow Creek is one of the greatest golf courses in the country that’s public.”
Another significant component of this broadcast is the timing. Zuriff said he’s worked to set it up so this can take place in primetime, with part of the event in daylight and then the rest under the lights.
“I’m incorporating day and night into the match. We have new technology in how we’re going to shoot the nighttime. I like how we’re going to enter the event in the sunlight, and when we hit the sixth hole, we will have the lights on, and you will see Shadow Creek under the lights with this new camera style that my team has developed to really give an interesting look, to bring golf to primetime.
“I think it’s a good window in between Christmas and the end of the golf season, to give the fans something to look forward to heading into the holiday season,” Zuriff said. “I think the golf is going to be terrific and the fans are going to have a really fun night on Tuesday night to sit back wherever they are, if they’re in cold places around America and around the world, to watch this.
“And we’re also going to have a nice charity element to it. We’re going to give back some money to the communities. And I just want everybody to have a good time, it’s been a long year into the holiday season, and, you know, not take it too seriously, but know that these guys really want to win. Let’s just have a fun night of television.”
Scottie and I take on Brooks and Bryson tonight in the https://t.co/68hIssrEVr Showdown at 6pm ET on @TNTSports and @SportsonMax. 👊 pic.twitter.com/AlDs9jMGt1
— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) December 17, 2024
Despite the fun nature, the competition will be for real, and that’s driven by these specific players and their will to win.
“The players are all in. They’re very competitive guys, they’re looking forward to battling each other. Rory’s looking to avenge the loss that he had in the U.S. Open, and Scottie, he’s looking to show the world that he’s on a different stage now. Even though he had one of the greatest years in the history of golf, he’s starting to become a household name, and I think this elevates him to that.
“Bryson, you know, has this incredible YouTube following, so he’s going to bring a lot of those people. I believe Kai Trump is coming with him to the event. He brings a whole energy to golf and youthfulness to golf that I think connects. And Brooks has won the most majors and has been one of the most important figures in golf in the last decade.”
Ultimately, Zuriff can’t wait to get this event going and have it seen by fans around the world.
“I’m really excited about this upcoming event. It’s been a long journey to pull off LIV versus PGA. But we did it, and we’re really excited to show it to the world. And the guys are really excited to show off some great golf.”