Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are running it back.
According to a report from Josh Carpenter in the Sports Business Journal — and later announced by Versant — both stars are confirmed to return for a second Optum Golf Channel Games, with the event moving to Wednesday, Dec. 16 on Golf Channel and USA Sports. Scheffler and McIlroy are, for now, the only two names locked in. The eight-man field that filled out the inaugural event, Ryder Cup captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald among them, along with Shane Lowry, Haotong Li, Luke Clanton and Sam Burns, hasn’t been rebuilt yet, at least not publicly.
The inaugural Golf Channel Games aired live from Trump National Golf Club Jupiter last December, with Scheffler and McIlroy each drafting four-man teams for a night of made-for-TV skills challenges: a timed driving competition, a 14-club closest-to-the-pin format, a four-man relay, and a head-to-head captain’s challenge between the two captains.
As Awful Announcing covered when the event was first announced, the format was built for entertainment rather than high stakes, drawing more comparisons to the pair’s Happy Gilmore 2 cameos and to TGL than to the Ryder Cup. The night ended on a tape-measure playoff, with an inch separating Scheffler’s team from McIlroy’s after a 47-yard chip-off. AA’s original coverage framed the event as part of a wider trend of golf leaning into entertainment outside the weekly Tour calendar, alongside the sport’s growth on YouTube and the first successful year of TGL, which McIlroy co-founded and Scheffler did not join.
Versant officially completed its spinoff from Comcast and NBC Sports in January 2026, and Golf Channel has continued to build out its golf portfolio since, with Golf Channel EVP Tom Knapp telling Front Office Sports that the split gives the network more freedom to experiment. Versant has extended its DP World Tour rights through 2030, signed McIlroy to a deal through 2038 that includes a stake in a new content studio called Firethorn Productions, and, days before Carpenter’s report, agreed to acquire golf simulator company Full Swing for $530 million.
The rest of the field, along with any format changes, is expected to be announced in the coming months ahead of the Dec. 16 event.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.