Rory McIlroy says ‘showdown’ could help mend differences between PGA Tour, LIV Golf

Rory McIlroy said Wednesday that having two of LIV Golf’s best players play against the PGA Tour in a televised event might just show fans that there’s an effort to repair a divided sport.

McIlroy will partner with Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau in Tuesday’s Crypto.com Showdown at Shadow Creek, north of Las Vegas. 18 holes with Brooks Koepka.

Apart from the four Grand Slams, this will be the only time they play together all year. McIlroy doesn’t count last weekend’s members’ outing with Koepka at The Grove.

“We’re trying to get these guys together, and the more opportunities we can get, the better,” McIlroy said. “Is this a reminder that we don’t play together all the time? Yeah. But at least we’re trying to get our best players together more often. It would be great if we could start by doing something like this.” thing.

He later added: “This is essentially us saying we’re going to take this into our own hands and we’re going to do something outside of any one tour, not to give back to the fans, but to…let them know we’re Efforts are being made to provide entertainment and the players want to play together more often.

Koepka said he expected some Ryder Cup-style atmosphere, while DeChambeau hinted at something “bigger and badder” and more coordinated next year.

“The way the entire golf landscape works, I’m still not sure when we’re going to get together more often,” McIlroy said of the two tours. “The idea is to combine the best of both tours in one event that people can get behind and be excited about.”

McIlroy is a member of the PGA Tour Enterprises deal committee, which has been in talks with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, the financial force behind LIV, to become a minority investor.

It’s still uncertain what schedule – LIV shows no sign of disappearing – that will allow players from both tours to play more frequently outside of the Grand Slams.

“We want to see everyone get back together,” Scheffler said. “There’s a lot of talk about LIV vs. the PGA Tour, all of it talking about money. We want to get back in the game… It’s fun to get together and compete.”

The PGA Tour allowed McIlroy and Scheffler to play at Shadow Creek, and McIlroy said “it took a few conversations to get them to realize that this might be a good thing in the long run.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.