Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler have emerged as the leading figures on the professional golf scene, and now they will headline a brand new event later this year.
Both golfers have seen tremendous success on the course in recent times. McIlroy finally clinched the career grand slam by winning The Masters earlier this year in dramatic fashion. Scheffler has had a run of dominance not seen since some guy named Tiger Woods after winning two majors this year, winning five tournaments overall, and registering an incredible 16 top tens in 19 events in 2025.
But both have also stepped up as the faces of the PGA Tour ever since the split with LIV Golf. They have starred in Netflix’s Full Swing and had fantastic roles in the insanely popular Happy Gilmore 2. Now, they will lead their own teams into a new event called the Golf Channel Games.
What are the Golf Channel Games, you ask? Excellent question!
It’s a brand new event from the NBC spinoff Versant, which now houses Golf Channel and other cable networks. This event will air (predictably enough) on Golf Channel as well as USA Network. And it will feature Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy leading a team of four golfers each in head-to-head competition. It will air in primetime on December 17 from Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.
But this will not be a high-intensity, high-stakes showdown that we will see at the Ryder Cup later this month. Rather, it seems like it’ll be more like something you might see out of the pair’s appearances in Happy Gilmore 2 or, at the very least, TGL. The McIlroy and Scheffler teams will take part in various timed and themed challenges that will tilt more towards the fun side than the truly competitive.
- Timed Drive, Chip, & Putt – Players compete solo in the three precision-based disciplines – drive a total number of yards, chip within a certain proximity to the pin, and hole a certain number of feet of putts – as quickly as possible.
- 14-Club Challenge – Two Players, One Bag – One player from each team will square off in the 14-Club Challenge, drawing a club from a single bag (including driver and putter) in a closest-to-the-pin competition from a designated distance in the fairway. All 14 clubs, seven shots per player – and once a club is used, it’s out. All eight players will participate – four total matchups.
- Timed Shootout – A four-player alternate shot on three holes with teammates staged on the tee (1), in the fairway (1), and around the green (2). Finish with the best score in the shortest amount of time…the clock is running!
- Captains’ Challenge – Rory vs. Scottie – Each player hits from predetermined locations. Shots will include a 100-yard wedge, 50-yard pitch, bunker shot, greenside shot, 50-foot putt, and 10-foot putt. The lowest total distance from the hole for the combined shots wins.
The one-off event will continue the trend of seeing golf as entertainment outside the weekly PGA Tour calendar. The success of golf on YouTube and the modernization efforts of the tour and its network partners are starting to become more and more aligned. And quite frankly, it has to do so in order for the sport to continue to thrive in the future. It may be gimmicky for golf traditionalists, but so was TGL, and that proved to be a big success in its first year.
Of course, Rory McIlroy is a co-founder of TGL. Scottie Scheffler did not participate in year one. It will be worth tracking whether or not the Golf Channel Games are Scheffler’s entry into the world of entertainment golf, and if we might see him tee it up for TGL in year two.
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