Does golf really need another Silly Season event?
The debut of the highly watched Optum Golf Channel Games on Wednesday evening proved that. . . yes, that could easily be the case.
In case you missed the action from Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, two teams of four pros — one led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and the other by world No. 2 Rory McIlroy — competed in five skill challenges: timed drives, which were set up as head-to-head duels in which the players bombed tee shots in a scoring grid; timed short-game shots, where players hit a series of chips before rushing to a golf cart for a short ride to a green for a timed putting contest; a 14-club challenge, in which players competed in a closest-to-the-pin competition with every club in the bag; a hectic team relay, in which each team played a hole together, alternating shots between teammates; and, finally, a captain’s challenge, with only McIlroy and Scheffler testing their acumen in the short game.
The event started with the least convincing format: the long drive competition – we already know these guys can bomb it! – which was only saved by the wide-eyed, youthful energy of Luke Clanton (Team Scheffler), who proved to be the surprise star of the evening (his deliberately punched hole from 550 feet to 50 feet impressed his peers). As the event progressed, things got much more interesting as players took nervous flop shots over a “Big Break”-inspired wall; rushing putts from five feet (and missing them); and coming together for team relays that had the joy of a year-end primary school field day event, albeit starring highly able primary school pupils.
This is what golf fans have been clamoring for: not another sleepy fourball exhibition in the desert or a reboot of a money-match format that worked a generation ago. No, golf fans are instead craving golf’s answer to MLB’s Home Run Derby, a competition you don’t see every week where the most talented players in the world can showcase those talents in new and exciting ways. And also. . . uncomfortable ways. Really, that was the key. Put the boys on the clock. Let them work as teams. Take the clubs out of their bags. Explore their skills in ways we’ve never seen before.
“We tried something new,” McIlroy said afterward. “And sometimes when you try something new, it doesn’t work out. But I think tonight it really worked. I think the most important thing is that all the players were into it, and I think that hopefully came across on TV.”
The evening deserved a memorable ending, and it got one. At the height of the captain’s challenge, Scheffler and McIlroy were at an impasse. The play-off: a captain-versus-captain do-or-die chip from 47 yards. McIlroy played first and coolly hit his effort to about six feet. Scheffler followed with a nifty chip of his own to… yes, about six feet.
The first indication was that McIlroy’s ball was a little closer, but too close to call. Out came tape-wielding PGA Tour rules official Ken Tackett. After measuring the distance of each ball from the cup, Tackett first declared McIlroy the winner.
But when members of Team Scheffler called for a new measure, the story of the tape told a different story. As Tackett was measuring Scheffler’s ball for the second time, McIlroy’s teammate, Shane Lowry, peered at the measuring tape and saw that the ruling would be overturned. Resigned to his team’s fate, Lowry picked up the ball from Scheffler and threw it into a pond on the green side.
An unexpected end to an unexpectedly successful evening.
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