Most online sports bettors aren’t thinking about wagering on golf a week out from Christmas break, but it might be worth coming out of hibernation for a special golf event on Tuesday.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf are set to square off in a unique event in Las Vegas at Shadow Creek Golf Club (par 72, 7,560 yards), with $10 million in cryptocurrency on the line. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy (-175 odds @bet365) will be representing the PGA Tour, while Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau (+137) are teaming up for LIV.
Koepka/DeChambeau to win The Showdown
The event, which begins at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, will be played using the following format:
- Holes 1-6: Four-ball (best ball)
- Holes 7-12: Foursomes (alternate shot)
- Holes 13-18: Singles
Shadow Creek Golf Club is operated by MGM Resorts International and is a very exclusive golf club that commands a green fee north of $1,000 (USD). It opened in 1990 on a former patch of flat desert that has been reshaped into an oasis. The signature hole is the par-3 17th, which requires a tee shot over water to a green guarded by three bunkers with a waterfall as the backdrop. Golfweek has a comprehensive hole-by-hole yardage book available if you want to get incredibly serious about betting the event.
This course also hosted the 2018 version of The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The two rivals tied their match play event after 18 holes and needed four extra holes before Mickelson pulled off a big upset as a roughly +170 underdog (depending on the sportsbook and time of wager).
McIlroy and DeChambeau engaged in some friendly banter on the practice range Monday leading up to the event, with DeChambeau reminding McIlroy of his epic meltdown at this year’s US Open.
“I’d like to go up against Bryson (in singles) and try to get him back for what he did to me at the US Open,” McIlroy said on the range. DeChambeau quickly replied: “To be fair, you kind of did it to yourself.”
The Irishman lost the lead on the back nine of the final round at Pinehurst, missing a roughly two-foot putt on the 16th hole, and then another, roughly around four feet, on the final hole that allowed DeChambeau to stage a dramatic comeback victory to capture the major.
Pick: Koepka/DeChambeau (+137).
I’m going to side with the underdogs for this quirky event because I believe the versatile format actually helps the LIV pair more than the PGA Tour duo.
There’s no doubt Scheffler is by far the best professional golfer in the world, but he only played to a 0-1-2 record in the last Ryder Cup (2023) during team play (four-ball, alternate shot). However, he did fare much better at this year’s Presidents Cup, going 3-1-0 in the four-ball and foursomes portion of the event against weaker competition than he saw at the Ryder Cup. He played Jon Rahm to a draw at the Ryder Cup in singles play and lost to Hideki Matsuyama in singles at the Presidents Cup. In a typical stroke play format over 72 holes Scheffler is as unbeatable as it gets, but there is a chink in his armour in regards to team events.
Don’t expect the LIV pair to play anything safe, especially DeChambeau who has his own YouTube channel dedicated to “breaking 50” and hitting trick shots over his house. I’m betting they leave it all on the course and take a high-risk, high-reward approach. If they can get a few putts to fall, there’s value on the underdogs here.
