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The hubbub that has developed over the past year between PGA Tour stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka has been reduced to 12 holes in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving weekend. Two golfers with a total of 16 PGA Tour wins and five major championships will compete in Game 5 on Friday November 26 at Wynn Golf Course in Las Vegas.
The anguish between Koepka and DeChambeau seems both real and staged. It started long before dawn in 2021, but the now famous video of Koepka rolling her eyes in a deleted Golf Channel interview that was later leaked took it to a new level. It feels like they really don’t get along, but it coincides with the fact that they both seemingly played the rivalry in interviews and on social media for the sake of this showdown.
Each previous iteration of The Match has been either a four-way or a showdown between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. It will be the first to come out of those frames as well as the normal 18 hole festivities we usually see. While I’m not really sure that 12 holes on a resort course in Vegas at the end of November settles any type of score between two of the top 20 players in the world, it should still be fun watching them play it for a few hours. after Thanksgiving and before college and pro football slates heat up over the weekend.
Let’s take a closer look at The Match 5 and what to expect on Friday afternoon.
Viewing experience
Match 5 will air on TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN starting at 4 p.m. ET on Friday, and you can expect what we’ve seen in all previous versions of this event – players and their caddies wearing microphones. everywhere with Brian Anderson as the host and Amanda Balionis as the reporter on the course. Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley will provide the spice as both will be commentators at the event, and will almost certainly be more entertaining than anything between Koepka and DeChambeau.
Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, and Greg DuCharme discuss Bryson vs. Brooks and the stock market increases reported by the PGA Tour in the last episode. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple podcasts and Spotify.
Format
As I mentioned above, the format here is going to be quite different from what we are used to. The challenges on the course – closest to the pin and long haul contest – remain, but the event will only be 12 holes / With two players (especially with Koepka’s speed) things will go fast. This is a good thing because no one needs to play golf in late November to drag on, and it highlights the fact that more under 18 hole golf should be played.
Where is the money going?
By the end of this event, The Match series will have raised over $ 30 million for charity over the past few years. It’s awesome. And with sponsors like DraftKings, ZipRecruiter, and Capital One, it doesn’t look like it’s going to change much in the near future. As for where that money is going, this year’s recipients are Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour, Feeding America, Shriner’s Hospital (via DeChambeau) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (via Koepka), as well as the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and a variety of community investments and grants to small businesses across the country (via Capital One).
Beef Reviews
Here’s a reductive but useful timeline of all the irregularities Koepka and DeChambeau endured through each other.
- The first big moment came at Northern Trust 2019 when Koepka criticized the slow play and DeChambeau felt that this complaint was aimed specifically at him (which it probably was). DeChambeau looked for him, they chatted and it was apparently the end (if only we knew!).
- DeChambeau swept Koepka’s physique when he said on a Twitch stream – and I’m not making it up – that Koepka has no abs in reference to his appearance in the ESPN the Magazine body issue.
- Koepka hit back with a photo of his main trophies and noted that he was indeed missing two of a six-pack.
- Koepka may not have disclosed the video of him rolling his eyes and cursing Bryson’s presence right after the PGA in a video interview with Todd Lewis at Kiawah that never aired, but he may have. also not be prevented from leaking.
- A little after, a video of Bryson saying, “Whoever calls me Brooksie has to get out of here†emerged.
- Then it all started to unfold. Koepka tweeted “sorry brother” to Aaron Rodgers after Rodgers was associated with DeChambeau in Game 4. He also thanked his caddy and his driver after DeChambeau split from his own caddy and then said his driver was lousy at the Open this summer.
- Koepka offered free beer to anyone who “saw their time cut short” at the Memorial after DeChambeau allegedly had anyone who shouted “Brooksie” at him kicked out of the event.
- It started to happen to DeChambeau as the summer wore on, especially during a collapse over the last nine Sundays at the FedEx St. Jude Invitational and then at the BMW Championship where he nearly went after someone who called him “Brooksie”.
- PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan intervened after that at the Tour championship and said anyone who yelled at DeChambeau was in violation of Tour fan policy and could be removed from the event.
- There were little nuggets on social media throughout the summer, but the two seemed to hit it off at the Ryder Cup in September and even hugged to end the week in a historic win against the European team. .
- There hasn’t been much since then, but it was mostly for fun before The Match 5.
Odds, predictions
Odds provided via Caesar’s Sportsbook
Koepka has a higher cap overall, but he’s also more erratic, which I don’t really like in a 12 hole game. I also think DeChambeau cares about this a lot more than Koepka, which should be good for him, especially without huge galleries chanting the other guy’s name to him.
DeChambeau hasn’t played an official event since the Ryder Cup, of course, but that’s not necessarily a downside for him as Koepka has played in fours and doesn’t have a better finish than T38. I think DeChambeau is probably the choice, although I could literally see everything Koepka is saying, causing him to fall apart pretty quickly (which is a problem here). Still, I go with the Big Golfer. Pick: DeChambeau (-118) against Koepka (-105)
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