If you enjoyed seeing live golf on television a week ago, there is more on Sunday, only this time it’s two golfers and two quarterbacks.
“The Match II: Champions for Charity” pits Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady on the Greg Norman/Pete Dye-designed Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla., on Sunday at noon PDT on TNT, TBS, truTV and Headline News, and streamed on fuboTV.
There will be 18 holes of match play, with four-ball or better ball, on the front nine (each amateur receives three handicap strokes: one each on a par-3 hole, a par-4 and a par-5) before modified alternate shot is played on the back nine, where each player hits tee shot, then one ball is selected and play alternates until ball is holed.
A total of $10 million will be donated to Covid-19 relief via WarnerMedia and the four golfers, and additional funds for charity will be raised through the on-course challenges.
Manning, who is retired after winning Super Bowls with the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos, has a handicap of 6.4, while Brady, six-time Super Bow champion with the New England Patriots who recently signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has a handicap of 8.1.
Mickelson, who defeated Woods on the 22nd hole in “The Match,” on Thanksgiving weekend in 2018 to win the winner-take-all $9-million match, already has been talking smack ahead of the match at Seminole, where Tiger is a member.
“I can’t wait to go to Tiger’s place and take him down,” Mickelson told Golfweek. “Tiger thinks he has a huge advantage playing there because he was insistent that this event is played on his home course, despite everyone else wanting to play it elsewhere. That’s fine. We’ll take it to him and Peyton.
“There will be no excuses. It’s his home course but Tom and I are going to go down there and put it to them, and we’ll make it that every time Tiger shows up at his home course, he’ll have a bad memory.”
Justin Thomas, the fifth-ranked player in the World Golf Rankings who is a member at Medalist, will serve as an on-course commentator along with Amanda Balionis.
“We’ll have some fun and jaw at each other,” Thomas told Golfweek. “I know if they don’t, I will. I can’t be on a golf course for 18 holes around four competitors like that and not talk trash.
“I’m obviously not going to say anything bad or controversial, but you can’t put me on a golf course for that long and expect me to keep my mouth shut.”
It should be fun.
FanDuel said betting for last Sunday’s “TaylorMade Driving for Relief” match in which Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson defeated Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., was “nearly double that of a normal PGA Tour event.
Not only that, it raised more than $5.5 million for Covid-19 relief, and “The Match II” will add even more.
