Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to announce their much-discussed winner-take-all match was on for Thanksgiving weekend.
According to ESPN, Turner Sports will produce the pay-per-view telecast of the event, which will offer $9 million to the winner and will be played Friday, Nov. 23, at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.
"It's an opportunity for us to bring golf to the masses in prime time during a period where we don't have much going on in the world of golf," Mickelson said Wednesday after his pro-am round at Ridgewood Country Club ahead of Thursday's Northern Trust Open.
"It's a way to show a side you don't normally see by having us miked up to hear some of the interaction between us."
Mickelson said the format would be match play, and details are being worked out that would allow for various challenges during the match, such as longest drive, closest to the hole, longest putt and closest out of a bunker.
The Westgate Superbook in Las Vegas has Woods at minus-180 to win the event outright, with Mickelson at plus-150.
Woods and Mickelson are among the biggest names in golf, who together account for a total of 19 wins of major PGA tournaments. The two are promising to raise the stakes during the event by making side-challenges with each other to benefit various charities.
Variety reports the pay-per-view telecast will be distributed via the newly minted B/R Live banner — an effort by Turner to squeeze more revenue out of Bleacher Report — and will be offered to other on-demand platforms outside of the AT&T universe. AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse MVPDs will give “The Match” a huge amount of promotion to the combined subscriber base of more than 25 million. Turner’s international arm will handle distribution of the PPV event outside the U.S.
Pricing has not been set.
No comments:
Post a Comment