The seventh edition of The Match — this one featuring Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas — will be as fun as golf this time of year. That quartet didn’t play much, but anyway these exhibition events are more about interaction than golf, and that interaction has to be phenomenal.
Woods and McIlroy will play Spieth and Thomas at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday at Pelican Golf Club (More details here). The latter pair is more favored, which prompted Thomas to joke on Wednesday on a conference call that the sharpies absolutely know what they’re doing when it comes to setting up the lines.
There’s a lot going on when it comes to this particular event – it’s perhaps Woods’ first return to golf since the Open Championship in July – and although this best ball game will only last 12 holes long, but it should be great entertainment. Here are four things I’ll be looking for when the festivities roll in on Saturday.
1. Tiger health: There were plenty of non-serious items to tick off Saturday night at the Pelican, but Tiger’s health wasn’t one of them. He withdrew from the World of Heroes Challenge last week because of plantar fasciitis and casually mentioned that he had other procedures earlier this year. He has insisted that he will be fine as long as he has a golf cart (which he will on Saturday), but I am a bit skeptical of his overall mobility.
There shouldn’t be (although there certainly will be) any extrapolation made about next year’s major championships based on the roughly 50 shots Woods hit at the event, but it’s been five months since when we see him swinging his golf club competitively. It wasn’t for nothing, and the best swing of all time — whether it’s affected by the myriad ailments Tiger feels in the rest of his body or not — will be viewed under the microscope. microscopy for the next 10 days (here and at the PNC Championship where he will tee off with his son, Charlie).
2. Who is the most trash talker? Back to deeper topics. There was debate on Wednesday about this. Tiger said he is limited in the vocabulary he can use. Rory says he knows JT think he is the best speaker. JT and Spieth say they’re so dominant in wins and majors that they may have to go the way of the good guys instead of going right away with the two who have 19 major championships in total. (Spieth and JT have five.) Jokes at events like this are usually muted, but hopefully friends will loosen up a bit and we’ll get some of the best quotes.
3. Night golf: Spieth talked about how he had never played night golf before and how much he wanted to do it. I’m equally excited about some golden hours east coast golf in winter. Normally, when golf is televised at these times, it’s on the West Coast, but the event will feel a little bigger than usual because it’s happening under the lights. I don’t know if this will affect the results (unless the lights on the trolley are malfunctioning for some reason), but it adds a bit of a festive atmosphere.
4. Best Match Ever: By far, the biggest number of goals in a game like this is 21 (Tiger and Phil Mickelson, multiple times). The group has a total of 24 people and it represents the most collective talent at any of the seven official matches to date. It is true that 15 of them come from the guy who hasn’t played for 5 months, but 3 of the other players are among the 15 best players in the world right now. If this comes to an end late — and it most likely is — the pointless battle for victory certainly won’t look like another exhibition.
