The long awaited PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf battle — that neither tour was directly associated with! — finally arrived Tuesday night in Vegas. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler took on Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka at Shadow Creek in a match billed as The Showdown. And over the course of four hours, golf fans saw something they have grown accustomed to not seeing. It was LIV’s best against the PGA Tour’s best in a non-major setting. It was under the lights and with golfers mic’d up. It had to live up to the hype, right?

Sort of.

Here are 10 observations we took away from Tuesday night in Vegas.

1. This format worked! 

Much has been made of how difficult it is to sustain viewership interest across a the entirety of an 18-hole golf match. The Showdown found a way to do it, breaking the course up into three 6-hole sections. The first was devoted to fourball, the second a foursomes mini-match (alternate shot), and the final six holes devoted to singles matches. Each of those matches were worth one point, which simply implied that no matter the result, there would be something to play for all the way to the 15th hole.

Ironically, the match really wasn’t close — keep scrolling for the result — but that’s the whole idea. A not-close match in this format was still intriguing for four hours. Was it entertaining throughout? That’s a different story. But the result wasn’t in hand until late.

2. The best shot of the day didn’t matter

It felt like a pivotal moment when Bryson DeChambeau pured a drawing 8-iron from 213 yards on the par-5 4th hole. He shouted at it to draw and draw and draw and it did, bounding on the front edge of the green and rolling out to four feet. He and Brooks were 2 down in the fourball session, and they badly needed it. 

Rory and Scottie were both short of the green, but about 40 feet away. If Bryson could just make his eagle putt, the LIV squad would be back to 1 down and riding some momentum. Unfortunately for them, McIlroy hammered his putt through the fringe, up the hill and into the jar, adding a little fist pump to go with it. The classic golf term for it? A Mongolian Reversal, which became official when DeChambeau pulled his eagle putt left of the hole, ensuring the PGA Tour stars won the opening session 3 and 2. 

“Welcome to the tournament,” Koepka said sarcastically as they reached the 12th tee. When he and Bryson three-putted the 12th for bogey, it was up to McIlroy to win the session. He did exactly that, easing his 4-footer into the center of the cup. McIlroy stayed hot, birdieing the first two holes of his singles match against Bryson, virtually clinching the match at that point. The Showdown was officially over when Koepka’s birdie putt on the 16th hole missed. (Let the following screenshot serve as a visual for how the night went.)

4. Greg Norman was there. And this is exactly what he’d want 

The outgoing LIV Golf CEO was posted up behind the 1st tee box when The Showdown began, even if this event was run without any involvement from LIV, nor from the PGA Tour. I couldn’t help but think that a player-driven match that doesn’t directly benefit any golf tour is precisely what Norman would have enjoyed creating back in the 1990s when he kicked off his player empowerment saga. 

5. Charles Barkley wants a pro golf merger ASAP

Barkley’s voice was once again the best part of a made-for-TV golf match, with rambling quips about anything that caught his fascination. One such topic he raised multiple times was that he wants a merger between the two warring golf tours completed yesterday. Barkley said he thinks “some stuff is going on in the background” that he disagrees with, leaving LIV golfers at a disadvantage. Without detailing exactly what he meant, Barkley made it clear he wants the best players on both sides playing together much more frequently than we have now. 

“I can say whatever I want to,” Barkley said, not pulling any punches. “I ain’t worried about gettin’ fired.” 

But that’s the thing, Chuck. Most of us are nodding along with you.

6. Mic’d up golf is still glitchy 

Made-for-television matches are complicated, mostly because of the precedent now set for players to be mic’d up at all times. The audio feed from the broadcast can be sent on command to the AirPods worn by players, but is often kept on mute so players can focus properly. 

This system is mostly all good, so long as it works when you ask it to. The first time Brian Anderson tried to communicate with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy — as they walked off the 1st tee — neither player could hear the broadcaster. It took minutes before the microphone situation could be figured out, a reminder that these telecasts haven’t been perfected. DeChambeau even removed his AirPod on the back nine, for reasons undisclosed, just icing on the cake of a shaky audio experience.

7. The desert is gorgeous. And also frigid

This match was initially set to be played in September, but was pushed back to this week. This wouldn’t be an issue if the boys teed it up at noon., but they started at 4 p.m. local time. The sun set about 30 minutes after they teed off, offering an incredible sunset but also plummeting the temperature. By the time they reached the back nine, the feels-like temp was around 50 degrees. By the end, it was the mid-40s.

DeChambeau rocked a parka from the 1st tee onward. Scheffler soon added a fleece vest with a hood. The golf carts were equipped with space heaters pushing warm air directly at their passengers. They got plenty of use!

As a result, Shadow Creek played difficult. The greens played firm as can be, sending shots landing near the hole into tricky lies beyond the green. Koepka and DeChambeau struggled to get a sense of the green speeds throughout. There’s a lesson in that, folks. Firm golf is what we like!

8. We needed more CHATTER 

We have now witnessed nearly a dozen made-for-TV matches since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson kicked off the genre in earnest back in 2018. If we have learned anything in the last six years, it’s that the golf isn’t not predictably entertaining. Rather, the most entertaining aspects come from the witticisms, insights and natural banter that absolutely exists within the best golfers in the world. We know it exists because we see it all season long in Tuesday afternoon money games.

And yet, despite The Showdown being billed as a more fierce competition than matches of the past, we barely received any banter between the rivals. And due to the occasional lag in microphone access, we struggled to get insights in a timely manner. Three seasons of pent-up angst that has enveloped the sport was there for the taking if these athletes would just … chide each other a bit. CBS broadcaster Colt Knost chimed in on Twitter with a very simple take: Loosen this thing up! Talk some trash! Say … something.

When asked afterward how that will fit into his portfolio, Scheffler was as honest as you’d expect.

“I don’t know a whole lot about crypto but this is good motivation to do some research,” he said with a chuckle. “Maybe ask a couple questions to figure out what’s going on.” 

No doubt! Congrats to Scottie and Rory. And to the PGA Tour … sort of.