<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler nipped Rory McIlroy in a playoff to win the inaugural event<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried something new,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAnd sometimes, you know, when you do try something new, it doesn\u2019t work out. But I think this one really did tonight. I think the biggest thing is all the players were into it, and I think that hopefully came across on TV. But yeah, it was fun. It was a different format. I think a lot more interaction between the players as opposed to traditional golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
The practice area at Trump Jupiter was already bustling just before 7 p.m. Even an entertainer was doing card tricks for fans, though he wasn\u2019t the only magician in attendance. The young Clanton, who grew up an hour or so south in Hialeah, Florida, broke out on the PGA Tour last year as an amateur, notching three top-10 finishes before turning professional this past summer. Though he\u2019d cooled off in recent months as he adjusted to the play-for-pay ranks, there was no denying his star power, starting with him launching drives in the 190s in terms of ball speed, much like a Pete Alonso-type slugger in the Home Run Derby. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could tell going into this thing, he wanted to do well,\u201d Scheffler said of Clanton.<\/p>\n
Scheffler\u2019s team opened an early lead after the driving challenge, even with the world No. 2, McIlroy, outdriving the top-ranked Scheffler.<\/p>\n
Momentum continued to build as the competitors turned to the short-game contest, which involved multiple types of chips into different holes, a flop shot over the nostalgic \u201cBig Break\u201d wall and a brisk cart ride over to the practice green for some putts that mimicked the feel of the NBA\u2019s 3-point contest. With players running between shots to fit everything into the 4-minute time limit, there were a fair share of chunks into bunkers. But there was also one of the shots of the night: Bradley\u2019s chip-in that clinched a 2-0 lead for Scheffler\u2019s squad after two disciplines.<\/p>\n
Bradley called the next event, the team relay, \u201cthe most fun\u201d for the players. Scheffler agreed, saying afterward, \u201cThe relay was really interesting, a ton of fun. … I almost got taken out by a golf ball.\u201d The images of Lowry sprinting across the fairway like a gazelle or blindly dodging McIlroy approaches falling from the sky might forever be ingrained into this scribe\u2019s brain, as will the sound of the affable Li giggling throughout the competition. As for the viewers, it might not have gotten better than the 14-club challenge, first made popular in DP World Tour social videos, which truly allowed the players\u2019 supreme shot-making to shine.<\/p>\n
A light rain made the moment even more magical, as Clanton again stole the show, finding the green with both a skulled lob wedge and a choked-down, cut mini driver. Scheffler nearly muscled a full gap wedge onto the putting surface in a strike that left a divot that more resembled a sinkhole. Most bizarre, in a good way, were the full putter shots; do you think Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus or any of the other career-slam winners pulled back a mallet (or blade) from 170 yards in competition? McIlroy can now say he has.<\/p>\n
McIlroy made up a 3-1 deficit in the captain\u2019s challenge, a series of shots pitting only the world\u2019s two best players, to force overtime. Li carried McIlroy\u2019s bag for this while exclaiming, \u201cHarry, I\u2019m coming for you!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, the Optum Golf Channel Games produced what everyone likely hoped for: compelling golf, entertaining conversation, good pace, and a photo finish between the two stars of the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the core audience, which is great, and we know who they are and we know what they like, but to try to bring a few more people around or bring a few more people in under the tent, you know, doing stuff like this where you make it a little more fun,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cYou look at what YouTube golf\u2019s done, and you see the amount of people that watch that and enjoy that. This is sort of a hybrid of that, right? It\u2019s live, but it\u2019s skills, challenges, and it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s interactive. I think there\u2019s a place for it, just like there\u2019s a place for everything else in the game. I\u2019m a traditionalist, so obviously, the 72-hole tournament golf is what I\u2019ll always want to do, but these one-off things, I think, are additive to the overall calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added McIlroy: \u201cFor a Wednesday night in December, I think this was pretty good for golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it had Li already pleading for this: \u201cWe need a rematch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUPITER, Fla. \u2014 By design, the Optum Golf Channel Games never stopped moving on Wednesday night, under the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-356376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}