NFL And NBA Stars Clash In Primetime Golf Showdown

Five years and eight editions in, Capital One’s
COF
birdies-and-banter fest, The Match, has settled into a steady summer-winter schedule rhythm while raising over $35 million for charity along the way.

The hits and giggles spectacle that now alternates between pro golf showdowns and athletes of other stripes going club for club has managed to keep things fresh by continually tweaking the theme a la reality show OG Survivor. The NFL and NBA off seasons are the time for teams to recalibrate and maybe shuffle the front office deck while the players hit the links. Marquee names from America’s leading sports leagues have squared off in iterations past but this is the first time they have pitted gridiron giants against hoops heroes.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his favorite target Travis Kelce are all set to tackle the Golden State Warriors core duo of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson on the manicured fairways of the Wynn on the Las Vegas strip this Thursday evening on TNT. This marks the third time the casino course has hosted the event.

“The Wynn is the largest five-star hotel in the world so from the crew down to the biggest celebrities in the world, everybody is thrilled to be here. I love our partnership with the Wynn,” The Match producer Bryan Zuriff says.

Oddsmakers have ‘the Splash Brothers’, who can hit greens as easily as they drop step-back threes as the favorites. Mahomes finished 51^st on the leaderboard in last year’s American Century Classic, the Super Bowl of the celebrity golf circuit—whereas Curry managed a top-20 showing.

But don’t sleep on the Chiefs. Even if the defending Super Bowl champs can’t overcome Curry’s scratch game and Thompson’s leveled up iron play (the shooting guard reportedly now plays to a 12 handicap), the loquacious Kelce is certain to earn new fans while dominating the chitchat, which is the game behind the game anyway.

“I would not count Patrick Mahomes out—he’s a gamer. Steph Curry is clearly the best golfer in the foursome but anything can happen in 12 holes,” Zuriff riffs.

The broadcast crew is once again helmed by Ernie Johnson, back for the third time and joined by The Match mainstay and Inside the NBA colleague Charles Barkley. Also in the mix is Masters winner Trevor Immelman around to drop insightful critiques and ratchet up the golf gravitas. Kathryn Tappen will handle on-course reporting duties and rounding out the team are fresh additions in Golden State Warriors elder-statesman Draymond Green and Buffalo Bills pass rusher Von Miller who will be riding alongside the action in carts.

Celebrity golf events have been around for decades, they predate the PGA Tour—Bing Crosby’s Clambake, the predecessor to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, first teed off in 1937 but The Match, itself inspired by the Skins Game, an unofficial tour event that was last played in 2008, certainly rechristened the concept for the current golf zeitgeist.

“What I think makes us stand out from other celebrity golf events is that we really focus on one group, super A-list, and we focus on matchups that America wants to see. It gets dilutive when you start bringing in multiple groups,” Zuriff muses.

The event also tends to capitalize on a sports calendar dry spots. Outside of baseball, the action in the other major sports leagues has grinded to a halt and so there is a market void to fill.

“I like to find times when you can spend time with your favorite athletes and not be competing with other big events,” Zuriff adds.

Aside from title sponsor mainstay Capital One, returning event partners include AT&T, DraftKings, Coors, ZenWTR, and Jeep. Microsoft’s Bing, which recently added voice support and image recognition capabilities to their search engine’s AI powered chatbot, is newly onboard.