Want the perfect way to relax and enjoy leftovers on the day after Thanksgiving? Turner Broadcasting is offering live coverage of a head-to-head match between golf legends Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in a special pay-per-view program titled The Match: Tiger vs. Phil.
The Match will take place on Friday, Nov. 23 at 3 p.m. EST. The cost will depend on your cable company, but will likely be around $19.99.
Adding a little spice to the match is a whopping $9 million winner-takes-all prize.
Compared to most championship matches, this will be a sudden death event. The pair are only playing 18 holes at Las Vegas’ famed Shadow Creek Golf Club to decide the winner.
Mickelson is the stats underdog with five major titles under his belt compared to the 14 which Woods has won. On the other hand, Woods had to undergo back surgery last year.
The surgery obviously worked. In September, Woods won his first PGA Tour event in five years. The Tour Championship was Woods’s 80th PGA Tour title, but the first he had won since August 2013.
Where to watch the Tiger vs. Phil match
No fans are allowed on the course during the match. The only way to see the action is to use a paid option.
- The Match: Tiger vs. Phil will be available on PPV through Turner’s B/R Live (available now for purchase), AT&T’s DIRECTV and AT&T U-verse.
- Other cable, satellite and telco operators including Comcast, Charter, Cox, Verizon and Altice in the US.
- Rogers, Shaw and Bell in Canada through In Demand and Vubiquity.
- The Match will also be broadcast in 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) on DIRECTV channel 106 for $29.99.
- For viewers in Las Vegas, sportsbooks at The Westgate, The Cosmopolitan, Caesars Entertainment properties and MGM Resorts properties will show the event for free, according to the Review-Journal. Topgolf at MGM Grand is also hosting a watch party, kicking off at noon.
Phil and Tiger plan to have fun
At a pre-match press conference, the two exchanged remarks but were unable to conceal their liking for each other. Here are some gems:
Mickelson:
“I just don’t want to lose to him and give him the satisfaction because the bragging rights are going to be even worse than the money.”
“Every time I see you I want to be able to rub it in. I want to sit in the champions’ locker room at Augusta and talk smack. I want that.”
“He’s the greatest of all time. I’ve seen him do things with a golf ball that have never been done.”
Woods:
“[Mickelson] is one of the greatest players to ever pick up a golf club.”
“We’ve gone at it for over two decades. I missed competing [while injured] and being able to go against Phil like this. It gets my juices flowing, for sure.”
Side bets are promised to flow with the game. Mickelson and Woods will both be wearing microphones, so viewers will be able to hear the bets as they are laid. Expect wagers on who will get nearest to the pin, whether or not a putt will get there and anything else the two can agree on.
All winnings from the side bets will be donated to the winner’s favorite charity.
Organizers are deploying state-of-the-art technology for the match
Turner explains that the show will include “real-time, hole-by-hole statistics that will be displayed on-screen to forecast the probability of certain outcomes during the match.”
A unique data model combining ShotLink Intelligence with the Shadow Creek characteristics will calculate the probability of various scenarios occurring.
After each hole is finished, viewers will see an integrated proprietary data stream. This comes from the MGM/GVC Joint Venture and enables odds, moneylines and other performance data.
Early indication of what MGM and GVC will offer
MGM and GVC got together at the end of July. The deal saw each put up $100 million, primarily to take advantage of the expansion of legalized sports betting.
The newly created joint venture company will include both companies’ online casino and poker ventures as new state laws pass. However, the big money is expected to come from sports betting, both live and online.
playMGM is already live in New Jersey and Nevada. Available on both desktop and mobile devices, a full range of US and worldwide sporting bets are on offer.
Players who want to bet on the Woods/Mickelson match should be able to do so if they are within the borders of New Jersey or Nevada. In New Jersey, players can sign up for an account online.
Additionally, for bettors in New Jersey, DraftKings Sportsbook is offering a $20 credit for those who bet $20 or more on Tiger vs. Phil, noting that it covers the cost of the pay-per-view program.
