On a Wednesday night in December, Optum Golf Channel Games deliver fun, fast chaos

JUPITER, Fla. — By design, the Optum Golf Channel Games never stopped moving on Wednesday night, under the lights at Trump National Jupiter. Fun and fast, that is, until the very end, when Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler waited anxiously as officials pulled out the tape measure to determine the night’s winner.

The two stars of the game — though maybe not yet of this game, a series of timed challenges that test players’ full skillsets — were tasked with breaking a tie after regulation. The playoff: A 47-yard chip-off, which, of course, was an ode to the club’s namesake.

Nearly identical shots were struck, so much so that it initially appeared McIlroy’s team, which included Shane Lowry, Luke Donald and Haotong Li, had won by an inch. But not so fast; before officials could re-measure, Lowry plucked Scheffler’s ball up and threw it into the nearby lake. Suddenly, it was Scheffler, Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley and Luke Clanton basking in victory, just before 11 p.m. local.

Fun, fast, and did we mention chaos?

“I thought I got him,” McIlroy said. “It looked like from back there that he was a little further away, but it was great that it came down to that.”

Arguably, the result didn’t matter so much as the proof of concept that this event produced. Uniquely its own after years of made-for-TV matches that eventually ran stale; too similar to the actual golf, and with too much deadtime between shots that players eventually ran out of things to talk about. The variety of the OGCG coupled with a shot clock allowed no time for stagnation.

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• Golf Channel Staff,

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“We tried something new,” McIlroy said. “And sometimes, you know, when you do try something new, it doesn’t 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.”

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’t 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’d 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.

“You could tell going into this thing, he wanted to do well,” Scheffler said of Clanton.

Scheffler’s team opened an early lead after the driving challenge, even with the world No. 2, McIlroy, outdriving the top-ranked Scheffler.

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 “Big Break” wall and a brisk cart ride over to the practice green for some putts that mimicked the feel of the NBA’s 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’s chip-in that clinched a 2-0 lead for Scheffler’s squad after two disciplines.

Bradley called the next event, the team relay, “the most fun” for the players. Scheffler agreed, saying afterward, “The relay was really interesting, a ton of fun. ... I almost got taken out by a golf ball.” 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’s 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’ supreme shot-making to shine.

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.

McIlroy made up a 3-1 deficit in the captain’s challenge, a series of shots pitting only the world’s two best players, to force overtime. Li carried McIlroy’s bag for this while exclaiming, “Harry, I’m coming for you!”

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.

“We 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,” McIlroy said. “You look at what YouTube golf’s done, and you see the amount of people that watch that and enjoy that. This is sort of a hybrid of that, right? It’s live, but it’s skills, challenges, and it’s fun and it’s interactive. I think there’s a place for it, just like there’s a place for everything else in the game. I’m a traditionalist, so obviously, the 72-hole tournament golf is what I’ll always want to do, but these one-off things, I think, are additive to the overall calendar.”

Added McIlroy: “For a Wednesday night in December, I think this was pretty good for golf.”

And it had Li already pleading for this: “We need a rematch.”