Bill MurrayRichard Heathcote/Getty Images
TNT Sports’ “The Match’ will return later this week with another star-studded golf showdown. While previous iterations of The Match have featured some of the best professional golfers in the world, The Match: Superstars will lean heavily into the celebrity side of the sport.
The 10th edition of the made-for-TV event will feature actor Bill Murray, actor Mark Wahlberg, comedian Nate Bargatze, NBA Hall of Famer and The Match veteran Charles Barkley, MLB Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, Olympic legend Michael Phelps and NBA six-time NBA All-Star Blake Griffin.
While each member of the eight-team field has a unique background, each has a connection to golf. Phelps, for example, has competed at the WM Phoenix Open pro-am. Barkley has both competed in and served on the broadcast team for The Match, while Bargatze and Griffin both competed at this year’s American Century Championship.
While The Match: Superstars will feature many components of the series that fans have come to know and love, the eight-person field will require some rules changes. Here’s a look at how to watch and what to expect during the two-night event.
Where: Breakers West Country Club in West Palm Beach
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET on both nights
TV and Live Stream: TNT and Max
Murray/Gretzky vs. Barkley/Griffey
Wahlberg/Phelps vs. Bargatze/Griffin
While The Match has traditionally used a team format, it switched things up in The Match IX. February’s event saw Rory McIlroy outlast Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson in a fee-for-all under the lights in West Palm Beach.
The Match will be back in West Palm Beach later this week—albeit at Breakers West Country Club instead of Park City Municipal Golf Course—with some additional tweaks to the format.
Thursday’s competition will feature a pair of team matches utilizing scramble play. For those unfamiliar, scramble is a team format in which each golfer plays his or her own shot but teams choose the best lie from which to hit successive shots after teeing off. Once a lie is chosen, both players will hit from the selected spot.
Scramble emphasizes teamwork and communication more than best-ball formats, which typically involve individual performances with teams taking the lowest score on each hole.
The Match VIII, in which Mahomes and Travis Kelce beat Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, featured scramble play.
After Thursday’s round is complete, winning teams will be split. The remaining four golfers will face off in semifinal and final rounds of individual match play.
The quality of competition may not be on par with, say, the first edition of The Match, which featured Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. However, other celebrity-focused editions have been extremely entertaining.
The Match VI, for example, showcased a fun battle between Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers against Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
TNT Sports will keep the fun factor high with a stellar broadcast team headlined by host Ernie Johnson, analyst and 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman, course correspondent and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and course reporter Kathryn Tappen.
Fans who have enjoyed the unique up-close-and-personal broadcast format of The Match will get more of the same on Thursday and Friday.
From Warner Bros. Discovery:
“TNT Sports will deploy a number of technological innovations
throughout the taped production that elevate the fan experience,
including the Sports Emmy-nominated Cart Cam, drone cameras, and
unprecedented access with participating players interacting with one
another and the broadcast team via open mics throughout the course.”
To complement the TNT and Max coverage, Bleacher Report and House of Highlights will provide social and digital content that will feature The Broadcast Boys, Fat Perez and Joey Cold Cuts.
Anyone who has ever wanted to see a member of the Dream Team go up against a star of Caddyshack in golf will get an all-access pass later this week.
And while The Match: Superstars will undoubtedly lean heavily into the celebrity aspect of this field, that doesn’t mean fans won’t see engaging and tightly contested competition. These are eight players who thoroughly enjoy the sport and will be battling for bragging rights and a $1 million first-place prize.