By BY BILL PENNINGTON from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3awZstA
A televised charity golf match between Tiger Woods and
Phil Mickelson, who will be joined in the contest by Tom Brady and Peyton
Manning, is planned for next month, Turner Sports announced on Wednesday.
The location of the event was not disclosed, and a spokesperson
for the PGA Tour, which would need to approve the competition for Woods and
Mickelson to participate, said discussions were continuing about the safety of
staging such a match during the coronavirus pandemic and about other logistics.
It is expected that the event, which is to air live on TNT, will
be held without spectators, and golf courses in Florida have been discussed as
possible sites, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations who
were not authorized to speak publicly about them.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said last week that he supported
the return of sports contests during the pandemic and mentioned a potential
Woods-Mickelson match.
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“I’d like to see Woods and Mickelson do the golf, or whatever,
because that’s social distance,” DeSantis said. “You wouldn’t have a gallery
there. You wouldn’t have crowds. But to put that on TV, I think people have
been starved for content.”
All money raised in association with the competition — which is
titled “The Match: Champions for Charity” — will be donated toward Covid-19
relief, Turner Sports said.
The event will feature two-man teams, although the pairings were
not announced Wednesday. Shortly after the Turner Sports announcement,
Mickelson sent Twitter messages to Woods and Brady that read, “It’s on now.”
The parameters of the competition — several kinds of match-play
formats could be used — also were not revealed. A specific date in May for the
event will be announced in coming weeks, said Turner, which added that it was
in conversations with state and local governments and public health officials.
In 2018, Mickelson beat Woods in a winner-take-all, $9 million
pay-per-view match in Las Vegas. The event was marred by technical issues that
resulted in many paying customers being locked out of the broadcast while
others received it for free.
Brady and Manning, two of the greatest players in N.F.L.
history, are both accomplished golfers, and Manning has played with Woods during exhibitions.
The PGA Tour suspended its season on March
13, just after canceling its signature event, the Players
Championship, following the first round.
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