Forget McIlroy-Scheffler versus DeChambeau-Koepka. This is golf’s most influential match

Who is in the fourball grabbing all the attention at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship?

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is one of golf’s most unique tournaments, but now it may also prove to be one of the most politically significant of the year. Here’s why…

Squirrelled away in the guts of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Order of Play for Thursday is match number 43, kickstarting the Carnoustie action from the tenth tee.

Blink and you’d easily miss it. I did. My eyes instead drawn to the subsequent pairings involving McIlroy, Fleetwood, and Rahm.

Billy Horschel & PGA Tour Commissioner – Jay Monahan versus Dean Burmester & Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – Yasir Al-Rumayyan (or Andrew Waterman as he sometimes likes to be known in Scotland).

If you’ve been unfortunate enough to be keeping up with golf’s divisive power struggle over the past few seasons, then you’ll understand why this particular fourball was so eye-catching.

If not then we can get you up to speed fairly swiftly, as since the bombshell PGA-PIF merger announcement in June 2023, the journey to a united golfing frontier has struggled to get out of first gear.

However, the flaunting of Monahan and Al-Rumayyan – the men on either end of the negotiating table – in such a public arena, represents the clearest signal of intent yet that a deal is still cherished by both sides.

And how could it not be?

The two greatest men’s golf tournaments this year have undoubtedly been the US Open at Pinehurst and the Olympics at Le Golf National. The Open probably deserves an honorable mention too.

Jeopardy till the end.

DeChambeau snatching victory from McIlroy with a sand save for the ages. Rahm’s capitulation to crown a golden year for Scheffler.

Golf fans have been starved of the world’s best going head-to-head for too long, being thrown a few crumbs here and there at Major Championships and the like.

But even if a stroll around one of Scotland’s finest proves to be simply smoke and mirrors, the sport’s kingmakers are at least reassuring us that they are trying to ‘make golf great again’.

Talking of which, Bryson DeChambeau has arguably helped that cause more than most of the PGA and LIV action put together. His viral video with President Donald Trump has reached 12 million people in just two months.

He now has more YouTube subscribers than the PGA Tour – but not as many as this one.

Dwindling television audiences indicate a worrying trend that can’t be ignored despite the best efforts of the USGA to persuade us otherwise.

In the real world, the PGA Tour’s FedExCup finale fizzled out to a damp squib with even its winner describing the format as ‘silly’. LIV Golf’s Individual Championship went down to the last day, although was anyone really on the edge of their seat or cared how many more Riyals were piped into the pockets of 54 millionaires.

And as a former World No.1 described the DP World Tour: “What are we? We are a feeder tour to the PGA Tour and that’s all it is.”

It paints a rather confused and sorry state of affairs that Monahan and Al-Rumayyan can’t afford to let stall any longer, particuarly as it’s about to get even more cloudy with the imminent debut of Tiger and Rory’s digital golf tour in January – TGL.

A reimagined world calendar that reunites the tours seems unlikely to tee off in 2025, but that doesn’t mean we can’t expect to hear some more concrete plans before the end of the year.

Perhaps newly crowned BMW PGA Champion Billy Horschel can be the catalyst that breaks the deadlock, although the likable American wasn’t anticipating playing a lobbying role for golf fans when the powerhouse fourball teed off on Thursday.

“One, I don’t think they are going to have any conversation on the golf course about the deal. And two, I do believe that there’s been goodwill on both sides to try to make a deal happen over the last 18 months, year, since the agreement, said Horschel.

“We are all trying to make this work and figure out how the game of golf is going to work in a couple of years, but really how we are going to set ourselves up for the next several decades is a positive. So hopefully the fans understand by this pairing, by these groupings that things are moving in the right direction and you’ve just got to give us a little more time.”

Not backward in coming forward, Horschel has made his feelings clear on how he believes those who have ‘made their beds’ on the Saudi-backed tour must deal with the consequences and are “naïve” if they thought they could have it all.

Describing himself as “a big rule follower,” Horschel’s tone on the eve of his match with Al-Rumayyan and Stinger GC’s Burmester was understandably a little more measured, changing the focus of his argument to the growing level of disinterest among fans.

“So I was going by what our rules state and I’m a big rule follower; I always have been. I don’t like to break rules. But I also felt the same time as I said, I have no issue with LIV. I have no issues with the Saudis. I think competition is a great forum to better a person, better a company, to improve.

“I could never have imagined that the divide we’ve created would create such a disinterest in the fans. And that’s really who has sort of been hurt by all this. Because without the fans, without the sponsors, we are playing golf just because we play golf. We’re not playing golf for money.”

Despite being a long-term advocate of the DP World Tour and one of the few American PGA Tour card holders regularly traveling to compete in its flagship events, Horschel’s vision for golf’s future landscape will unlikely have been music to the ears of new DPWT CEO Guy Kinnings.

“I’ve believed for so long in this sort of pyramid, and you have let’s call it the World Tour, however many guys, let’s call it a hundred; and then you have the PGA Tour; and then you have DP World Tour and underneath it; and then you have The Challenge Tour and Korn Ferry Tour underneath those.”

Words to make Ian Woosnam choke on his pina colada.

Maybe Horschel will muster up some Scottish courage and make his pitch. After all, only he and Burmester have the power suits together for 18 holes, with Monahan and Al-Rumayyan taking it in turns to face Rory & Gerry McIlroy and Louis Oosthuizen & South African billionaire Johann Rupert on days two and three.

Failing that…I like Scottish DPWT player Richie Ramsey’s plan to lock Monahan, Al-Rumayyan, and Kinnings in The Jigger Inn at St Andrews until the deal is finalized.

What good idea didn’t start in a pub anyway?

About the author

Ross Tugwood – Senior Digital Writer

Ross Tugwood is a Senior Digital Writer for todays-golfer.com, specializing in data, analytics, science, and innovation.

Ross is passionate about optimizing sports performance and has a decade of experience working with professional athletes and coaches for British Athletics, the UK Sports Institute, and Team GB.

He is an NCTJ-accredited journalist with post-graduate degrees in Performance Analysis and Sports Journalism, enabling him to critically analyze and review the latest golf equipment and technology to help you make better-informed buying decisions.