Capital One’s ‘The Match’ Returns with PGA Tour, LPGA Pros

Capital One’s ‘The Match’ returns this year in a mixed competition with a star-studded lineup.

Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Rose Zhang, and Lexi Thompson will feature in the first mixed edition of the format. Mirroring the angle of the upcoming TGL league, the format will be a shortened event with only 12 holes to play, in a skins format.

The newest edition of The Match will feature a mixed golf competition under the lights in West Palm Beach.

🏌️‍♂️ Rory McIlroy
🏌️‍♀️ Lexi Thompson
🏌️‍♂️ Max Homa
🏌️‍♀️ Rose Zhang pic.twitter.com/DfjHvyGHqB

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 23, 2024

The Park in Florida plays host to the event on February 26th; each of the twelve holes is worth a certain amount to charity. The four-par threes will bring the players all to the same tee, but the remaining eight holes will see the players using varying yardages.

This is the ninth edition of the event, with newly-turned professional Rose Zhang finding time in her hectic pro-golfer-by-day college-student-by-night approach to her twenties.

Rory is in fine form at the start of 2024, and this sort of event prepares him well for the style TGL will embrace. Homa is a crowd favorite after his multitude of wins on the PGA Tour, and Lexi Thompson is an LPGA veteran despite still not having reached her 30th birthday.

I think a mixed event is what people want to see, judging by the success of the Scandinavian Open and other mixed events held on the Tour schedule in the past. It is a gap in the market as the women’s game grows at an alarming rate, and will be great exposure for the game.

Cover Image via Warner Brothers