Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson match: Live updates and results

The Match is finally here. Follow this unique golf experiment with our live blog here.

The Match is a Thanksgiving weekend experiment that is ostensibly about golf. The golf shots, however, are simply a vessel for a gambling product that is supposed to serve as pure sports entertainment. There is no career-long chase for a major championship trophy or some sort of resume-building glory here. It’s a mutually beneficial experiment that will land both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson a nice paycheck. It’s also a compelling sports entertainment experiment that will look and feel different than any kind of golf we’ve seen, starting with the fact that you’ll have to fork over $20 to pay-per-view.

We will live blog The Match here throughout Friday afternoon. Here are some nuts and bolts to watch for from Shadow Creek.

Scorecard

Hole 1 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars; Phil loses $200k side bet

Hole 2 — Tiger misses a bunny par putt to lose the hole, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 3 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 4 — Tiger and Phil halve with birdies, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 5 — Phil blows a great birdie chance and they halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 6 — Tiger and Phil halve with birdies, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 7 — Phil bogeys to lose the hole, All square

Hole 8 — Tiger three-putts on the par-3, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 9 —

3:15 p.m. — We got off to a late start. Were they waiting for one last rush of PPV buys? Were they delaying it because of PPV technical problems like Mayweather-McGregor? Or was it all part of the plan? Either way, the endless pregame hype is done and we’re off and running.

3:20 p.m. — I received three text messages from separate friends at the exact same time saying “I am already uncomfortable.” So yeah, the small chat walking from the tee to the their tee shots on long holes may be, uh, a little forced and awkward.

3:24 p.m. — Is this part of the future of golf broadcasting? This is not exactly an impossible stat to find, but with the PGA Tour embracing and wanting to push more gambling and live-wagering, we’re going to see these stats incorporated much more.

3:25 p.m. — Phil’s birdie putt on the first hole does not break as much as he expected and the misread will cost him $200k. At the press conference on Tuesday, Phil and Tiger went and back forth and settled on that side bet to undoubtedly generate more interest ahead of the match and to give you a taste of the kind of impromptu side action that will occur. So the hole was halved but Phil lost $200k with his tap-in par.

3:28 p.m. — Here’s another example of the predictive odds and percentages they’re going to be putting on the screen throughout the match.

3:52 — The side talk is underwhelming but so far this is not a bad production. Tiger’s putting looks extremely shaky through the first three holes. Based on small talk, he apparently flew from Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with Fred Couples. Phil, on the other hand, has been in Vegas all week. Let’s start questioning Tiger’s commitment to winning!

4:10 — Phil and Tiger throw together a casual $100k side bet on a closest to the pin challenge at the par-3 5th hole. It was just 137-yard shot par-3 and Phil nearly jarred it. Tiger hit what could only be characterized as a poor shot for him and wasn’t close.

4:40 — Justin Thomas is watching this at Jordan Spieth’s house before Spieth’s wedding this weekend. And he’s got insight!

4:50 — The play has not, uh, not been spectacular. The putting is weak and Phil gave back his advantage at the 7th hole with two of the worst bunker shots you’ll see him hit. Mickelson was striping it early in the match but failed to do much up on the greens and now they’re level going to the 8th. An all-square bet at the turn was +500.

A golf broadcasting experiment

This is a broadcast that will look nothing like the weekly stops on the PGA Tour. There is the obvious. There are only two players to cover on the course, limiting the challenges of what many consider to be the most difficult sport to produce given that there are 150-plus players and 18 separate fields or arenas.

There are only two players and no commercials. Both Tiger and Phil will wear microphones from range to conclusion. There will be a drone during play which, due to regulations, never happens during tournaments when there are fans on the ground (which is all of them). There will also be odds and predictive percentages on the screen before shots that is based on course mapping data for Shadow Creek and the two players’ ShotLink profiles. Not all of this will be possible every week on the PGA Tour, but with their embrace of legalized gambling, we’re going to see some elements of it in the future.

The Purse

This is a $9 million winner-take-all match. It is not their own money. There will be side bets that is allegedly their own money and will go to their two charities. Phil indicated the side bets could get as high seven figures and maybe into the $2 million range. There is some agitation about the promotion of all the money on the line, but both these players deserve it and everyone should just chill out.

How to Watch and TV Schedule

The Match start: 3 p.m. ET

Price: $19.99

Online Streaming: B/R Live

TV: You can purchase through DirectTV or AT&T U-Verse. The event will also be distributed through other providers such as Comcast, Charter, Cox, Verizon and Altice in the U.S. and Rogers, Shaw and Bell in Canada through iNDEMAND and Vubiquity

Watch in 4K: DirecTV channel 106 is offering a 4K edition for $29.99.

Odds

Tiger Woods will go off as the favorite, hovering around -200 to Phil’s +110. There is also a long list of fun prop bets to dabble with all afternoon with your friends and family.