Matching two of LIV Golf’s top players against the PGA Tour in a televised match could show fans that efforts are being made to repair a divided sport, Rory McIlroy said Wednesday.

McIlroy will partner Scottie Scheffler in Tuesday’s 18-hole match against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka at the Crypto.com Showdown at Shadow Creek, north of Las Vegas.

Aside from the four majors, it will be the only time they compete together all year. McIlroy doesn’t expect to play with Koepka in a club game at The Grove last weekend.

“We’re trying to bring these players together and the more opportunities we get to do that, the better,” McIlroy said. “Does it remind people that we don’t play together all the time? Yes. But at least we try to bring the best together more often. If we can start doing something like that, that’s only a good thing.”

He later added: “It was really about us saying we’re going to take this into our own hands a little bit and do something outside of the two tours, not to give back to the fans, but to…” . Let them know that we are trying to provide entertainment, that players will want to play together more often.

Koepka said he expects some Ryder Cup-like vibes, and DeChambeau hinted at something “bigger and badder” with a bigger focus next year.

“Given the way the entire golf landscape works, I’m still not sure when we’ll be meeting more often,” McIlroy said of the two tours. “The idea is to combine the best of both tours in a match that people can support and get excited about.”

McIlroy is a member of the PGA Tour Enterprises transaction committee, which is negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia – the financial engine behind LIV – to become a minority investor.

It’s still uncertain what kind of schedule – LIV has shown no signs of being scrapped – would allow players in both circuits to play outside the majors more often.

“We want to see everyone together again,” said Scheffler. “There was so much talk about LIV versus PGA Tour, all this talk about money. We want to return to competition. … It’s fun to get together to compete.”

The PGA Tour granted McIlroy and Scheffler clearance to play at Shadow Creek, with McIlroy saying, “It took a few conversations to get them to the point where they saw this could be a good thing in the long run.” .”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.