Getty Tiger vs. Phil takes place on Black Friday.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will finally square off today on Friday, November 23 at 3 p.m. Eastern. To watch the two golfers you will need to order the pay-per-view event which starts at $19.99. DirectTV’s coverage begins at 2 p.m. Eastern.
The pay-per-view options include DirecTV, Bleacher Report and AT&T U-Verse. If you are looking to try out a new Black Friday TV, you can order the match in 4K on DirecTV for $29.99. Bleacher Report breaks down the full list of viewing options.
You can stream golf’s first live pay-per-view event for $19.99 USD on B/R Live right here, or through AT&T’s DIRECTV and U-Verse services. You can watch a 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) feed on DIRECTV Channel 106 for $29.99 USD. The event will also will be widely distributed to other outlets, including Comcast, Charter, Cox, Verizon and Altice in the U.S. and Rogers, Shaw and Bell in Canada through In Demand and Vubiquity. Turner International will facilitate the distribution of live PPV access outside the U.S. and Canada.
The format is a bit different than a traditional golf tournament. Woods and Mickelson will each be awarded points for the holes they win. The total scoring will not matter as each golfer will either get one point or a zero after each hole. The golfer with the most points will win the match.
Tiger vs. Phil Will Feature Non-Traditional Scoring & the Golfers Will Be Mic’d Up During the Match
Some golf fans may be wondering why the event is being offered on pay-per-view rather than on a traditional channel. Given we have not seen something like this in golf, everything about it is a bit of an experiment.
“It’s an experiment,” Showtime Networks president of sports and events programming Stephen Espinoza told USA TODAY Sports. “Everybody in the pay-per-view industry is going be watching Tiger and Phil to see what happens on a few different fronts.”
The good news is the $19.99 price point is a lot lower than the majority of sports pay-per-view events.
“The non-traditional pricing could lure in people sitting at home bored and looking for something to do,” Espinoza explained to USA Today. “It’s an accessible price point that may pull in some people who say, ‘It’s 20 bucks. Let’s give it a shot.’ If it’s successful, we could see other creative pricing and some more non-traditional events on pay-per-view.”
The golfers will both be mic’d up during the event so fans can hear what is going on at the course. Mickelson spoke about the unique match, and why he wants to defeat Woods.
“This is a unique opportunity to do something that I’ve had a hard time doing, which is to get a leg up on Tiger even if it’s just one day,” Mickelson told ESPN. “It’s great to win the $9 million, but I just don’t want to lose to him. The bragging rights are the thing. I want to be able to rub it in; I don’t want it to be rubbed in. I want to sit in the champions locker room at Augusta [National, home of the Masters] and talk smack.”