QBE Shootout Goes Co-Ed Next Year — What Will It Look Like?

There has been more than a little clamoring for an event that pairs PGA Tour players with LPGA Tour players in a real live, you know, competition.

In 2023 there will be one.

This week’s QBE Shootout down at Tiburon in Naples, will become a mixed-team event this time next year.

So now the problem becomes — which PGA Tour players will show up and play?

As of now, this is a very, very limited field event with only 12 teams.  The event started sneaking in some big name women.  Last year Lexi Thompson was paired with bi-polar Bubba Watson, who has since defected to the LIV exhibition/circus/series but has yet to play as he’s still recovering from knee surgery.

This year’s QBE Shootout begins on Friday and there are 12 teams — including two with LPGA Tour stars.  Nelly Korda will play with Denny McCarthy and Lexi’s back, this time with youngster Maverick McNealy.

Max Homa is the highest-ranked player in this field, he’s No. 16 in the OWGR and he’s teaming with Kevin Kisner, who finished next-to-dead-last in the Hero World Challenge last week.  Nice work, Kiz.

As far as the 2023 event, there is, as of this moment, no criteria for entry and no set format.  The current format has a three-day, 54-hole competition that plays a scramble format on day one, a modified alternate shot on day two and best-ball on day three.  Good format.  In the modified alternate shot, each player hits a tee shot and they choose the best one and play alternate shot from there.

The inequitable part of the current shootout is that the two women who will play — Korda and Thompson — will play from the same tees as the men.  In next year’s mixed event, you would totally expect up tee boxes for the women.  The current format would prove totally interesting.

Once upon a time there was the mixed-team J.C. Penney event that was played on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook Resort — site of the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship.

A young Tiger Woods played in the 1986 J.C. Penney with Kelli Kuehne.  Julie Inkster and Tom Purtzer won that year.

The J.C. Penney came to an end in 1999.  John Daly and Laura Davies won that year.  But the lack of interest by the top stars on the PGA Tour eventually led to the demise of the J.C. Penney.

And therein lies the problem for any mixed team event — getting the men interested.

This week’s QBE Shootout has a total purse of $3.8 million with $950,000 split by the winning team.  That’s $475,000 each.  Now that’s big money for the women.  That’s more than most of their regular season events pay the winner.  For for the men, well, for the top guys its peanuts.  So the question becomes one of getting the top men interested.

Billy Horschel sounds pretty jazzed about the 2023 event.  “I think it’s something that needed to be done for quite a while,” he said. “When you look at the game of golf, the fans want to see more team events, see something different. It’s going to benefit the PGA Tour, but I think it’s going to benefit the LPGA Tour even more in terms of getting more exposure.”

So the big question there is — hey Billy, can we sign you up for 2023?

Again, therein lies the task.

It should be easy to get the best women in the field.

The men?  Well that’s a different story.

And one that will remain ongoing.