Inside the ropes at Rory McIlroy’s primetime Scottie Scheffler showdown – with the Trump seal of approval

The clock had ticked past 7.30pm in Jupiter and problems were threatening to snowball at Trump National Golf Club: the heavens had opened and the atmosphere in the bleachers was flat. As for the commentary coming through the on-course speakers? So faint as to be almost unintelligible.

Imagine what was going through the minds of those in charge of the inaugural Golf Channel Games. They had brought eight of the world’s biggest names together for a series of challenges that were supposed to represent golf’s answer to the All-Star Weekend.

And then Shane Lowry stepped on to the tee and sprayed six drives almost everywhere except the target area. It was quite the start. But, in a curious twist, Lowry’s struggles ended up lighting the fuse. Before long, the noise had ratcheted up from both the speakers and the stands. It turns out sports fans quite enjoy watching star players squirm.

Week after week, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Co dismantle different courses around the world. It can be sterile and tournaments are often decided by tiny margins of spin and roll and the hidden gradients of greens.

This was a rare chance to see them struggle. To see the world’s greatest golfers knocked out of their routine. To watch them hit shots they haven’t honed over hours on the range. When was the last time McIlroy took putter from 170 yards? When is anyone in a hurry to finish a hole on the PGA Tour? 

Jupiter is home to many top golfers – McIlroy’s $21million mansion is a few hefty drives from this course. But at times on Wednesday night, he, too, looked hilariously out of his comfort zone. The result was comical chaos at primetime.

Golf has made a number of attempts over recent years to lure in new fans with gimmicks and glorified exhibitions. Some have made a splash – TGL, the indoor tournament played on a simulator and drop-in green, returns for a second season later this month. But many other formats have flopped.

So who can blame all those fans that were cynical about another effort to reinvent the wheel? En route to Trump National, one VIP branded the challenges ‘stupid’ and said only ‘suckers like [him]’ had paid for tickets.

This certainly won’t have been to everyone’s taste and there were plenty of teething problems. But under the lights in Palm Beach, it was all rather fun. 

For the uninitiated: two teams – captained by McIlroy and Scheffler and filled with Ryder Cup rivals – competed over five fast-paced challenges. 

It could hardly have been more different to that vicious, brutal battle at Bethpage Black. But it birthed a star in 22-year-old Luke Clanton and it has cheerleaders among the first family.

‘I absolutely love it,’ Eric Trump exclusively told Daily Mail while watching beside the green. ‘Golf needs a lot more of this… it keeps golf young, keeps golf fun. It seems like every sport has a skills challenge other than golf, it’s awesome to have the first one here.’

His niece, Kai Trump, was part of the broadcast and Eric wants this to become an annual event. ‘It works incredibly well… these guys love it too. They’re having a blast. 

‘Golf can be a formal game, but also golf needs a little bit of informality… you need that in order to make a sport mainstream. Golf has never been hotter.’

The challenges included timed competitions of driving and putting and chipping. But also a 14-club challenge, which saw teams attempt to hit the green with every club in the bag. 

The biggest hit of all, however? The relay. That saw teams race to finish a hole in the fewest shots and shortest time possible.

Players were dotted between the tee and green and they struggled to see the ball as it flew over the lights and down towards them. Both Scheffler and Lowry came within inches of being struck by a teammate.

That might have prompted a few awkward conversations. As it was, the players loved it and so did the 2,000 or so fans who had forked out a collective $400,000 to be here.

Not everything went down so well, however. This event was made for TV and that meant it wasn’t always a great spectacle for fans in Jupiter.

No matter that some had reportedly forked out more than $1,300 for VIP tickets. No matter that one man had driven for six hours from Savannah to South Florida. 

While TV viewers were given the treat of seeing stars like Scheffler emerge from their shell, no one here could hear the players chat with announcers and each other.

The scoring system was convoluted and pace of play proved a problem, too. Not during the challenges themselves – how refreshing it was to see players hurried into mistakes. But commercial breaks often halted momentum and it took more than three hours for a winner to be crowned.

In the end, the two teams were separated by an inch. By the time Scheffler triumphed in that playoff, however, many fans had left or retired to the Grand Ballroom.

So plenty of challenges remain if this is to become more than another one-off. It should be wrapped up within a couple of hours, for instance.

And more fundamental still: can this format continue to survive on its own? How long before these challenges lose their novelty? Should this be pegged on to another event in a similar fashion to the pre-Masters par-three tournament?

Questions for another day, perhaps. On Wednesday night, fans enjoyed watching stars at their best and their worst, often out of breath and out of their comfort zone. Sometimes blunders make for better viewing than birdies.

‘We tried something new,’ said McIlroy, whose team was made up of Lowry, Luke Donald and Haotong Li. ‘Sometimes when you try something new it doesn’t work out.

‘But I think this one really did… it was an awesome night…. look at what YouTube golf’s done and you see the amount of people that watch that and enjoy that. This is sort of a hybrid of that. I certainly think there’s a place for it.’