MIAMI (AFP) – Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas will play Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose in a Ryder Cup-style 18-hole charity match next month between former world number ones, Woods announced Wednesday.
The made-for-television Payne’s Valley Cup – an 18-hole event at the Big Cedar Lodge course named for the late Payne Stewart in Ridgedale, Missouri – will be staged on September 22.
The date is three days before the Ryder Cup was to have been played between Europe and United States teams at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin and just like the Cup the charity match will feature, four-ball, foursomes and singles formats.
”Payne’s Valley is the first public golf course that I have designed. I couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out,” Woods said. ”I’m thrilled that it will be featured during the Payne’s Valley Cup.”
Stewart, who is from the Ozarks region where the event will be played, died in 1999 after winning the US Open. Proceeds will benefit his family’s foundation.
The Payne’s Valley Cup will mark the grand opening of the course.
The US duo of third-ranked Thomas, the 2017 PGA Chanmpionship winner, and 17th-ranked Woods, a 15-time major winner and the reigning Master champion will face four-time major winner McIlroy, the world number four from Northern Ireland, and England’s Rose, the world number 18 who won the 2013 US Open.
