Phil Mickelson edges Tiger under the lights in extra holes at The Match

The Match is a Thanksgiving weekend experiment that is ostensibly about golf. The golf shots, however, are simply a vessel for a gambling product that is supposed to serve as pure sports entertainment. There is no career-long chase for a major championship trophy or some sort of resume-building glory here. It’s a mutually beneficial experiment that will land both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson a nice paycheck. It’s also a compelling sports entertainment experiment that will look and feel different than any kind of golf we’ve seen, starting with the fact that you’ll have to fork over $20 to pay-per-view.

The Match will definitely go down as an unforgettable experiment. Neither Phil nor Tiger played their best golf, the pay-per-view technology completely tanked, the broadcast infuriated in spots, but ... the two Hall-of-Famers went 22 holes into the darkness before deciding things. In the end, it was Phil Mickelson knocking in a short birdie putt under the lights to make $9 million.

Mistakes were made and it could have been better in spots, but what you want is a close match and the margin was never more than 1-up. The two see-sawed on the back-nine, with Tiger making two birdies in a row to get his first lead on the 12th hole and then chipping in from off the green at the 17th to stay alive. It prompted a chill-inducing “Just like old times” exclamation as he walked off the hole.

That chip-in forced a tie that would last an hour. The two played 18 twice and then played this special Mickey Mouse 93-yard hole set up just in case a playoff went extra deep. The lights came on and the two teed it up on the Shadow Creek putting green to hit across water into a tight pin on what was the 18th green. On the third trip, Phil stuffed it to just a few feet to clean up the winning birdie and the $9 million.

We’ll get into the shortcomings and successes in greater detail, but the finish and the final two hours made this experiment a worthwhile endeavor.

We will live blog The Match here throughout Friday afternoon. Here are some nuts and bolts to watch for from Shadow Creek.

Hole 1 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars; Phil loses $200k side bet

Hole 2 — Tiger misses a bunny par putt to lose the hole, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 3 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 4 — Tiger and Phil halve with birdies, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 5 — Phil blows a great birdie chance and they halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 6 — Tiger and Phil halve with birdies, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 7 — Phil bogeys to lose the hole, All square

Hole 8 — Tiger three-putts on the par-3, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 9 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 10 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 11 — Tiger birdies to win the hole, All square

Hole 12 — Tiger birdies to win the hole, Tiger leads 1-up

Hole 13 — Phil birdies to win the hole, All square

Hole 14 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, All square

Hole 15 — Phil pars to win the hole, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 16 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, Phil leads 1-up

Hole 17 — Tiger chips in for birdie to win hole, All square

Hole 18 — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, All square

Hole 19 (Replay of 18th) — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, All square

Hole 20 (Chip off from 95 yards) — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, All square

Hole 21 (Chip off from 95 yards) — Tiger and Phil halve with pars, All square

Hole 22 (Chip off from 95 yards) — Phil makes birdie, wins 1-up

3:15 p.m. — We got off to a late start. Were they waiting for one last rush of PPV buys? Were they delaying it because of PPV technical problems like Mayweather-McGregor? Or was it all part of the plan? Either way, the endless pregame hype is done and we’re off and running.

3:20 p.m. — I received three text messages from separate friends at the exact same time saying “I am already uncomfortable.” So yeah, the small chat walking from the tee to the their tee shots on long holes may be, uh, a little forced and awkward.

3:24 p.m. — Is this part of the future of golf broadcasting? This is not exactly an impossible stat to find, but with the PGA Tour embracing and wanting to push more gambling and live-wagering, we’re going to see these stats incorporated much more.

3:25 p.m. — Phil’s birdie putt on the first hole does not break as much as he expected and the misread will cost him $200k. At the press conference on Tuesday, Phil and Tiger went and back forth and settled on that side bet to undoubtedly generate more interest ahead of the match and to give you a taste of the kind of impromptu side action that will occur. So the hole was halved but Phil lost $200k with his tap-in par.

3:28 p.m. — Here’s another example of the predictive odds and percentages they’re going to be putting on the screen throughout the match.

3:52 — The side talk is underwhelming but so far this is not a bad production. Tiger’s putting looks extremely shaky through the first three holes. Based on small talk, he apparently flew from Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with Fred Couples. Phil, on the other hand, has been in Vegas all week. Let’s start questioning Tiger’s commitment to winning!

4:10 — Phil and Tiger throw together a casual $100k side bet on a closest to the pin challenge at the par-3 5th hole. It was just 137-yard shot par-3 and Phil nearly jarred it. Tiger hit what could only be characterized as a poor shot for him and wasn’t close.

4:40 — Justin Thomas is watching this at Jordan Spieth’s house before Spieth’s wedding this weekend. And he’s got insight!

4:45 — The VIPs on the grounds are getting rowdy and Tiger definitely knows what’s up!

4:50 — The play has not, uh, not been spectacular. The putting is weak and Phil gave back his advantage at the 7th hole with two of the worst bunker shots you’ll see him hit. Mickelson was striping it early in the match but failed to do much up on the greens and now they’re level going to the 8th. An all-square bet at the turn was +500.

5:15 — Phil makes s $1 million challenge that either of them hole out from the fairway on the 9th. But both hit “awful” shots as analyst Peter Jacobsen put it, and have to scramble just to make par. Charles Barkley commandeers the mic to tell America that they are watching terrible golf. Pat Perez jumps in to add that the putting is horrendous. The golf is not great but at least it’s a close game! Right!?

5:45 — Phil’s underwhelming putting continues and he gives his margin back to Tiger on the 11th hole. We go all square and Tiger has a 58 percent chance to win the overall match.

5:55 — Tiger stuffs it to gimme range and to take his first lead of the match. He appears to be feeling it now that we’re settled into the back nine and Phil’s missed chances on the front, as JT noted above, could be the difference. Also, this seems bad!

6:10 — We’re seeing some birdies and much better shots now that we’re three hours into the match. On Tuesday, we were told somewhere in the 6 to 9-under range would be a the score of the winner. Of course overall score doesn’t matter in a match but the point both Tiger and Phil were making was that it was going to be a birdiefest. We’re seeing signs of that deep in the back nine.

6:30 — Phil goes back in front with a simple par on the 15th hole. The announcers are suffocating and over-talking, but in terms of the actual match, this is what you would want. No one has been more than 1-up and we’ve now had a see-saw on the back nine. It’s not horrible!

6:55 — Tiger chips in for birdie to pull the match all square with one hole to play! Setting aside the tech difficulties and underwhelming play early on, this is all you could ask for. All square going to the 18th tee.

7:20 p.m. — Tiger graciously conceded a knee-knocking three-foot putt to Phil that he needed to make to force extra holes. The concession meant a finishing par for both players. We go back to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole and after that we go to a specially set-up hole that is just 93 yards and has lights in case it gets dark. We play that hole until we get a winner.

7:30 p.m. — We are done for the day playing full golf holes. It is dark outside and tough to read putts and Tiger missed a short birdie putt to win the match on the first playoff hole. So we’re headed to this special 95-yard hole under the lights for a chip off to win $9 million. Here’s the setup — they’re hitting from the putting green at Shadow Creek.

7:57 — After three straight pars, including a generous conceded putt by Phil, it’s Mickelson that wins the $9 million under the lights.

This is a broadcast that will look nothing like the weekly stops on the PGA Tour. There is the obvious. There are only two players to cover on the course, limiting the challenges of what many consider to be the most difficult sport to produce given that there are 150-plus players and 18 separate fields or arenas.

There are only two players and no commercials. Both Tiger and Phil will wear microphones from range to conclusion. There will be a drone during play which, due to regulations, never happens during tournaments when there are fans on the ground (which is all of them). There will also be odds and predictive percentages on the screen before shots that is based on course mapping data for Shadow Creek and the two players’ ShotLink profiles. Not all of this will be possible every week on the PGA Tour, but with their embrace of legalized gambling, we’re going to see some elements of it in the future.

This is a $9 million winner-take-all match. It is not their own money. There will be side bets that is allegedly their own money and will go to their two charities. Phil indicated the side bets could get as high seven figures and maybe into the $2 million range. There is some agitation about the promotion of all the money on the line, but both these players deserve it and everyone should just chill out.

The Match start: 3 p.m. ET

Price: $19.99

Online Streaming: B/R Live

TV: You can purchase through DirectTV or AT&T U-Verse. The event will also be distributed through other providers such as Comcast, Charter, Cox, Verizon and Altice in the U.S. and Rogers, Shaw and Bell in Canada through iNDEMAND and Vubiquity

Watch in 4K: DirecTV channel 106 is offering a 4K edition for $29.99.

Tiger Woods will go off as the favorite, hovering around -200 to Phil’s +110. There is also a long list of fun prop bets to dabble with all afternoon with your friends and family.