With spring rapidly approaching and both the PGA and LPGA tours diving into their 2024 schedules, it's a wonderful time to be a golf fan. On Monday, Capital One's The Match will help usher in the season with a thrilling four-player battle between Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang.

The ninth edition of The Match will take place at The Park, a municipal-affiliated course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Like the previous iteration—which pitted Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce against Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry—the contest will be played in the evening and under the lights.

While The Match is pivoting away from celebrity athletes and back to pro golfers for this version, it will be a bit different from some past editions.

Most notably, this will mark the first time The Match has featured both male and female golfers, competing in a mixed skins format.

While The Match is, first and foremost, a charity event, It promises to bring plenty of excitement to golf fans.

The Match 9

Who: Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang

When: Monday, February, 26

Time: 6:30 p.m. ET

Where: The Park in West Palm Beach

Format: 12-Hole Skins Game

TV and Live Stream: TNT, truTV and HLN, B/R Sports Add-On on Max

The Match 9's charity beneficiary will be the First Tee, an organization that uses golf to empower children. As part of the skins competition, each hole will be worth a certain dollar amount for charity, and the golfer who has earned the most money at the end of 12 holes will be declared the winner.

While recent editions have featured team play, this one will be an individual event. All four competitors will utilize the same tees for the four par-3 holes on the course. The other eight holes will have different tees and yardages for the men and women.

While the format will be a bit different, the spirit of The Match will very much remain the same.

"It's not a regular tournament where it's all individual and you can kind of trash talk, and you've got the mics on. It's a good group of us so it'll be a good time," Thompson said, per Sarah Kellam of LPGA.com.

Given the format, none of the competitors should have a distinct advantage, and all four are championship-caliber.

McIlroy, a four-time Major winner and 24-time PGA winner, remains one of the biggest names in the sport. So is Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA Tour. Homa has won six PGA events, while Zhang is one of the sport's rising stars. having won her first LPGA event, the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open, at age 20.

It may sound cliché, but this is an event that any one of the four participants could win.

While none of the golfers will have a heavy advantage on the course, however, McIlroy will have a slight edge when it comes to the competitive format. He's the only member of the group with experience playing in The Match.

In The Match 7, McIlroy and Tiger Woods were narrowly defeated by Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. The 34-year-old knows exactly what it's like to compete with mics on and with ever-present cameras up close.

While we could easily see Zhang, Homa or Thompson claim victory on Monday night, the prediction here is that McIlroy's experience plays enough of a role to earn him the win.

Prediction: Rory McIlroy wins The Match 9.