Detry leads, Spieth back in hunt at Phoenix Open

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Engrave the trophy. It’s locked up. Jordan Spieth has won THE NORTHERN TRUST. Having won nine of the last 10 times he’s led after 54 holes on the PGA TOUR, Spieth’s three-shot buffer over Dustin Johnson means it is statistically likely the Texan makes it win No. 4 for the year on Sunday and takes the lead in the FedExCup. Rounds of 69-65-64 leave him at 12 under par at Glen Oaks Club with Johnson at 9 under. Spieth is five shots clear of the four-way tie for third so the buffer is too significant, right? We haven’t seen a front-runner like this since Tiger Woods, who was an incredible 51-4 when holding the lead or co-lead with a round to go on the PGA TOUR. OK. OK. OK. Hold up. Let’s not get too crazy. This is golf after all. Spieth knows as well as anyone a tournament can turn on one bad swing – or one good one. That one 54-hole lead he didn’t convert in the last 10? The 2016 Masters where he blew a 5-shot lead on the back nine. The vision of him painfully finding Raes Creek twice that day are still fresh scars for us all. His most recent 54-hole lead came at The Open Championship this year where he lost his buffer early with some crazy play, famously hit the ball off the map and played from the driving range, before sensationally turning it back around with a blitz finish for victory. The time before that it appeared he was going to let Daniel Berger get the better of him at the Travelers Championship in a playoff. Cue a sensational bunker hole-out in sudden death for the win. You couldn’t really write the script for any of these occasions. “I’d expect anything. I’ve kind of shown that anything can happen [laughing] unfortunately and fortunately,â€� Spieth said when asked to imagine what he would think if he was trying to chase down a front-runner with his record. “So anything can happen tomorrow. I expect some swings but if we stay focused on a goal, keep playing the way we’re playing, then should be fine.â€� The chasing pack can look at things one of two ways. They can go glass half-empty and lament the likelihood of Spieth’s steel to win and ability to get out of even tough situations. Or they can go glass half-full and recall his shakiness at times, and back themselves to go head-to-head if they can get him near the ropes. “I like coming from behind,â€� Johnson, fourth in the FedExCup, said. “Let’s be honest here. I’d rather have a three-shot lead. But it’s not that bad coming from three shots back, either, because that can change in one hole. “Obviously Jordan’s playing really well, so he’s going to be tough to beat tomorrow.â€� Johnson wasn’t planning on being overly aggressive. Instead he plans to just rely on his long game to potentially give himself more birdie chances than the 24-year-old. He will have to as Spieth’s putter has been a big part of the puzzle. “Maybe some of his putting will rub off on me and I’ll start holing them,â€� Johnson smiled. “I think it’s going to be a fun day. I think it’s going to be a battle but we’ll see who is on top at the end.â€� For those further back – like Spaniard Jon Rahm who is part of the crowd at 7 under – aggression is going to be needed. When the gap is five you must go super low or also hope for a stumble above. “And Spieth is not known for being one to stumble. Last time he actually made a little bit of a mistake and ended up with a finish for the ages at The Open,â€� Rahm said. “He’s not going to give it to you. That guy can seriously close it out. “We need to make up shots as fast as possible, as early as possible. Hopefully I can get off to a good start like I did today and make a few putts early and who knows.â€� Spieth for his part expects them to come at him hard. He doesn’t believe the field is playing for second. “I imagine it’s not like guys that were chasing Tiger where you almost felt hopeless,â€� he said. “I don’t think DJ is really worried about much. We’ve battled it out quite a few times. He’ll step up and just do his thing. I don’t think he’s going to think much about me, other than where he’s at as we get down the stretch.â€� Spieth, the 2015 FedExCup champion, hopes Johnson isn’t even in the hunt by the time they get down the stretch. The first of his three wins this season came at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where he “cruisedâ€� along on Sunday. “Pebble Beach was an absolute cruise,â€� he reminisced. “It was a bogey-free 2-under round when I had a lead by a significant margin, and I think the longest par putt I had was 3 feet that day. So that’s what I would obviously like tomorrow.â€� Glen Oaks might not allow that. While the fairways are generous, the rough is thick. “This is not a course you can stand on the first tee and think 65. It can happen but you force it out here you will have a big number,â€� former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said. “It’s a U.S. Open with wide fairways. A good player is going to win here and if it’s not one of the really long hitters like Jordan than he’s done extremely well.â€� Odds are he will do extremely well. Again.

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The most consistent season of Rory McIlroy’s career culminated with his second FedExCup. He joins Tiger Woods as the only players to twice win the PGA TOUR’s season-long prize. McIlroy had three wins in 2019 – at THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Canadian Open and TOUR Championship – and finished in the top 10 in all but five of his 19 starts. McIlroy gained +2.55 strokes per round on the field this season, the best mark by a player this decade and best ever by a player not named Tiger Woods. The PGA TOUR’s ShotLink team took a closer look at the numbers behind McIlroy’s incredible season. Here’s what they found: The TOUR Championship was the 17th win of McIlroy’s PGA TOUR career, by far the most of any player currently aged 30 or younger. McIlroy turned 30 on May 4. Most PGA TOUR wins: Players currently 30 years old & younger McIlroy’s 17 wins before turning 31 are the fifth-most on TOUR since 1970. Only Tiger Woods (54 wins), Tom Watson (25), Johnny Miller (18) and Phil Mickelson (18) rank ahead of him. McIlroy is the first player to win THE PLAYERS and FedExCup in the same season. McIlroy had seven consecutive top-10 finishes from the Sentry Tournament of Champions to the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. It was the longest streak of top-10s since Luke Donald had eight in a row in 2011. The TOUR Championship was his fifth win in the FedExCup Playoffs, giving him the most wins in Playoffs history. Most wins in FedExCup Playoffs history Strokes Gained: Total McIlroy is the fourth player to finish a season ranked inside the top 25 in all four Strokes Gained stats (Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green and Putting). Strokes Gained stats have been calculated since 2004. Three of the four went on to win that season’s FedExCup. Ranking inside Top 25 SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green & Putting in a season since 2004 McIlroy’s +2.551 was the fourth-best single-season Strokes Gained: Total since the Strokes Gained statistics started in 2004. The top three seasons all belonged to Woods. Best Strokes Gained: Total Since 2004 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee McIlroy led the TOUR in Driving Distance (All Drives), averaging 304.2 yards off the tee. That was 18.7 yards longer than the TOUR average (285.5 yards). McIlroy also led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee for the third time. Only Bubba Watson (four times) has led the TOUR in that statistic more times. No player hit more drives 320+ yards in the 2019 FedExCup Playoffs than McIlroy. He hit 57 drives 320+ yards, three more than the next best player (Dustin Johnson, 54). McIlroy hit 25 drives over 320 yards at the TOUR Championship. Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green McIlroy ranked 12th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, outperforming the TOUR by +0.633 strokes per round on approach shots. McIlroy’s +0.633 Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green average marks the second-best season performance of his PGA TOUR career. He gained +1.002 strokes per round with his approach play in the 2012 season. McIlroy said his most important shot of the season was an approach from the right fairway bunker in the final round of the 2019 PLAYERS. He made birdie from the bunker en route to winning at TPC Sawgrass. From 177 yards, he hit his approach to 14 feet and made the putt. It was his fourth-closest approach from 170+ yards out of a fairway bunker in his career (on ShotLink courses). For comparison, the field at THE PLAYERS had an average proximity of 37 feet, 11 inches from that bunker. Players made birdie just 14% of the time from there. Strokes Gained: Putting McIlroy made a career-high 30 putts from over 20 feet this season. Rory McIlroy: Total putts made over 20 feet He finished 24th in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.425), the third consecutive season where he’s improved that metric. The 2018-19 season marked his career-best performance in Strokes Gained: Putting. He was 159th in that statistics just two seasons ago. (-0.304). McIlroy has made every putt from 6 feet or less five times in his career (in ShotLink-measured events). He has won three of those events, including two this season (2019 TOUR Championship, 2019 RBC Canadian Open). Rory McIlroy: 100% putting inside 6 feet

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