Niemann, Johnson lead LIV Golf Singapore

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One of the most interesting facets of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is seeing how different two-man teams form for this unique event. Some are easy to piece together. Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose? European Ryder Cup teammates who have enjoyed a generation of success. Greyson Sigg and Sepp Straka? Teammates at the University of Georgia. Fellow countrymen match up easily on the pairings sheet, too, from Scotland (Martin Laird and Robert MacIntyre) to South Korea (Sungjae Im and Byeong Hun An) and many points in-between. Not all teams imply a clear origin story, though. And one of this week’s marquee teams – Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland – could have been forged together in some sort of stripe-show, analytical golf fantasy. Two of the best young players in the game will come together this week as one of the more formidable teams to play together since this tournament went to a team format in 2017. Lethal Combination Strokes Gained: Ball Striking combines a player’s performance off the tee and on approach shots. Basically, it’s the Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green metric, but with shots around the green eliminated from the equation. In this statistic, as one might expect, the Morikawa-Hovland team is a monster. There are 226 players with 30 or more ShotLink-measured rounds on the PGA TOUR since the beginning of 2021. Of that group, Morikawa and Hovland rank second and third in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking per round, trailing only Jon Rahm. The sum of their two rankings – 5 – is enormously smaller than any other team in this week’s field. The only other duo to have both players rank in the top-20 in ball striking during that stretch is the all-Chilean team of Mito Pereira (11th) and Joaquin Niemann (18th). Essentially, the two best ball-strikers in the field are on the same team. Going back another year, to the beginning of 2020, Morikawa ranks second in SG: Ball Striking per round among qualified players (+1.37 strokes), while Hovland ranks fourth (+1.27). The other two players in the top-four – Rahm and Justin Thomas – are not in this week’s field. When isolating their Strokes Gained: Approach numbers, the pair is equally as impressive. This season, Hovland ranks third on the PGA TOUR in that metric (+1.02 per round), while Morikawa is ranked seventh (+0.82). Looking at the larger sample size – back to January 2021 – Morikawa leads the TOUR, while Hovland is ranked fifth. The duo are forecasted to give themselves bushels of birdie opportunities all week long. Short Game Questions? In the Four-ball (best ball) format, played in Rounds 1 and 3, pressure on players’ short games is typically alleviated. That’s a nice break for the immensely-talented Hovland, who himself has bemoaned the deficiencies in that part of his bag. This season, Hovland is ranked last on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around the Green (No. 205 of 205), losing 0.84 strokes per round. Since the beginning of 2021, he is ranked 216th of 226 players with 30 or more rounds played. Morikawa has lost strokes to the field around the greens, too. Since January of last year, his average of -0.10 Strokes Gained: Around the Green is just 168th on TOUR. Both are perfectly capable of turning those figures around, but it will be an interesting subplot, especially if they are in contention on Sunday. Statistically, Hovland has been the better putter of the two since turning pro. Hovland has been right around neutral in regard to Strokes Gained: Putting per round since January 2020, while Morikawa has lost about two-tenths of a stroke per round. Morikawa, however, has enjoyed one of the biggest improvements in Strokes Gained: Putting on TOUR this season, leaping up 119 spots from the 2020-21 season. A Morikawa that is consistently gaining strokes on the greens should be a terrifying prospect to his peers. Fast Success Those figures haven’t stopped both players from becoming prolific champions around the world in their young professional careers. With his win at last summer’s Open Championship, Morikawa became the first player since Bobby Jones to win two majors in eight or fewer career starts. His fifth-place finish at the Masters earlier this month made him the fourth-youngest player all-time to record a top-five finish in each of the four major championships. Last fall, he became the first American player to win the Race to Dubai, the DP World Tour’s season-long points competition. Hovland has won in each of the last three PGA TOUR seasons, in addition to two DP World Tour wins. Hovland’s third PGA TOUR title came just after he turned 24 – over the last 40 seasons, only Rory McIlroy won more times at an earlier age among players from outside the United States. Last December, Hovland capped off his year by coming from six back in the final round to win the Hero World Challenge. The man he chased down? Collin Morikawa. The duo appear poised to go toe-to-toe for the biggest titles in the game for years to come. This week, golf fans get the treat of seeing them compete together for a victory in Louisiana.

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