Scheffler’s emergence, Spieth’s cliff shot, Rory’s comeback: Season superlatives, 2021-22

It’s no secret why Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson are favored to beat Rickie Fowler and rookie Matthew Wolff at the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity match at Seminole Golf Club. Just look to the long game. Shorter approach shots, the ability to blast through the wind, the intimidation factor – power has many built-in advantages, even if Seminole isn’t overly long at 6,836 yards. McIlroy and Johnson, who have 38 PGA TOUR victories between them, have had a virtual lock on the Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee statistic over the last four years, with McIlroy finishing No. 1 in 2019 and ’16, and Johnson in 2018 and ’17. RELATED: Fans at home will be able to contribute to TaylorMade Driving Relief’s COVID-19 relief efforts thanks to PGA TOUR Charities’ online and Text-To-Give donation platforms powered by GoFundMe Charity. Click here to donate. MORE: TaylorMade Driving Relief to benefit COVID-19 relief efforts | How it works | How to watch | Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Live golf set to return | Seminole Golf Club ready for its close-up | Key clubs: Fowler’s irons | How Hogan put Seminole on the map | Similarities run deep for Fowler, Wolff In fact, their dominance in that category essentially spans an entire decade. From 2010-19, McIlroy ranked first in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee three times, was second twice (and would’ve been second two other times had he met the minimum number of rounds played) and was sixth three times. Meanwhile, Johnson also ranked first three times, second three other times and inside the top 6 on three other occasions. Their success – 38 combined PGA TOUR wins – and improved statistical metrics over that last decade have disproved the old chestnut “Drive for Show, Putt for Dough.â€� Eight of the top 12 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last season (including McIlroy and Johnson) qualified for the 30-man TOUR Championship. Just two of the top 12 in Strokes Gained: Putting did so. “I think we’ve both gotta be up there in top drivers of the golf ball right now,â€� Johnson said when asked about his partner in a conference call with reporters Thursday. “He’s a great driver of the ball; he hits it long, he hits it straight. When we do these competitions at the TaylorMade shoots, we’re usually within a couple yards in terms of distance.â€� Added Fowler: “I won’t argue with DJ; he’s one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the game.â€� Anecdotally, the importance of SG: Off-the-Tee is best illustrated by Johnson’s win over Jordan Spieth on the watery first extra hole at THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2017. With a helping wind, Spieth hit what he thought was a pretty good poke 314 yards down the fairway. Johnson took a much more aggressive line and covered the lake with a 341-yard beauty, leaving himself just a lob wedge for his second shot, which he hit to four feet for an easy birdie. Game over. “When he lined up over there,â€� Spieth said after the round, “and hit the drive, I was — at that point, I have to try and make par best I can, and I’m just hoping; I’m at such a disadvantage.â€� (Spieth needed a 7-iron to reach the green, and his approach wound up 25 feet from the pin.) Asked about Johnson’s power, even McIlroy admitted this week, “I do marvel at it … every time I see him on TOUR I say, ‘Don’t get drawn into a driving competition.’â€� Not that McIlroy can’t hold his own. He drove the green at the 412-yard 12th hole at the (7,500 feet elevation) World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship in February, a tee shot that Golf Digest called “one of the most memorable of all big-time drives.â€� What’s more, while winning three times on the way to the FedExCup last season, McIlroy hit a TOUR-leading 58.6 percent of all drives over 300 yards. He hit 57 drives 320-plus in the FedExCup Playoffs alone. Mark Broadie, the Columbia Business School professor and pioneer of Strokes Gained analytics, called him the clear No. 1 among the straightest long-hitters. “Rory’s combination of distance and accuracy gives him a massive five-stroke head start in each event he plays,â€� Broadie wrote for golf.com, “and it’s what makes him hands down the most deadly bomber out there.â€� And longer driving, Broadie has proven, trumps increased accuracy. Reached by phone for his take on the upcoming match, Broadie said he likes McIlroy and Johnson for more than just their superior and crowd-pleasing driving. “I look for Strokes Gained: Total,â€� he said, “and they are about a stroke better than Rickie and Wolff, which is significant, but it’s skins, which makes it a bit more random or unpredictable.â€� In addition to carryovers in the better-ball four-ball format, the cozier venue (on only 140 acres) could also potentially lessen a power advantage. Bethpage Black it isn’t. Indeed, McIlroy had barely finished praising Johnson’s power when he added: “For us though, Seminole isn’t that kind of golf course.â€� Even if it’s a second-shot course, Broadie still gives McIlroy the nod. “I have him No. 1 in approach shots in 2020, No. 6 in 2019,â€� Broadie says. “He’s just better than the other three in approach shots. If there are going to be some holes where the driver is taken out of their hands, then approach shots become a little bit more important.â€� Is there any facet of the game that favors the underdogs? “Rickie Fowler has an advantage as far as putting goes,â€� Broadie says. One more potentially interesting wrinkle: Team Rory/DJ are not first and second in SG: Off the tee this season. McIlroy was sixth when the season was suspended after the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship in March, and Wolff was next best at 11th. Johnson, returning from knee surgery, was at 27th, and Fowler was 63rd. How important is power? Brendon Todd, a two-time winner this season, said last week, “If you’re going to be 20-win guy with a handful of majors, distance is very important. … But to win once a year, to be competitive, you don’t have to be a bomber.â€� What you need, he added, is a great short game. In other words, you’d like Team Rory/DJ over the long haul, perhaps at a four-round tournamentlike the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which they’d talked about entering together. Over 18 holes, though, in a quirky skins format, on a little-known but reportedly smallish course? You’d still have to give them the edge, but perhaps not quite as much of one. DECADE OF DOMINANCE Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson have dominated the Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee statistical category the previous decade. Here is how they ranked each season from 2010-19. *Unofficial ranking; did not meet minimum number of rounds

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Questions about whether some of the game’s biggest names would compete in the PGA Championship have been answered in recent days. But one remains. Bryson DeChambeau may make his return to competitive golf at this week’s PGA Championship. It would be his first tournament since undergoing hand surgery after missing the cut at the Masters. “On my way to Southern Hills CC,” DeChambeau tweeted Monday afternoon. “Going to test how I am feeling over these next couple days and decide on whether to compete. Looking forward to being in Tulsa.” DeChambeau underwent surgery April 14 to repair a broken hook of hamate bone in his left hand. He said in a social media post after the procedure that he would take “the appropriate time needed to rest and recover” and would return “within the next two months.” The PGA Championship’s first round comes 35 days after the procedure. DeChambeau also has been dealing with a torn labrum in his left hip. The injuries forced him to miss both the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, where he was the defending champion, and THE PLAYERS. Against his doctors’ orders, he played the two events preceding the Masters before teeing it up in the year’s first major. DeChambeau said he first felt a “pop” in his hand last November and that he aggravated the injury when he slipped and fell while playing table tennis earlier this year. He has played just six times in 2022, either missing the cut or withdrawing in four of those events. He also finished T58 in the 64-man World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and T25 in the 38-man Sentry Tournament of Champions. He’s fallen from fifth to 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking and his position in both the TOUR Championship and Presidents Cup are both in peril. DeChambeau, who’s qualified for East Lake in each of the last four seasons, currently ranks 219th in the FedExCup standings. He is 24th in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings after playing on the last three U.S. international teams, including the United States’ record-setting roster last year. DeChambeau started chipping April 30 while stitches were still in his left hand and posted a video Saturday that showed him hitting balls into a net with a launch monitor showing 192 mph ball speed.

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Jerry Kelly won the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship for the second time in three years Sunday, breaking away with two late birdies to beat defending champion Steve Stricker by two strokes in Akron, Ohio.

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