The best, worst and most absurd things from golf’s four majors

Four of the most exciting players in the game today – Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Matthew Wolff and Rickie Fowler – will usher in golf’s unofficial return to action Sunday at Seminole Golf Club with the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity skins match. On paper, casual fans may see this matchup as a bit lopsided. If you only compare the career resumes, that’s undoubtedly the case: Rory and DJ have combined for 38 PGA TOUR wins and 192 weeks at world No. 1. Rickie and Matthew’s added totals are six wins and zero weeks in the top spot. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | How to watch: TaylorMade Driving Relief But a closer look at the numbers says that these two teams aren’t all that far apart. 15th Club took the strokes gained data from every PGA TOUR event since Wolff turned professional and compared the performances of the four players at a granular, detailed level. There are 151 different players with 30 or more ShotLink-measured rounds since Matthew’s pro debut at the 2019 Travelers Championship. Here’s how the two sides match up statistically during that span. Off The Tee ADVANTAGE: McILROY & JOHNSON The dream driving duo of Rory and DJ is almost impossible to top. In the time frame selected, Rory leads all players in average distance of all drives (307.6 yards), while Johnson is ranked fourth (305.7). McIlroy has averaged 0.90 strokes gained off the tee during that span, too, second-best on TOUR. Only Wolff’s old college teammate, Viktor Hovland, has a better number off the tee in that stretch (0.91 per round). That’s not to say Rickie and Matt will be blown off the course with the driver – both players are well above average in terms of distance. Wolff ranks 20th on TOUR in distance of all drives since turning pro (297.7 yards) while Fowler is 53rd (291.6). Wolff is also averaging more than one-third of a stroke gained off the tee, good for 34th of 151 players. Approach Play ADVANTAGE: McILROY & JOHNSON Although Rory and DJ get the nod here, it isn’t a large gap between the teams. DJ has uncharacteristically struggled with his iron play in recent months, averaging -0.33 strokes gained approach per round since last summer — ranked 134th of 151 players. For comparison’s sake, Collin Morikawa leads the TOUR in that stat during the time span, at 1.13 strokes gained approach per round. Rickie and Matt combine for a neutral performance, of sorts – when you combine the two, you get a number close to zero – no shots gained, or lost, to the field on approach play. Wolff has an average approach shot proximity of just under 35 feet since turning pro, best of these four players in that span. But thanks to Rory, ranked 14th on TOUR during this stretch, the DJ-McIlroy side has a slight advantage. Around The Green ADVANTAGE: PUSH Known throughout his career more for the longest club in his bag, has Rory become a savant around the greens, too? This is the third consecutive season McIlroy has been ranked in the top-20 on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, a statistic he was outside the top-100 in back in 2010 when he broke through with his first win. And since last summer, he’s averaged 0.36 SG: Around-the-Green per round, 11th-best on TOUR in that span. While this statistical exercise is focusing on the time since Wolff turned pro, there’s history on the side of Rickie Fowler. In the 2016-17 season, Rickie had a sand save percentage of 68.7 percent, the best anyone had recorded on TOUR in 16 years. He ranked 15th on TOUR in strokes gained around the green just three seasons ago and was 11th in that statistic the season before that. This one is too close to call. Putting ADVANTAGE: FOWLER & WOLFF Rickie is averaging more than 80 feet of putts made per round since last summer, ninth-best on TOUR in that span and well ahead of the other three players Sunday. The 2017 TOUR leader in Strokes Gained: Putting, Fowler is statistically the strongest on the greens among these four. Putting is the worst ranking Rory has of the Strokes Gained categories in our selected time frame, but that isn’t saying much. McIlroy is averaging 0.43 strokes gained putting per round since last summer, putting himself firmly in the top-30 on TOUR. DJ, on the other hand, has struggled a bit with the putter in recent months. He’s lost, on average, about 0.31 strokes gained putting per round since last June – ranking 128th of 151 players. This is the area of the match where Fowler and Wolff can try to make up for their opponents’ advantage off the tee. Overall ADVANTAGE: McILROY & JOHNSON … narrowly Rory’s recent performance metrics are, unsurprisingly, reflective of the No. 1 player in the world and defending FedExCup champion and PGA TOUR Player of the Year. Since last summer, Rory leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total, distance of all drives and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. His Strokes Gained average in that stretch – 2.33 per round – is more than one-third of a shot better than anyone else in that span (Jon Rahm is second, at 1.98). Fans unfamiliar with Wolff’s game, though, are in for a treat this weekend. His unconventional swing has produced big results in fewer than 20 career TOUR starts. At last year’s 3M Open, he became the second-youngest winner on TOUR since World War II. Wolff is well above average in almost every Strokes Gained category since he ended his amateur career last June. McIlroy and Johnson are the rightful betting favorites, but the Oklahoma State Cowboys connection should not be ignored this weekend in Florida. Justin Ray is the Head of Content for data-driven 15th Club.

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Golf is the ultimate game of experience. You fail much more than you win. And it was through the lessons learned from the past that South Korean Sung Kang was able to break through for his inaugural PGA TOUR win at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Kang overcame lengthy weather delays, a slew of challengers and a 27-hole Sunday to win by two at Trinity Forest. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Fool me once… Sung Kang had been in this position before in Texas. At the 2017 Houston Open, Kang started hot and looked set to cruise to a victory. His six-shot lead through 36 holes in Houston looked pretty good. But it put him in conservative mode over the weekend and saw him get passed by a hot Russell Henley. He vowed not to play the same way if it happened again. So when he equaled Trinity Forest’s course record 61 on Friday, he put that experience to good use. During the weather-interrupted third round, and on Sunday, those in the mix threw countless birdies at him, but Kang stayed focused and firm. He didn’t let the noise stop him from his own aggressive play. It was impressive to watch the evolution. Read much more about his breakthrough win here. 2. Not just a warm up… PGA TOUR Player of the Year Brooks Koepka dismissed the notion in the lead up to the tournament that he was just in Dallas to warm up for his defense of the PGA Championship. Koepka entered to win and he played like it. While there were a few moments of rust, Koepka’s 65-66-68-65 week to finish fourth was anything but the form of someone going through the motions. With Bethpage Black getting some rain early this week, length could become more important, and as such, you can expect the defending champion to be a force. 3. Not a surprise to ‘Every’body… Two-time Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Matt Every provided a serious challenge to the title at Trinity Forest, which led to talk about his struggles in the last few years. With just one top 10 between his 2015 victory at Bay Hill and his third-place finish with KH Lee at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where they were T3, it certainly had been a lean period. But if you isolate the few starts he has been able to garner this season as a past champion… you can see it wasn’t totally out of left field. In his first four starts, he finished inside the top 20. And while he missed two cuts after that, he then joined Lee in New Orleans before his T2 in Dallas. In all, it adds up to being 55th in the FedExCup standings and on target to join the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time since 2015. 4. International jostling… Kang’s win moved him up to 13th on the International Team standings for December’s Presidents Cup. One thing that is becoming apparent is the notion of having solidified a spot on the team early is not happening. For the first time, the team selection criteria is based on points within a 12-month window, not just world ranking position. It makes for much more movement and opens the door for many more players to potentially make the team. At Trinity Forest, Kang made the big move, from 38th up to 13th on the points list. The top eight through the TOUR Championship automatically make the team before four captains picks. International team hopefuls Justin Harding, Matt Jones, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Sebastian Munoz and Carlos Ortiz all had timely top-12 finishes in Dallas. We are in for a fascinating few months to see who can force their way in. 5. Slowly for Spieth… The good news: For the first time this season, Jordan Spieth had three rounds in the 60s. The bad news: He still could muster no better than a T29 at Trinity Forest, where he is a member, and remains outside the FedExCup Playoffs zone at 150th. “I don’t take the disappointment. I take more confidence than disappointment,â€� Spieth said. “The actual result doesn’t show really how well I played. We kind of had a tough draw the first two days and then still be — what was it 11 under for the week? — is solid playing on any golf course.â€� Spieth can claim the career Grand Slam if he was to to win the PGA Championship this coming week. Read more on that here. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Sung Kang became the 10th Korean-born player to win on the PGA TOUR and the second Korean-born winner of the AT&T Byron Nelson (Sangmoon Bae/2013). He moved from 71st to 21st in the FedExCup standings and to 13th in the International Presidents Cup standings. 2. Kang broke the opening 36-hole record (16-under 126) at the AT&T Byron Nelson and equaled the opening 54-hole record of 194 (Loren Roberts, 1999; Brooks Koepka, 2016). He also equaled the Trinity Forest course record 61 (Marc Leishman, 2018). 3. Kang hit 48 of 56 fairways, 57 of 72 greens in regulation, and had 109 putts. (Strokes Gained: Putting – 10.300 ranked 2nd). 4. Scott Piercy became the first player to play all 72 holes without a bogey and not win since 2010. 5. Tyler Duncan snapped a streak of four-consecutive missed cuts on TOUR with a T5, posting his best finish in 53 PGA TOUR starts… This week marked the 87th start since Matt Jones (T5) had his last top-10 on TOUR (2015 Dell Technologies Championship)… After entering the week with four consecutive missed cuts, Peter Uihlein closed 63-64 to finish T5. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Brooks Koepka pushed his way further up the leaderboard with his fourth-place finish at Trinity Forest, moving up fifth place on the leaderboard heading into his title defense at the PGA Championship. Rank Rank last week Player What Top 10 gets (End of Regular Season) 1st 1st Matt Kuchar  $2 million 2nd 2nd Xander Schauffele  $1.5 million 3rd 3rd Rory McIlroy  $1.2 million 4th 4th Paul Casey  $1.1 million 5th 8th Brooks Koepka  $1 million 6th 5th Dustin Johnson $850,000 7th 6th Rickie Fowler  $700,000 8th 7th Jon Rahm $600,000 9th 9th Gary Woodland  $550,000 10th 10th Charles Howell III  $500,000

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