Jordan Spieth is looking good so far in the first round as he has grabbed the lead. See if he can keep it going on the back nine at Royal Birkdale.
Click here to read the full article…
| Do you like other ways of online slots and want to learn about their volatility? WHAT IS SLOT VOLATILITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? will answer all your questions! |
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
Sean O'Hair has barely played on the PGA TOUR the last two seasons but he's looking to take full advantage of his good play at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship heading into the weekend. After back-to-back rounds of 5-under-par 67, O'Hair was only the second golfer into double-digits under par after the morning wave Friday. The four-time TOUR winner is looking to return to the winner's circle for the first time since the 2011 RBC Canadian Open - more than nine years ago. O'Hair tore his left oblique nearly 18 months ago and is still recovering after surgery. He teed it up at just two PGA TOUR events last season - the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Honda Classic, finishing T50 and missing the cut, respectively. He's on a Major Medical Extension this season. He missed the cut at the Safeway Open to start the season. However, O'Hair's 10-under total has him in good position going into the weekend in the Dominican Republic. "I was pretty proud of the bogey-free today," said O'Hair. "I’ve been playing solid. Today I left a few out there, but I’ll take the bogey-free round, for sure." O'Hair said he had quite a bit of scar tissue built up near his oblique from the car accident he was involved in in 2008 which needed to be removed along with having his oblique repaired. He admitted that while he's basically been off the TOUR for a year-and-a-half, he's trying to get into a routine again. But, there's been a bit of a turning point this week. "My body’s still not quite there as far as just the workload that you do just from traveling and hitting balls and walking and practicing. It’s kind of hard to practice that at home. But, you know, as far as health-wise, I feel great and it’s nice to be out here, for sure," he said. O'Hair said he didn't want to get ahead of himself in terms of qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs later this season, but he's got a laser-like focus on these next 16 events so then he can keep his PGA TOUR card. However, he said one thing is for sure: his love of the game hasn't waned. "I think I got a little bit lazy and took too much for granted right before I got injured. I think I was more counting the days to retirement and I think you get that taken away from you, the ability to play golf, and you figure out that you love the game still and you still want to compete," said O'Hair. "It was a really hard recovery for me and I didn’t know if I was going to make it back or not, so it took a lot of hard work to get to this point and it feels good." O'Hair wasn't the only golfer on a Major Medical Exemption to play well through two rounds at Corales. Graham DeLaet fired an 8-under-par 64 on Friday, his lowest such round in relation to par on the PGA TOUR since a 9-under-par 63 effort at the Barbasol Championship in 2016. DeLaet was on the shelf for most of the last two seasons due to a back injury and bounced back Friday after an opening-round 78. Jamie Lovemark, meanwhile, is also on a Major Medical after suffering a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the balance of the last two seasons. He sits at 6-under through two rounds at Corales. "I've been feeling good," Lovemark said Friday. "I came back last year and had no confidence I wasn't very sure of myself. I had no speed. I'm getting my speed back and getting my confidence back." Lovemark finished T56 at the Safeway Open as he looks to have a solid run in his return. He tore the labrum in his shoulder (It was "popping in, popping out," he said). He didn't have to have surgery but has been through a lot of rehab which he calls "tedious and annoying," but helpful. "I was off for six months. It was a nice break but it was too long," he said. "There's pressure to perform but you lose sight of that usually and you just play the round in front of you. At home you think about it but I've got 15 events, almost a full season, and I'm starting to play better."
The International Golf Federation and International Olympic Committee are adjusting the qualifying system for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to accommodate the new dates of competition in 2021. In light of the one-year delay, athletes now will accumulate Olympic Golf Rankings (OGR) points through a period ending on June 21, 2021, for the men, and June 28, 2012, for the women, the organizations announced Wednesday. The fields for both men and women will remain the same, consisting of 60 players. The new dates for the Tokyo Games are July 23-Aug. 8, 2021. Although exact dates for the golf competition have not been released, if this year’s scheduling structure carries over, then the men’s competition next year would be held July 29-Aug. 1, with the women’s competition held Aug. 4-7. Kasumigaseki Country Club is the scheduled venue. The OGR is based on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for men and the Women’s World Golf Rankings (WWGR). On March 20, the Governing Boards of the OWGR and WWGR determined the rankings would be suspended due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. An announcement about the resumption of each respective ranking will be made in due course. The IGF’s announcement of the revision followed the IOC’s decision to postpone the Olympic Games and its subsequent release of the revised principles for Olympic qualification on April 2, 2020, that included the relaxation of the maximum two-year period and amendments to the qualification deadlines. The IGF revised the dates within the current qualification system to reflect these new dates and submitted the revised version to the IOC Qualification taskforce for approval. “Having received from the IOC confirmation of the dates for when the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be held and the qualification principles, the fairest and most equitable way to determine the qualifying athletes was to align the previous qualification system with these new dates,� said Antony Scanlon, IGF Executive Director. “We are pleased that the IOC swiftly approved these changes to provide clarity on this important area. The IGF will continue to work closely with the IOC and Tokyo 2020 to address the other areas that the postponement of the Games affects our sport and our athletes, to develop the necessary plans to resolve these. We remain fully committed to providing safe and fair golf competitions and a memorable experience for our athletes when these Olympic Games are held in 2021.� The OGR is calculated as follows: Each tournament earns a strength-of-field rating that determines how many ranking points will be awarded to top finishers. Points are awarded to players based on their finish positions in each event, with performances in stronger-field events earning more points in accordance with a points distribution table approved by the IGF. With the revision, ranking points for each player accumulate over a multi-year rolling period with the points awarded in the most recent 13-week period weighted at 100 percent of their original value. After the initial 13-week period, points are devalued by 1.1 percent for each of the next 91 weeks (during which the ranking was not suspended) before they drop entirely off the player’s record. Each player is then ranked according to his/her average number of points, which is determined by dividing the total number of ranking points she/he has earned by the number of tournaments in which she/he has played during that period. There is a minimum divisor of 35 events for the women’s OGR while for the men’s OGR, there is a minimum divisor of 40 events and a maximum divisor of 52 events. In the event of ties at any of the 60 starting positions, the ties will be broken by the following criteria, in order: • Total Official World Golf Ranking points earned in the most recent 52-week period, ending with the Olympic Golf Ranking as of June 21, 2021, for the men and June 28, 2021, for the women. • Total Official World Golf Ranking points earned in the most recent 13-week period, ending with the Olympic Golf Ranking as of June 21, 2021, for the men, June 28, 2021, for the women. The top 15 players at the end of the qualifying period will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15. The host country will be guaranteed a spot, as will each of the five continental regions. Based on the latest rankings prior to the suspension of the OWGR, the only country to qualify more than two players was the United States, with Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Reed all ranked inside the top 15. After 112 years, golf returned as an Olympic sport four years ago at Rio de Janeiro, with Great Britain’s Justin Rose (gold), Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (silver) and USA’s Matt Kuchar (bronze) winning medals in the men’s competition, while Korea’s Inbee Park (gold), New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (silver) and China’s Shanshan Feng (bronze) won medals in the women’s competition.
