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Rory, DJ, Ready to Trash Talk Rickie, Matthew at Seminole

By Kathlene Bissell

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 08: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Dustin Johnson of the United States walk on the second hole during a practice round prior to The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 08, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 08: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Dustin Johnson of the United States walk on the second hole during a practice round prior to The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 08, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) /
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Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff take on Seminole Golf Club in Sunday’s TaylorMade Driving Relief.

Golf begins again on Sunday with three high profile players and one who hopes to follow in their footsteps. Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson vs. Rickie Fowler, Matthew Wolff in the TaylorMade Driving Relief skins game.  They are all looking forward to some competition, but their preparation was diverse.

“It’s going to be fun, but I’d like to think that there will be a little bit of trash talk,” McIlroy said. “Rickie, DJ and I go back a long ways. We played against each other in the Walker Cup in 2007 and then fast forward 13 years, and we’re doing something like this. We’ve got a bit of history.”

Like many of us, they have all been away from normal routines since this COVID19 thing erupted.

McIlroy warmed up by playing a round at Seminole with Tom Brady and club president Jimmy Dunne. Seminole got him once or twice, for instance, when he putted off the green on the 5th hole.

“The fact that I have Dustin Johnson as a partner, that eases my little bit of anxiety,” McIlroy said in a PGA Tour prepared interview.

Johnson got ready by walking away from his golf clubs.

“I played my first golf hole since TPC on Sunday this week, or four days ago,” he said in a press conference call. “I birdied the first hole. I got back into it real fast.”

Sigh.  Is DJ even human? Who does that?

Fowler has been playing for the last few weeks with fellow PGA Tour pros at south Florida courses.

Wolff is just pleased to be a part of the event.  You remember Wolff. He’s the one with the golf swing crazier than Jim Furyk’s who won the 3M Open.

The good news is no one will have to have a perfect game for the TaylorMade Driving Relief skins event because it is a best-ball format. If DJ messes up, he hopes that Rory doesn’t, and vice versa.  Fowler is hoping for some significant Oklahoma State mojo as both he and Wolff played college golf there.  In fact, Wolff was the 2019 NCAA individual golf champ.

They have all studied up on the new COVID rules that they will need to use to play golf, but this upcoming event will have one additional twist: no caddies. They say it won’t be a problem. (It won’t be a problem only because it’s not August, trust me. I live in Florida, and in August you don’t want to be out after noon carrying 50 pounds of golf stuff for four hours.)

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“I actually carried a bag last year,” Fowler said in the pre-event press conference. “Played a practice round about a week and a half prior to the Honda at PGA National.”

“I haven’t carried my own bag since I can’t remember when,” Johnson noted. “But that’s not an issue. I feel like I’m in good enough shape to carry my bag around for 18 holes without it being a problem.”

Wolff may be favored in the bag department, though, since he is most recently off college golf where they carry their own bags all the time.  They just don’t carry heavy tour bags.

“Seminole is a pretty easy walk,” Wolff noted in the press conference.

There will be some other differences, too. For instance,  no player will touch a flagstick.  Mark Russell, PGA Tour Vice President Rules, Competitions and Administration Rules, will step up to every green and take the flag out.

There will also be no rakes, except in the cart of Steve Cox, PGA Tour Rules Official, who will step in to smooth out the sand in the event that two players’ balls land remarkably close to each other in a bunker.  Since there are only four golfers and since they are playing only 18 holes, there is really no need to rake when they finish.

The social distancing will take some getting used to, but for this event, since they are caddie-less, they only have to socially distance from each other and the TV crew.  Luckily, since they will all have microphones, despite social distances, we will also get to hear a portion of the give and take between partners and competitors.

Those of you who like to bet will, no doubt, have a blast. The rest of us will just enjoy seeing golfers we like back on the course in any kind of competition.  It’s about time!

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