There was actual, real, live golf played Sunday. It was a nice change of pace after two sports-less months, but it was something else, too.
It was a little weird as Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson took on Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in the TaylorMade Driving Relief match-play skins event at Seminole Golf Club.
The golfers wore shorts. Each toted his own golf bag. There were, of course, no fans, no golf claps, no roars of “Get in the hole!” There was big prize money, but the winnings went to charity. Still, as one of the first live sports events, along with NASCAR, since sports was disrupted by the novel coronavirus pandemic, it supplied some unscripted drama.
McIlroy, the world’s No. 1 player, and Johnson took 11 of 18 skins from Fowler and Wolff, winning $1.85 million for the American Nurses Foundation, but the victory came on a closest-to-the-hole tiebreaker on an extra hole, when McIlroy made a surprising walk-off wedge shot that brought a sweet $1.1 million. The event raised $5.5 million through sponsors and donations.
“These Seminole greens, the ball can do funny things when you think it’s in a good place,” McIlroy said, adding that it was “nice to get back on the golf course.”
There has been a pro-golfing void, with the Masters pushed to November, the PGA Championship pushed to August, the British Open canceled outright and the U.S. Open moving to September because of the pandemic. With the PGA Tour set to resume, without fans in attendance, June 11-14 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. That’s the first of four events set to take place without fans and there’s no timetable for when spectators will return.
Sunday’s event offered a chance to compete a little, if in an unusual format. In a skins game, golfers compete for an amount of money on every hole, with each hole carrying a greater and greater amount. If one player wins the hole outright, he or she wins the skin. McIlroy and Johnson started hot, winning three of the first six holes, but Fowler’s birdie spree (seven on his first 16 holes) gave him and Wolff the lead down the stretch. Fowler and Wolff finished with seven skins and $1.15 million for the CDC Foundation; McIlroy and Johnson won 11 skins.
The golfers were competitive but loose, smiling a lot more often than in an important tournament. There was some - gasp - fun.
Johnson nearly forgot to grab his bag, a task usually handled by his caddie brother Austin, on the 18th tee.
There was even a little delicious trash talk, particularly when Wolff, who is 21, sank a putt for par four hole on the second hole.
“I think you forget I’ve won two FedEx Cups, total of $25 million,” McIlroy cracked.
There was a blooper moment that might have merited a bleep in a real tournament.
All in all, it was a nice prelude to this week’s big event: the Sunday match pitting Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. That’s a spin on the Woods-Mickelson $9 million, winner-take-all-event called “The Match” over Thanksgiving weekend in 2018.
