When Tiger Woods gets that cushy cart ride on Saturday evening over in ritzy Belleair, he’ll be teaming with the world’s No. 1 — Rory McIlroy.
Now consider that neither Tiger nor Rory played last week at Tiger’s shindig in the Bahamas. Meanwhile, their opponents in this latest Made For Television edition of The Match — Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, both did play.
J.T. was the hottest guy on the back nine Sunday — he made five birdies coming home and he needed them to shoot just two-under par but his 10-under total was good enough to get him solo fifth at the Hero.
Jordy hadn’t played much golf coming into the Tiger Shindig. His scorecards showed it. Round one: four bogeys, a double and a triple. Round two: three bogeys and a double. Round three: three bogeys. Round four: one triple. He offset those with 19 birdies over the four days and finished one-over. Not bad when you look at all those big numbers on his scorecards.
Which brings us to our little Tampa Bay soiree over at the Pelican Golf Club Saturday evening. It gets dark these days around 5:45 so the lights will be on and night-time well set in by the time the fellas tee it up in this 12-hole exhibition.
It seems that the PGA Tour’s official betting partner — DraftKings — like the Spieth-Thomas familiarity angle. It’s early but they are the better favorites at -125. They were previously -120.
As for Tiger and Rory? Well, no one knows what to expect out of Tiger. He says he’s been shooting five and six-under par every time he rides around The Medalist. Rory? We haven’t seen him since the DP World Tour Championship. Rory’s had a wonderful season but DraftKings isn’t convinced he can carry Tiger. They are +105 underdogs.
The format hasn’t been announced yet although most are assuming its a better-ball deal. What would be cool would be a 6-6-6 deal where they play six holes of scramble, six of alternate shot and six best-ball. Totally cool.
At this point in time, with four days before they go at it — it’s anyone’s guess how this will play out.
