The PGA Tour isn’t scheduled to return until June 11 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Golf Course in Fort Worth, Texas, but there is golf to wager on this week with Sunday’s TaylorMade Driving Relief event from Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida. It’s a televised fundraiser to benefit COVID-19 relief initiatives that will feature Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson taking on Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in a team best-ball skins game.
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UnitedHealth Group pledged $3 million in charity skins. Farmers Insurance pledged an additional $1 million for a birdies and eagles pool. The event begins at 2 p.m. ET.
McIlroy and Johnson will play for the American Nurses Foundation while Fowler and Wolff will play for the CDC Foundation. McIlroy is the No. 1-ranked player in the world, while Johnson previously was. They are -225 favorites with Fowler/Wolff at +170. Fowler has won five PGA Tour events in his career, although he might be best known now as the best player to never win a major.
Wolff is the least known of the four but was the NCAA individual champion last year at Oklahoma State. The 21-year-old won the 3M Open on the PGA Tour in 2019 as well in just his third professional start. He drained a 26-foot putt from the fringe for an eagle on the final hole – Wolff’s going to be a star. He set an NCAA single-season scoring record of 68.7 last year and joined Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw as one of only three players to win the NCAA individual title and a PGA Tour title in the same year. Like Wolff, Fowler is an Oklahoma State alum.
Seminole Golf Club is annually ranked as one of the best in the United States. It’s a par 72 at a bit more than 6,830 yards. A live golf event has never been broadcast from the course. There will be no fans in attendance.
It will be the first time since Round 1 of the Players Championship in March that televised golf is played and will be broadcast live on NBC, GOLF Channel, NBCSN and Sky Sports.