Dell Technologies Championship 2017: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas set for showdown

Hoping to see another epic duel between Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, after the world’s No. 1 came from behind to bomb his way to a playoff win over No. 2 at the Northern Trust? You won’t have to wait long.

Golf’s newest gold dust twins will go at each other again in the opening two rounds of the Dell Technologies Championship starting Friday at TPC Boston, with newly crowned PGA champ Justin Thomas rounding out the dream grouping.

In the short, 23-tourney history of DJ v. Jordan, Johnson has outscored Spieth by two strokes (48-under par to 46-under), but Spieth has come out ahead on the scorecard 12 times to nine. That’s not surprising, since both star golfers seem to conquer the same tracks.

As PGATour.com noted, each player has won the AT&T Pebble Beach (Johnson in 2009 and 2010, Spieth in 2017) and the Tournament of Champions (DJ in 2013, Spieth last year), and, but for DJ’s 3-putt on the final hole in regulation, seemed destined to meet in a playoff at the 2015 U.S. Open.

And of course there was last week’s slugfest at Glen Oaks in which Johnson overcame a final-round, five-shot deficit to force a sudden-death playoff and win in overtime after clocking a mammoth drive on the first extra frame.

“It was just a perfect drive for me,” said Johnson when it was all over. “It covers only about 300, so that’s no problem. It was really the only place I could hit it, especially with the wind when it switched to a little bit of help. There was really nowhere else I could go. But I was glad to see it be in the fairway.”

Of course, without a deft short game, DJ’s 341-yard blast would have gone for naught. But the second-longest driver of the golf ball on tour first had to make a lengthy putt on the 72nd hole of regulation to tie Spieth for the lead.

Then, after that ridiculous drive, DJ proceeded to stuff a wedge from 95 yards to some four feet and bury his putt for the walk-off birdie.

“I didn’t lose the tournament,” Spieth said after it was all over on Sunday. “He won it.”

Spieth’s ability with the short stick is renown (he ranked third in strokes gained putting last week), but despite the misperception that he lacks power, the winner of three major titles was no slouch off the tee, averaging some 303 yards in length to Johnson’s 314 yards. In fact, he rued not going for the same aggressive line Johnson took in the playoff.

“I could have trusted downwind because I can carry that,” Spieth said. “It’s about 296 to the fairway and ... I carry my driver with a solid one right around 290, 290 to 295, and then I have adrenaline, too.”

For this week’s second in the series of four FedEx Cup matches, Johnson holds a slight edge (7/1) over Spieth (15/2), per OddsShark, to prevail at TPC Boston on Labor Day. Thomas and Paul Casey are at 20/1, behind Hideki Matsuyama (12/1) and Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, and Jon Rahm (15/1).

With DJ quite apparently over the back injury that knocked him out of Augusta, this week’s favorite is playing with unbridled conviction — a bad omen for his opponents.

“I’m expecting to play very well. I feel like the game is finally back in form like it was leading into the Masters,” said Johnson. “I feel like I’m swinging everything really well. Got a lot of control over the golf ball. I’m feeling really good. Obviously getting the win here today gives me a lot of confidence going into next week and the rest of the playoffs.”

Oh, and don’t forget about Thomas. He may have been drained by the whirlwind of media and other obligations that come with winning a grand slam event but, hey, he has a 14-time major champion on his side.

“It’s just really cool,” Thomas said about celebrating his PGA victory with Tiger Woods:

“He’s taken an unbelievable role with some of us young guys and wanting to help us if he can,” said JT. “I understand he’s not doing it to a lot of people but I’ve just been fortunate enough to be there and for him to want to kind of be a part of this. It’s also fun for him, because he can reminisce on the 14 times that he did it and the 79 times he’s won an event or whatever it is.

“There’s a lot of us out here that look up to him and did and still do, and want to accomplish the things that he accomplished,” Thomas added. “So any time that he … wants to hang out or speak some words of wisdom, we’re going to listen.”

The Dream Team hits the 10th tee at 9:15 a.m. ET on Friday. We’re guessing a certain sidelined superstar whose foundation managed and benefited from the former Deutsche Bank Championship will be paying close attention to the heavyweight bout.