Category: The Players

Marnus Marais is a PGA Tour physio to the stars and the man with the most valuable hands in golf

Marais treated Scottie Scheffler at the 2024 Players.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Marnus Marais has the most valuable hands in golf.

“There’s no doubt about it,” said Gary Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champion and a client for the last two years. “He’s unbelievable.”

Marais, a physical therapist who has worked on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, makes sure the bodies of some of the best players in the world are running like a Ferrari. He will be put to the test this week at the Players Championship as one his clients, a guy ranked No. 1 in the world, needed some special attention from his magical hands on Friday.

“I hit a shot on my second hole today and I felt a little something in my neck, and then I tried to hit my tee shot on 12, and that’s when I could barely get the club back,” explained Scottie Scheffler. “So I got some treatment, maybe it loosened up a tiny bit, but most of the day I was pretty much laboring to get the club somehow away from me.”

Marnus Marais videos client Gary Woodland on the range at Riviera Country Club. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

During the second round, Marais provided treatment behind a ShotLink partition off the 14th green and on a porte-potty floor deck heading to the 16th tee. Scheffler rushed to get more treatment after the round. He’s in good hands with Marais, a South African whose clients are some of the best in the game. Let’s call them the Magnificent Seven – Scheffler, Woodland, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott and Justin Thomas. (Three of the top seven in the world and the other four all majors winners is none too shabby.) Woodland and Scott squeezed into Marais’s stable when Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen left for LIV Golf.

Players: Tournament hub

“Knock on wood since I’ve been with him I’ve been healthy – outside of my brain,” said Woodland, who underwent brain surgery in September, with a chuckle.

Marais already was working with some of the top talent when Dr. Troy Van Biezen, who had spent more than 20 years as one of the leading chiropractors, shifted away from his road warrior existence. He accepted a position as director of sports performance and science with the NHL’s Dallas Stars. Van Biezen recommended Marais to take over as the body guy for his longtime clients, including Scheffler.

“Marnus came and talked to us about it,” Woodland said. “We were all in agreement with it that we could adjust the schedule and make it work. It’s the best guys in the world and the energy is amazing.”

This weekend, the most valuable hands in golf will more than earn his keep.

Marnus Marais is Tour physio to the Magnificent Seven. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

Exclusive: PGA Tour players nearing secret meeting with Saudi fund boss

Six sources told Golfweek that player-directors are being strongly encouraged to meet Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A group of PGA Tour players are nearing a meeting with the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as efforts continue to broker a deal between the Tour and the controversial sovereign wealth fund that has been disrupting men’s professional golf.

Six sources told Golfweek that the Tour’s player-directors are being strongly encouraged to meet Yasir Al-Rumayyan and that it could happen within days. Two sources said a meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The Players Championship concludes on Sunday at nearby TPC Sawgrass. Details of the meeting are being closely guarded and several insiders caution that it’s still unclear if the powerful Saudi investment chief will commit to attending or cancel at the last minute.

Five of the six player-directors on the Tour’s Policy Board — all of whom now also serve on the board of the new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises — are in the field at the Players: Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson. Only Tiger Woods is not competing. Joe Ogilvie, a retired veteran who was added to both boards last week as a liaison to player-directors, plans to arrive in Ponte Vedra Beach Sunday in advance of an Enterprises board meeting scheduled for Tuesday at Tour headquarters.

A meeting between Al-Rumayyan and the players would be intended as an informal ice-breaker in a bid to advance negotiations between the Tour and the PIF, talks which have been largely stalled since the June 6 announcement of a Framework Agreement between the parties. A faction of player-directors remains angered about the secretive process leading to that agreement and are known to be skeptical of a deal with the Saudis, who have poured billions of dollars into LIV Golf.

On Tuesday, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that he met recently with Al-Rumayyan in Saudi Arabia and was accompanied by representatives of Strategic Sports Group. In January, SSG invested $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the vehicle through which the future of the sport will be shaped. “Our negotiations are accelerating as we spend time together,” Monahan said.

Under the terms of the Framework Agreement, the PIF could also become a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises, but last month one player-director was noticeably lukewarm when asked if a deal with the PIF was necessary after the SSG infusion.

“I just think it’s something that is almost not even worth talking about right this second given how timely everything would be to try to get it figured out,” Spieth said. “But the idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it’s operating right now without anything else with the option of other investors.”

Those comments led to a public response from Rory McIlroy, who Spieth replaced on the Policy Board in December. McIlroy said reaching a deal with the PIF is in the Tour’s best interests and warned that Spieth’s implicit stiff-arming of the Saudis could complicate negotiations. McIlroy has also suggested that LIV golfers be allowed to return to the PGA Tour without sanction as part of a unity agreement. That’s one of the thorniest issues negotiators will face, and several prominent Tour loyalists immediately rejected McIlroy’s view, including Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

When Monahan addressed the media on Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass, he repeatedly declined to offer specifics on the state of negotiations or on any areas of contention, but reiterated his belief that a deal with the PIF is the best outcome for his organization. Asked what the game will look like if a deal with the Saudis is not concluded, Monahan said, “I guess I’ll answer that question if a deal isn’t concluded.”

“However we end up, I think that we’re not going to be able to satisfy everyone, and that goes for both sides,” he added. “But what we’re trying to do is to get to the best possible outcome again for the Tour and for the game, and I do think that that’s achievable.”

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Wyndham Clark’s laser-focus has him putting out of his mind and leading the Players Championship

Scottie Scheffler isn’t the only one who has figured out his putting.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Scottie Scheffler isn’t the only one who has figured out his putting.

Earlier this year, Wyndham Clark was so desperate for help with his short stick that en route to the airport he phoned a friend — Drew Kittleson, a former pro who lives near him in Scottsdale, Arizona – and asked if he could borrow his putter and take it to the Sentry in Hawaii at the PGA Tour’s season-opening event. By the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, the reigning U.S. Open champion was losing sleep at night over his putting woes and so he flew in early ahead of the signature event and laid out nine different putters on the practice green at Pebble Beach Golf Links and worked with putting coach Mike Kanski for the first time.

“Even if he doesn’t change anything, we need confirmation how good you are,” said Clark’s mental coach Julie Elion, who has helped him unlock his potential. “He had to break up the scar tissue.”

Consider it broken. Clark switched to gripping the club left-hand low, removed the alignment aid and shortened his Odyssey Jailbreak putter a bit and has become a wizard on the greens. He putted out of his mind in the final round at Pebble, shooting a course-record 60 to win the title and hasn’t slowed down. Coming off a runner-up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Clark may be putting even better at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass this week.

Through 36 holes, he’s leading the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (+7.727) en route to shooting a pair of 65s, the first player in tournament history to open with two consecutive rounds of 65 or better, and a 36-hole total of 14-under 130. In doing so, he grabbed a four-stroke lead over Xander Schauffele at the 2024 Players Championship.

A year ago, Clark was winless on the Tour and the two-week stretch of the Players and Valspar Championship in Tampa last March were the low point for his putting. That’s when he discovered the Jailbreak model that Rickie Fowler had been using to great effect.

“I started really seeing a lot of putts go in, and then all the work that I did off the course in my mental game I started seeing it on the course because I started making putts,” Clark said. “So that’s probably the biggest thing is a combining the mental game with making putts and now I’ve been shooting some good scores.”

In early May he broke through at the Wells Fargo Championship and then in June won the U.S. Open. Not surprising that his game headed south after winning the U.S. Open and the obligation he felt to play up to that lofty title. Elion had seen this before with other clients and she reminded him to focus on what got him to be the U.S. Open champ. This week’s tip is to play with “extreme focus” and she used the visual of an old-school photo lens zooming in on a camera.

“I don’t know if he’s old enough to know what I meant,” she said with a laugh.

Clark’s zoomed in on making birdies. He described Thursday’s opening round 65 as “point and shoot,” whereas Friday’s first nine was a bit more of hanging around with just his second bogey of the week at No. 14 and a pair of birdies, including at No. 17 where he buried an 18-foot putt, on his first nine holes. After a par at 18, he made the turn and birdied five of the first six holes. The lone par illustrated his putting brilliance as after three subpar shots he stepped up and poured in the 22-foot putt.

2024 Players Championship
Wyndham Clark pumps his fist as he sinks his putt on the ninth hole at the 2024 Players Championship PGA at TPC Sawgrass. (Photo: Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union)

“Are you kidding me?” said PGA Tour Radio’s Dennis Paulson of Clark who had taken just 20 putts in his first 14 holes and has already made nearly 206 feet of putts this week. “This guy is on some run.”

Proof that the mind is a powerful thing.

“When I’ve been out there I’ve been really focused at what I’m trying to do. So I haven’t really been focused on anything else. I haven’t been seeing any of the other noise, and I’ve just kind of been, all right, this is what we’re doing,” he said.

That includes not letting the little things get to him such as having to move hotel rooms. Was it bed bugs, he was asked?

“No, they gave my girlfriend and me a room with two twin beds,” he explained.

Enough to throw off anyone’s day if not tournament. Good thing Clark is laser-focused on the prize.

It’s 2074. What’s life like watching (and attending) a PGA Tour event? We’ve got ideas

We take a deep dive into what it might be like watching and attending the 100th anniversary of the Players Championship.

It’s March 18, 2074, and the 100th Players Championship is coming down to the wire at the par-3 17th hole of the venerable, 94-year-old Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. 

The final twosome is on the tee, tied for the lead. Spectators at the course, sitting on cushions that can either provide warmth or coolness by tapping an app on their iPhone 65s watch as the two players wave their hands over a small display screen on their bags that give the distance to the flag, wind speed and direction — allowable under the Tour rules put in by commissioner Charlie Woods a few years before to speed up the pace of play to 3-hour rounds. 

The players’ AI caddies speak softly in earpieces to let them know that the clubs they hit in the third round might not be the right clubs today because of a changing wind — don’t forget to account for a little extra adrenaline. 

Davis Love VI, whose great-grandfather won The Players twice, wants to add to the Love family legacy with a victory today. He’s battling 17-year-old Hideki Sato, whose Japanese parents named him after the legendary Hideki Matsuyama who won four Masters titles and two Players Championships and at 82 years old, is a guest commenter for NHK. Young Sato, who won his first junior tournament at the age of 3, turned professional at 14 and has already won five tournaments on the Japanese Tour and three PGA Tour titles. 

Fans have plentiful data on the two contestants. For those on-site, a holographic image of their stats hovers in the sky above the Island Green, with their record for the season to date and their past performances on No. 17. The large, clunky videoboards were junked years ago. 

There’s also information on prop bets available on whether they hit the green or go in the water, which fans can make just before they hit by tapping devices that fit in their shirt pockets. 

For the millions at home watching the modern version of TV — an image projected into their living room (or any other room they want) from tiny cameras embedded in their walls — there’s even more data available. Many fans turn big-time sporting events into watch parties that include family and friends who live thousands of miles away or on the other side of the world, who appear with them as holograms sitting on their couches. 

Both players pull wedges from their bags. After all, golf still requires the act of striking the ball with a club, as it has been since the 1600s. The United States Golf Association has stubbornly maintained a firm grip on the distance players can hit, pointing out over the years that God isn’t making any more land regardless of the technology in other areas. Severe water restrictions, given dramatic climate change and rising populations, make 8,000-yard golf courses impractical. 

Fortunately, innovations in agronomy have produced turfgrass at courses near the ocean that can grow and thrive on seawater. 

As a result, the 135-yard tee shot players had in the 2024 tournament is still 135 yards in 2074. The big difference is that both players got their club specs from their equipment manufacturers, fed the info into their home 4D printers, and made their 14 clubs in about 30 minutes. 

The buzz of the crowd quiets as Love steps into his shot. With one swing, the ball heads to the front-right Sunday pin, where it’s been for the 92 Players Championships held at the Stadium Course. 

Will it hit the green and stop near the hole? Is it a slight pull, which will result in a 50-foot downhill putt? 

Or is it in the water? 

Some things haven’t changed.  

Beau Hossler now owns a piece of (unfortunate) Players Championship history at 17th hole

The hole claimed another victim but this one goes in the record books.

Beau Hossler was not the first, and he will definitely not be the last.

During the second round of the 2024 Players Championship, Hossler etched his name in the record books at TPC Sawgrass, but not in the way he would want it.

He hit the 1,000th ball in the water at the par-3 17th hole since 2003, when ShotLink began tracking shots at the hole.

While Ryan Fox made the 14th ace on the 17th in the first round Thursday, Hossler’s shot hit the back of the green before hopping into the water long on Friday.

It’s important to note, since ShotLink didn’t begin tracking data on the hole until 2003, there have been plenty of golf balls to find the drink over the years that aren’t “on record.” That’s why Hossler’s name is attached to the record.

The good news, Hossler, who turns 29 on Saturday, was able to get up and in for bogey, keeping him just below the projected cutline with nine holes to play.

But a double-bogey 6 on the fourth hole, his 13th of the day after starting on the back nine, led to a 1 over total, putting Hossler two shots off the projected cutline of 1 under.

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Adam Hadwin tomahawks club into water left of 18th hole at Players Championship, wife approves

What a club toss!

It was a tough finish to the opening round of the 2024 Players Championship for Adam Hadwin.

The 36-year-old Canadian was even-par through 16 holes before making a double on the par-3 17th hole. His drive on the 18th almost went into the water, forcing him to stand on a bulkhead for his approach shot.

Then, as he was hitting his approach, he hit a low pull that trickled into the water.

That’s when Hadwin’s frustration got to him.

He chucked, and I mean stepped into it and threw with all his might, his iron, which came helicoptering out of his hands and toward the water left of the 18th hole.

Splash.

The video is so good, you’ll have to watch it again and again.

Players: Tournament hub

 

Hadwin made a five on the hole and signed for an opening 3-over 75.

The best part? His wife approved.

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Photos: Best shots from the 2024 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass

Check out some of the best images from the 2024 Players Championship.

The 2024 Players Championship is off and running at TPC Sawgrass’ famed Stadium Course in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida, and this year’s event marks the 50th edition of the PGA Tour’s flagship event. A $25 million purse is up for grabs and the winner will receive $4.5 million, as well as 750 FedEx Cup points.

The Stadium Course is No. 1 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in each state. It also ranks No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the U.S. and No. 10 among all resort courses in the U.S.

Scottie Scheffler was the defending champion and won again to become the first to win the tournament back-to-back.

Take a scroll through some of the best photos from the 2024 Players Championship.

2024 Players Championship photos

2024 Players Championship hub: Everything you need to know for the PGA Tour’s flagship event at TPC Sawgrass

Stay up to date with all the latest news from the 2024 Players Championship.

The 2024 Players Championship is off and running at TPC Sawgrass’ famed Stadium Course in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida, and this year’s event marks the 50th edition of the PGA Tour’s flagship event. A $25 million purse is up for grabs and the winner will receive $4.5 million, as well as 750 FedEx Cup points.

The Stadium Course is No. 1 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in each state. It also ranks No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the U.S. and No. 10 among all resort courses in the U.S.

Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion and enters the week off a win at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Being recognized, Augusta National tee times and lunch with Jack Nicklaus: Jake Knapp’s star is rising

Knapp’s time is now, and he’s not sleeping on any of the opportunities.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Ever since Jake Knapp won the Mexico Open at Vidanta last month, his life has changed. Instead of hearing fans say, “hey, player, will you come and sign this,” he said they actually know his name, and he has been recognized in the grocery store and restaurants, even last night.

“This lady asked me if I was Rickie Fowler,” Knapp recalled, though not a ringing endorsement for his new-found popularity. “I said, ‘No,’ and then it sunk in and she was like, ‘Wait, you won Mexico. My husband and I were watching. We were so excited.’ I was like, all right, that changed a lot from Rickie Fowler.”

A lot has changed for Knapp, who played his college golf at UCLA, since he claimed his maiden victory on the PGA Tour as a 29-year-old rookie and cashed a seven-figure check. Now, he’s making his debut appearance at the 2024 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.

Knapp surprised even himself the way he controlled his emotions down the stretch in Mexico, noting his face tingled on the 18th green. He took a deep breath and asked his caddie how many putts he could take and still win.

“Just go hit your first putt,” his caddie said. “You’re going to be fine.”

2024 Players Championship
Jake Knapp of the United States speaks to the media during the First Timers Press Conference prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 13, 2024 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Fellow Bruin Patrick Cantlay remembers playing with Knapp when he was a high school senior and Knapp a freshman in the California high school state championship, and said, “He didn’t hit it as far as he does now.”

Knapp took a long and winding road to the Tour, bottoming out two years when he lost his Korn Ferry Tour status. His hard work finally began paying dividends last season as he recorded 13 top-10 finishes and earned his PGA Tour card for the first time.

“If you’re good, really, really good, you’re going to make it out here eventually and have success,” Cantlay said. “From relatively unknown to winning and then top-10ing a couple times on Tour, I mean that’s what’s so great about our game.”

Players: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole | Thursday tee times

The story of Knapp working as a bouncer to make ends meet during his lean year grabbed headlines when he won but he said that narrative has been overplayed.

“Just slightly,” he said. “People love to talk about how I was a bouncer but I’m not a bouncer that decided to play golf. I’ve been playing golf since I’m 3 years old. I’ve been a pretty good junior, a pretty good amateur and a decent pro. It feels like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”

That has included a featured-group pairing with Rory McIlroy at the Cognizant Classic in which he more than held his own.

Jake Knapp’s first day of Players board includes his goal to win at least twice as a rookie. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

“It feels very normal-ish,” he said of being admitted into the higher ranks of the game, including a spot in last week’s limited-field, signature event at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But he conceded that getting an email that his invitation to the Masters has been delivered – he’s been on the road four straight weeks and won’t get to open it until next week – booking a practice round for next week at Augusta National and lining up a lunch with Jack Nicklaus to pick his brain on how to play the Masters venue qualifies as surreal.

“Stuff like that doesn’t feel very real,” he said.

Knapp played in The Jake, the Golden Bear’s charity event at the Bear’s Club, and went over and shook his hand, smiled for pictures and then said, “I’d love to ask for some tips if you have any.”

Said Knapp: “I want to let him rant and take notes. He told me there are only six tough shots. You’re saying there’s not a single other tough shot on the golf course? Sounds good. I’m only going to prepare for those six.”

Knapp’s time is now, and he’s not sleeping on any of the opportunities.

Scottie Scheffler says if fans are upset stars aren’t playing together, ‘then look at the guys that left’

“What they’re doing is not really a concern to me.”

Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion of the Players Championship this week at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Coming off his victory last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, it’s not surprising all eyes and ears were on him for his pre-tournament press conference Tuesday.

It’s what he said that’s turning heads. Scheffler has never hinted at leaving the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf, even as he has dominated the sport and became the No. 1 player in the world. He also hasn’t bashed those who left, rather maintained his loyalty to the PGA Tour and left it at that.

Plenty of the discourse, especially among fans, for professional golf recently is a watered-down Tour product and the fact the best players in the world are playing only four times a year together at the majors. And even at that, players competing for LIV Golf may not get into those events because they aren’t earning Official World Golf Ranking points.

It was a decision players who left made, leaving an established Tour that followed the guidelines of the OWGR for one that not only didn’t follow said rules but also hasn’t changed its rules enough to try to gain points in the future.

Players: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole

The results? Fans not getting to see the best players compete week in and week out. Scheffler thinks it’s easy to place the blame.

“If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left,” Scheffler said. “We had a Tour, we were all together, and the people that left are no longer here. At the end of the day, that’s where the splintering comes from.

“I think we’re trying to do our best to create the best product for the fans, but we can’t control whether or not guys want to leave. If guys want to go take the money and leave, then that’s their decision. I’m not going to sit here and tell guys not to take hundreds of millions of dollars. If that’s what they think is best for their life, then go do it. I’m not going to sit here and force guys to stay on our Tour.

“But at the end of the day, this is where I want to be, and we’re continuing to grow what we’re doing, and what they’re doing is not really a concern to me.”

Players: Best (and worst) merchandise | Best practice round photos

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spoke before Scheffler on Tuesday in his State of the Tour address, and he spoke to numerous topics, including continued negotiations with the PIF and fan discourse.

Scheffler’s answer was in response to how much fan’s voices have been listened to in the previous two years of professional golf turmoil. As Scheffler states, there are millions of fans, meaning millions of perspectives.

2024 Players Championship
Scottie Scheffler of the United States walks off the 17th green during a practice round prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2024 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

One of the changes the Tour made to get its stars playing more often together was signature events, which has worked. In the past, the Players was touted as the best field in golf. Because of numerous stars missing from the field due to their association with LIV Golf, it’s hard for that mantra to hold the same weight it has in years past.

However, Scheffler said he doesn’t dwell on those who left, and he’s encouraged by the direction of the Tour.

“It’s kind of one of the out of sight, out of mind things, and the people that want to be on this Tour are still here, and the guys that want to compete out here are still here,” Scheffler said. “So we’ve got a lot of great competition. I’m excited with the new tournament schedule getting the best players on our Tour all together as much as we can, and I think we’re in a great spot.”

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