PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – March Madness tipped off at TPC Sawgrass.
All manner of chaos arrived with the high winds on Saturday in the Players Championship at the Stadium Course. Gusts reaching 40 mph and steady winds between 20-25 mph were on the tee sheet as the first round ended in the Tour’s flagship event that carries a $20 million purse and the second round commenced.
Yes, the first round was completed – at 2:01 p.m. local time, 54 hours, 16 minutes after it began. The rain that started Wednesday night finally ended Saturday morning after dumping four inches of H2O on the Stadium Course. But when sunny skies finally emerged, the wind started howling.
Shortly after first-round play restarted at noon on Saturday, four world-class players – Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa – rinsed tee shots in the water at the par-3 17th. Three hours later, in the second round, Koepka, Scheffler and Morikawa found the water again on the 17th.
Rory McIlroy hit driver into a headwind on the par-4 18th, his ball coming to rest 247 yards from the tee – he was averaging 326.7 yards per drive this season coming into the tournament. And Koepka asked his caddie if he could get home in two – on the 456-yard 18th. He drove his ball into the rough and didn’t get home in two the first time around.
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Many players went hatless. Keegan Bradley was assessed a 2-stroke penalty for incorrectly marking his ball on the green of the par-5 16th hole after the wind blew the ball into a new spot. Schauffele made a snowman on the 18th. Emiliano Grillo, one of the best ball-strikers in the game, hit four balls into the water and shot a 10-over-par 46 on the back nine during his second round.
And they were far from the only players scratching their heads, talking to themselves and finding watery graves.
“One of my best rounds of my life, honestly,” Bradley said after shooting, check notes here, a 1-under-par 71. Yes, a 71. “This is as tough as golf as you’re ever going to play. This is a course you want to play under no conditions because of how tough the shots are, and to play in this wind, to play like that, that was really, really a special round.”
The day’s best round was posted by Bubba Watson, who shot a bogey-free 68. Defending champion Justin Thomas shot the only other bogey-free round and signed for a 69. The two are the leaders in the clubhouse among those who have finished 36 holes. Only 48 of the 142 players have completed 36 holes.
“It was one of those days you had to trust, and you had to be committed to, your shots, even if they go wild,” Watson said. “The key for me, though, is making putts. When I can start making some putts, which I did today, that’s really the key to any round for me.
“Yeah, obviously ball striking, I hit some wayward shots, maybe not because of me but because of the conditions, but I made the putts, and that’s really what kept the whole round going all the time.”
Thomas said he would have had a fun day playing in conditions like Saturday’s if he were with his buddies and playing at home.
“It’s not really fun when it’s TPC Sawgrass for The Players, and you are kind of around the cut line to start the day. It’s so hard,” he said. “I just tried to hit as many greens as I possibly could today because I knew it’s really hard to chip it close.
“It’s really hard to make even two-, three-, four-footers with that wind.”
The spotlight naturally was on the par-3 17th, which is technically a peninsula but is always referred to as the island green. There were only two birdies made on the 136-yard, par-3 17th on Saturday; there were 27 balls that ended up at the bottom of the lake surrounding the green.
“Geez, no,” 2019 Players champion Rory McIlroy said when asked if 17 could have played any tougher. “I hit a 7-iron today that pitched 123 or 124, and my 7-iron goes between 185 and 190. So playing 60 yards of wind.”
Ask Koepka about the 17th – and then duck. He made a double-bogey 5 the first time he played it Saturday and a triple-bogey 6 the second time. In his six starts in the championship, he is 20-over par on the hole with 10 water balls.
“There’s nothing you can do,” Koepka said about facing the 17th in high winds. His second go-around at the hole ended the same way his first did – a tee shot into the water. In his second round, after hitting an 8-iron 205 yards on the par-5 16th, he hit 8-iron on the 17th 105 yards.
“We hit a gust,” said Koepka, who had a hearty laugh at his own expense after he hit the shot.
Eight groups did not start their second round. Among those players was Pebble Beach winner Tom Hoge, who is 6 under, and Keith Mitchell, who is 5 under. Tommy Fleetwood, who shot 66 in round 1, got three holes in and is at 6 under.
Play is scheduled to resume Sunday at 8:15 a.m. Players better layer up – the forecast calls for temps to reach 55 at the most. If play does resume at 8:15 a.m., it will be 35 degrees; with the high winds, the wind chill will be in the upper 20s.
Expect more chaos.
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