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It wasn’t as easy as 1-2-3 for the top three players in the world to conquer the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — On a Thursday first round where The Players Championship leaderboard had a heavy dose of no-names, golf’s Big Three came up small until Scottie Scheffler erupted with five birdies in his final nine holes.
It wasn’t as easy as 1-2-3 for the top three players in the world – Jon Rahm, Scheffler and Rory McIlroy – to conquer the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Rahm was victimized by a few suspect wedge shots and a cold putter, including a curl-out on a birdie attempt at his final hole (No. 9) that triggered one F-bomb of frustration. McIlroy was plagued by multiple deficiencies, which resulted in him taking a combined 17 shots out of thick rough (combination of Bermuda and a rye overseed), sand traps or pine straw.
“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time,” said McIlroy. “I think you’d have to go back to when the tournament was played in May, when we were in Bermuda rough, for it to be as penal as that. So yeah, you don’t hit it on the fairway here, you’re going to struggle.”
For three players who have played ping-pong with the No. 1 world ranking since last March, little of the magnificence of them producing a combined 13 PGA Tour wins in 13 months and six career major championships was on display.
None of them got into red figures until Rahm birdied No. 16, his seventh hole of the day. The only member of the trio who seized any momentum was Scheffler, whose three birdies on the last four holes from 9, 16 and 2 feet led to a solid four-under-par 68 and a sixth-place tie after Thursday’s suspended first round.
Otherwise, the gallery that showed up before 8 a.m. to start following the hottest players in the world wasn’t given the kind of highlights that elicit any kind of roar. The loudest noise Rahm, Scheffler and McIlroy heard all day was on the No. 8 tee, where cheers erupted in the group ahead as Rickie Fowler drained a 37-foot birdie putt.
Fans take photos with their phones as Rory McIlroy walks between the green on hole 12 and the tee on hole 13 during first-round action of The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Thursday, March 9, 2023. [Bob Self/Florida Times-Union]It’s not like good scores, especially from half the field with morning tee times, weren’t being posted. First-round leader Chad Ramey, who has a world ranking of No. 225, shot 64, one shot off the course record. Taylor Pendrith, ranked No. 114 and still searching for his first Tour win, fired a 67.
Unfortunately, the anticipation of the world’s best players staging a birdie-fest in good scoring conditions never materialized.
Rory start was bad sign
Fans of the Big Three kept waiting for something good to erupt, but it was a collective meh performance until Scheffler finally found a higher gear at the end.
“Obviously it’s out there; somebody did it,” Scheffler said of low scores. “So I would not say that I’m extremely surprised. I think this is one of those places when you’re hitting the ball really well and getting the ball in position, there’s a lot of birdies to be had. But as you start to miss fairways and get out of position, it can go the opposite way very quickly.”
No household name got more sideways in the opening round than McIlroy. His feast-or-famine reputation at The Players – four top-8 finishes and five missed cuts among 12 appearances – immediately flared up in a bad way.
He played the par-four 10th hole (his first) like a 15-handicapper. His tee shot sailed right of the fairway into a brutal part of the rough, a harbinger of what was in store for the 2019 Players champion.
McIlroy then pulled his approach shot left of the green behind a mound. His chip shot landed on the green, then rolled off into the trap, followed by a blast that barely made it to the fringe. He two-putted for a double bogey.
You sort of knew the potential for a horribly bad day, where McIlroy hit only six of 14 fairways, went 0-for-3 on sand saves and needed 31 putts, was coming when he three-putted for par at the easiest hole, the par-five 16th.
“You’ve got the four par-5s which are very gettable, and you’ve got a few other holes, 4 and 12 specifically,” McIlroy said. “So you’ve got six really gettable ones, that if you’re on your game, you should make birdies on those. So there’s still plenty of opportunities out there.”
But with McIlroy playing those inviting birdie holes in just 1-under-par – compared to a combined 6-under for leaders Ramey and Collin Morikawa – it’s not a shocker that he signed for his third-worst career score on the Stadium Course in 39 rounds.
“The three-putt on 16 was probably the one that sort of stopped any momentum,” McIlroy said. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalize on that, and making bogey on 1 and bogey on 3 sort of was tough to get it back from there.”
Putter, wedges abandon Rahm
The expletive that Rahm uttered after his sixth birdie putt from inside 15 feet failed to drop on the final hole was somewhat understandable.
Signing for a one-under-par 71, about the worst score he could have shot given his ball-striking, left him in a tie for 32nd place heading into Friday. He probably should have been in the top-5 with Scheffler, if only the flat stick wasn’t so off-target on makeable putts.
Fifteen minutes after his round, Rahm was still rankled by the last missed birdie putt.
“Well, it felt like a slap in the face on a day that I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges, to one that looked like it was going in and, you know, it’s just, it’s just what it is,” Rahm said. “It’s golf. The only thing I could say is that I hit a lot of quality putts out there.
“The only thing I will be thinking on today is a couple wedge shots, about three or four of them out there, that not only didn’t I hit them close, some of them I missed the green completely. I did get up and down, but those were situations where I should have given myself four really good birdie looks and I didn’t. So that’s where I think the difference on the round was today compared to other scores out there.”
By the time Thursday’s suspended round finished, eight of the top 11 players on the leaderboard had world rankings of 50 or higher, including five who were making their debut at The Players.
Nothing against the lower-profile guys, but the Tour’s signature event could use more star power near the top. Thankfully, Scheffler and Morikawa are lurking.
For the first time in at least the last 20 years of The Players, competitors ranked No. 1, 2 and 3 in golf were paired together to start the tournament, but it was more fizzle than sizzle.
Maybe when Rahm, Scheffler and McIlroy tee it up again Friday — and possibly again Saturday with rain in the forecast – the threesome can validate why they belong on top of the world.
Get an early look at what players like Jon Rahm, Max Homa and Jordan Spieth will be wearing at TPC Sawgrass.
The Players Championship is one of the most anticipated events of the season, and many of your favorite golfers will be wearing the latest and greatest options from their sponsors.
Some player’s clothing is easy enough to remember – we get it, Tiger, you like red on Sundays – but if you’ve ever wondered about the best way to dress like the pros, we’ve got a few new examples in mind.
Check out the list below to get an early glimpse at what Tour favorites like Jon Rahm, Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and more are scheduled to wear at the 2023 Players Championship.
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The PGA Tour will want to recycle LIV’s refugees. Privately, some executives admit as much with a weary resignation.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — When it comes to delivering his message, Jay Monahan is more mechanic than missionary, at ease in a boardroom but less so in the pulpit. He is defensive by disposition, on record as saying that he wakes each day thinking that someone is trying to steal his lunch. Meeting the press at the Players Championship, the PGA Tour commissioner’s words suggested he knows the tide has turned in his favor in the war with LIV Golf. His body language, however, hinted at a man who might consider a padlock in a sock among his negotiating tools, a slouchy wariness spiked with a faint whiff of almost amiable menace.
Like most executives, Monahan is disinclined to tackle speculative questions. What has happened, or what will happen, is fair game. What might happen is for backroom conversations, particularly in the charged environment in which Monahan now exists. At TPC Sawgrass, he swatted away those abstract inquiries with a practiced hand.
“Getting into hypothetical situations given where we currently are is not a worthwhile effort,” he replied when asked about the possibility of merging with LIV, against which the Tour is locked in bitter litigation. “I think any other hypotheticals are just not worth talking about.”
“I know this is hypothetical,” another questioner began gamely, asking about the status of the DP World Tour’s arbitration case as it seeks to bar LIV-allied players from its events.
“I can’t speak to, you know, what’s happening with the resolution panel,” Monahan said. “I’m going to leave that for you guys to understand, and I’m not going to comment on it.”
The third such query he fielded was on how the PGA Tour might handle requests to return by players who have defected to LIV.
“The players that are playing on that Tour are contractually obligated to play on that Tour, so any hypotheticals at this point really aren’t relevant, and I think you know me well enough to know I’m not a big fan of hypotheticals,” he responded. “But our position, to answer your question directly, has not changed.”
Experience has taught Monahan that the problem with hypotheticals is that they often become theticals. So while the Tour’s position hasn’t changed, it will.
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Only LIV’s most punch-drunk parasites continue to delude themselves that the Saudi-financed league has a pathway to success. The combination of a lousy product, no audience traction and perilous legal exposure for its secretive owners doesn’t portend a long life. However the end eventually comes — whether slow and agonizing (like the ’96 Masters) or in a sudden, crushing blow (say, the ’87 Masters)— it poses the same problem for Monahan: how to rehabilitate LIV players back into the PGA Tour’s ecosystem.
There’s no sentiment favoring that in the locker room, where attitudes have hardened amid costly litigation and public sniping. Nor it is considered a pressing issue, since no LIV player has publicly asked to return. But what happens when one or more do so? Or when Greg Norman’s maladroit mismanagement renders all of them professionally homeless?
LIV’s ranks include many of stout résumé, albeit weak character. There are others to whom fans might still relate, if only they could see them in action. And more they’d simply like to root against, since LIV selfishly signed all the jerks, or at least the ones with a profile as such. Eventually, whether under pressure from fans or top players — or simply to avert the possibility of another rival league taking shape with less amoral baggage — the PGA Tour will want to recycle LIV’s refugees. Privately, some executives admit as much with a weary resignation.
That will eventually become Monahan’s problem to solve, but it is not his solution to initiate.
There is no chance the commissioner will announce to players who remained loyal that a guy who cashed out for tens of millions of dollars last year is coming back. Any move to allow LIV players back has to originate in the locker room. Monahan’s team will have to create the mechanisms to facilitate it and devise whatever sanctions are required beforehand, but the desire to see it happen starts, or ends, with members.
Any rehab process promises to be messy, both in punishments to be served and processes to return. Are there periods of suspensions? Should playing privileges be re-earned on other tours? There are those who want to see clawbacks of the cash bestowed by the Saudis, a notion that is entirely fanciful.
Complicating matters is the reality that some LIV players, like Phil Mickelson, would be as welcome in a Tour locker room as foot fungus. Bryson DeChambeau too, still a litigant in the LIV antitrust suit. Or Patrick Reed, for reasons so numerous that only a serially censured attorney could ignore them. Yet any process to return can’t draw lines in the sand that exclude some while embracing others. Anyone resistant to seeing some of their former peers would just have to hope that shame would prevent them from showing face again, an optimistic outlook given their priors.
At TPC Sawgrass there are renewed whispers about multiple LIV players having buyer’s remorse, especially in light of the lucrative new structure taking shape at their former workplace. As noted by the judge in California’s Northern District, LIV contracts are iron-clad and escaping wouldn’t be easy for players. But breaches go both ways if LIV falls short of what players were promised, whether in expenditures, team prize money payments or schedule commitments. The potential for players seeking a path back is not as remote as it might once have seemed.
The Players Championship is without its defending champion this week, Cam Smith being among those who departed. Whether he will be here for some future tournament is another matter. There will come a day when that question — about Smith, and all of his fellow travelers at LIV — has to be addressed. Those elected to represent PGA Tour players had best start addressing themselves to possible answers.
Pete Dye’s house of horrors can expose any weakness in a player’s game; it doesn’t discriminate.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Xander Schauffele finished tied for second in his debut at the Players Championship in 2018, but since that sterling performance he’s missed the cut three straight times. Just don’t remind him of this pesky little fact.
“You’re actually the second guy, someone outside reminded me how terrible my record is now since my tied second finish,” Schauffele said ahead of the Players Championship. “So I wasn’t aware that I was so bad here. You guys are crushing it. Reality check’s always nice. Usually, my wife gives me one. So we’ll just let it be in the media room today.”
Jokes aside, Schauffele has tried his hardest to bury the memory of last year’s Players Championship in the back recesses of his mind.
“Last year I would wash up as an X. Felt like we were at an Open Championship and I got the bad side of the wave,” he said.
When the wind blew its hardest from left to right at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele dunked his tee shot short of the island green and his round spiraled out of control. Later, his caddie, Austin Kaiser, showed him a stat posted on social media that encapsulated how quickly everything had gone wrong.
“He showed me like I was the first ever to go from like the top 10 to outside the top 100 or something like that in like one hole,” said Schauffele, who shot 73-78 and had the weekend off. “Like I said, my team’s all about giving me reality checks and I got one.”
Schauffele, ranked No. 6 in the world, isn’t the only big-name player who has been sent home packing in recent years. Pete Dye’s house of horrors can expose any weakness in a player’s game; it doesn’t discriminate, even from the likes of major winners Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.
Collin Morikawa hits his tee shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the 2021 Players Championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course. Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
“To be honest, my game has only felt good coming into this tournament in 2020,” said Morikawa, citing the year the tournament was canceled after one round due to COVID-19. “Sometimes you come to events and you feel really comfortable; you’re comfortable with the setting or you’re comfortable with the golf course. I feel comfortable here, and what’s great about this golf course is that it does fit (my game). I hit a lot of mid-irons to short irons into greens and you have to drive it well, but it is what it is. So I’m not too worried about my previous history here.”
Spieth nearly won the Players as a rookie in 2014 playing in the final pairing and going his first 58 holes without a bogey before finishing in a tie for fourth after a final-round 74. But since then he’s been stuck on the struggle bus.
“I don’t have a great track record here at this event. It doesn’t take much research to figure that out. But I feel like when striking it well, having some momentum and feeling like a little bit of freedom as far as being able to play aggressively here, that’s going to kind of be my strategy this week to try and take advantage. I mean, be patient, but when you get a couple opportunities, make sure you go ahead and fire away,” Spieth said.
When a reporter began a question by reminding Spieth that he’s missed five cuts in his last seven appearances, he cut him off and said, “I said it didn’t take much research. I didn’t need you to actually research it.”
Then Spieth tried to explain why TPC Sawgrass has been a Rubik’s Cube he cannot solve. “I don’t play it with enough patience, and that kind of goes against what I just talked about being aggressive,” he said. “But there’s such a balance there to being confident and swinging aggressively to the right targets versus visually I’ve had a hard time on this golf course because I like to see a lot of feel shots, and out here there’s not a lot of stuff to work it off of. It seems like if a ball is moving away from a hole, it’s just going to move further away from a hole … that’s the only thing I can think of right now.”
Scheffler was another victim of the bad side of the draw last year and barely survived the cut, finishing T-55 after missing the cut in his debut in 2021.
“There’s not one guy that has an advantage around this place,” said Scheffler. “I was talking to a few guys earlier, and somebody said it was a thinking man’s golf course, and I said it’s actually kind of the opposite because you just have to hit really good shots if you want to play well. You can’t scrape it around this place. You just have to hit fairways and hit greens and go from there.
“If you’re not playing really good golf, you’re not going to score, and if you are playing well, you’re going to shoot low scores, and so as a player I think we really appreciate that … you see whatever guy is playing the best that week.”
And that’s why it is one of the most coveted titles in men’s professional golf. Should he win this week, Morikawa was asked which he would consider more of a badge of honor – the course that he had the best score on or the players he beat?
“The title, that’s all that matters to me,” Morikawa said. “Just knowing you won the Players Championship. I think that you never lose that spot in history, right? Whether you beat 20 guys or whether you beat 144, I think you still have and own that title for that year. There’s no excuses after the fact. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. It’s you got it done in whatever year and that’s yours.”
How do PGA National, Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass and Innisbrook stack up for the 2023 Florida Swing?
The PGA Tour moves into its Florida Swing with a month of resort golf courses that come complete with a Bear Trap, a Snake Pit, the home track of Arnold Palmer, the world’s most famous island green and plenty of water. Let’s get things started with a look at the courses on tap through March 19.
Golfweek’s Best employs more than 800 raters around the world to evaluate courses. They rate each course they play according to 10 prescribed criteria, then offer a final rating on a scale of 1 to 10. Those individual ratings are averaged to produce a final course rating, which then can be compared to other layouts. Keep scrolling to see how the courses of the Florida Swing rate.
