Tag: 2024 Players Championship

Everything you need to know about the unsung heroes of Scottie Scheffler’s Players win: his body team

Van Biezen was busy with his day job tending to the needs of a hockey team that’s hoping to win a Stanley Cup.

On Friday morning, Troy Van Biezen, the director of sports performance and science with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, received an emergency text.

It was from Marnus Marais, the South African-born physical therapist who he handpicked to take over for “his guys,” when he stepped aside this season after 21 years of averaging more than 200 nights a year on the road to provide consistent chiropractic care to Tour pros. His “guys” have included four world No. 1s – Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler – the latter three he passed on to Marais.

The reigning world No. 1 had just finished receiving treatment from Marais on the course during the second round of the Players Championship for what Van Biezen termed a cervical strain to the neck with radiating pain in the right shoulder. Which was way better than Scheffler’s attempt to describe the injury on Sunday night.

“I wouldn’t even really know how to describe it. We can get Marnus up here, and he can explain it a lot better than me, but basically where the joint is, sometimes it kind of locks up in the fascia was the term I think that he used, like the joint muscles around it somehow get stressed,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know; I’m not a doctor.”

Marais has been working with top players for 10 years on the PGA Tour and already had an impressive stable so Scheffler was in good hands. In fact, Marais was in a peculiar position with one of his other clients, Xander Schauffele, being one of the tournament frontrunners and eventually holding the 54-hole lead. (He finished T-2.) But Van Beizen has worked with Scheffler since he’s 14 years old and Scheffler and Spieth, Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim still work with him and receive treatment when they are at home in Dallas. So the message from Marais after he gave Scheffler treatment said simply, “You got the train going. I’m just trying to keep the train on the tracks.”

“That was a gut-check round,” Van Biezen said of Scheffler’s 69 on Friday despite having trouble turning his neck to the left.

“He couldn’t finish his backswing because that’s where he felt a sharp pain,” Van Biezen said.

2024 Players Championship
Scottie Scheffler celebrates with the trophy after winning during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 17, 2024 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

“Curving the ball right to left with longer clubs is very difficult, just because I can’t get fully turned back,” Scheffler explained Saturday. “Overall I’m just using my hands a lot, trying to hit shots, I would describe it as kind of slapping it around out there is kind of what I’m doing. Just using my hands as much as I can, and just trying to slap it around, get it up there somewhere near the green and hopefully get up-and-down or make some putts.”

Scheffler also noted it was difficult to putt because it hurt to rotate his head. Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddie, said he told his wife on Friday night that he didn’t expect his boss to play on the weekend. “Adrenaline is a crazy thing,” Scott said.

Van Biezen may have been busy with his day job tending to the needs of a hockey team that is among the leading contenders for this season’s Stanley Cup, but he also knows the tendencies and movement patterns of Scheffler better than anybody so he was in regular contact with Marais.

“Scottie is a Formula 1 race car and I’m the pit crew chief,” Van Biezen once said. “I’m the guy looking under the hood to see how the engine is running.”

Van Biezen said Scheffler has experienced neck pain before but never during a tournament.

“It’s happened to me in college a few times. Hasn’t happened in a while. It’s just one of those things, it’s unfortunate timing. But outside of that, it’s nothing serious,” Scheffler said, downplaying it as “just a little pain in the neck.”

“Ever wake up with a crick in your neck? When you turn you get that pinch, right? That’s kind of what he was experiencing. It’s happened before, never during play and we’ve always been able to resolve it fairly quickly,” Van Biezen said.

Then he gave another example of a time Scheffler showed his true grit, during the third round of last year’s British Open, despite being in pain.

“A lot of people don’t know this but his back went out on him on the range during the British Open,” Van Biezen said. “He came to me and said, ‘I can’t even bend over to get my shoes off.’ It was cold and wet and that didn’t help the situation. I had 19 minutes to work on him. You can mitigate things pretty quickly.”

Van Biezen and Scheffler both credited Marais with being the unsung, behind-the-scenes hero of Scheffler’s five-stroke comeback victory thanks to a final-round 64 at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday.

“The longer this played out we knew it would get better,” Van Biezen said. “Yesterday, he was able to get to the top of the swing, set the club and square the clubface better, especially off the tee.”

“I’m a pretty competitive guy, and I didn’t want to give up in the tournament. I did what I could to hang around until my neck got better. Today it felt really good,” Scheffler said after his win. “Marnus did a great job getting me going, getting it massaged out, and I was very thankful.”

With Scheffler off this week and headed for home, he texted Van Biezen last night and said, “Hey, can I see you today?”

“Usually we train a bunch in the off weeks but I guess it might just be a recovery-treatment day,” Van Biezen said.

Let the pit crew chief get a week to check under the hood and the world No. 1 should be as good as ever, if he wasn’t already in racing to victory on Sunday.

Wyndham Clark’s brutal lip out at 2024 Players Championship cost him as much as $2.5 million

At best Clark only lost $743,333. At worst, he lost out on $2,518,333.

Wyndham Clark’s reaction to his brutal lip out on the 72nd hole of the 2024 Players Championship was the same as all of us who were watching at home: “I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in.”

Scottie Scheffler was in the clubhouse lead at 20 under when Clark, in the final group with Xander Schauffele, had a birdie putt on the par-4 18th at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to tie the world No. 1 and force a playoff. Clark’s 16-footer for birdie was tracking towards the hole the entire way but caught the edge and failed to drop, leaving him T-2 at 19 under alongside Schauffele and Brian Harman.

“It was kind of right center with like a foot to go, and I knew it was going to keep breaking, but it had speed and I thought it was going to go inside left, and even when it kind of lipped, I thought it would lip in,” Clark explained. “I’m pretty gutted it didn’t go in.”

“I hit it perfect,” he said of his putt. “It rolled end over end and had the speed to go in.”

The runners-up trio each took home $1,981,667 for their efforts, which isn’t a bad consolation prize.

But what if the putt would’ve dropped for Clark? The 2023 U.S. Open champion would’ve then been in a playoff with Scheffler, who took home a whopping $4.5 million for his win. Had Clark bested Scheffler in the three-hole aggregate playoff over Nos. 16-18 at TPC Sawgrass, that $4.5 million would be his. If he would’ve lost, Clark would’ve earned $2.725 million. At best he only lost $743,333. At worst, he’s out $2,518,333.

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Scottie Scheffler well on his way to winning hole-out bet with caddie Ted Scott

“He’s a competitor so I like to figure out ways to make him competitive. It’s just a way to keep him engaged.”

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. –  As if Scottie Scheffler hasn’t won enough money in the last two weeks, he’s more than halfway to winning his annual chip-in bet with caddie Ted Scott.

As Scheffler took aim with his 56-degree sand wedge at the par-4 fourth hole from 92 yards, NBC lead analyst Kevin Kisner predicted, “This one oughta be dancing around the hole.”

Was it ever. It spun into the hole for an eagle to kickstart Scheffler’s remarkable rally from five shots back to repeat as champion of the Players Championship. Scott smiled and flashed six fingers, noting that it marked the sixth hole out this season for Scheffler, who needs to make 10 of them this year to win their annual bet.

“I got off to a slow start this year. I didn’t hole out any until Riv,” said Scheffler, referring to Riviera Country Club, host of the Genesis Invitational last month. “But I’ve hit the ground running pretty quick after that.”

Scheffler added: “So it was actually I think it was last year this time (at the Players) where I got to 10. So now we’re at six and hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling and get some of Teddy’s money back in my pocket.”

Scott said that they re-set the bet after Scheffler won last year, but that he failed to get to 20 hole-outs. It may have been due to Scott losing count of his boss’s hole-outs.

Scott called the bet an old caddie trick – Jordan Spieth and Michael Greller have had a similar practice for years – and while the caddies are often on the losing end, they wind up profiting if their pro is holing out, so there’s really no downside.

“It’s like fishing where the fish thinks it’s getting something,” Scott explained. “He’s a competitor so I like to figure out ways to make him competitive. It’s just a way to keep him engaged.”

Scott noted that during their first year together in 2022 that he and Scheffler had an argument over the contest when Scheffler contended his hole out should count and Scott held firm that it didn’t count because it wasn’t a chip.

“It’s 150 yards,” Scheffler complained.

“I guess he trumped me on that,” Scott said, noting that hole-outs have counted ever since.

The hole-out on No. 4 at TPC Sawgrass will go down as one for the ages. Scott better start saving up to pay off their bet.

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2024 Players Championship prize money payouts for each PGA Tour player

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour.

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, especially at the flagship event. Just ask this week’s winner, Scottie Scheffler.

The 27-year-old won the 2024 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, after an 8-under 64 in the final round to claim his eighth PGA Tour victory at 20 under. For his efforts, Scheffler will take home the top prize of $4.5 million, the biggest prize on Tour.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele each missed birdie putts on the 18th green to finish T-2 at 19, one shot out of a playoff. All three will bank $1,981,667.

With $25 million up for grabs, check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2024 Players Championship.

Prize money payouts

Position Player Score Earnings
1  Scottie Scheffler -20 $4,500,000
T2  Brian Harman -19 $1,981,667
T2  Wyndham Clark -19 $1,981,667
T2  Xander Schauffele -19 $1,981,667
5  Matt Fitzpatrick -16 $1,025,000
T6  Si Woo Kim -15 $875,000
T6  Hideki Matsuyama -15 $875,000
8  Ludvig Aberg -14 $781,250
T9  Sahith Theegala -13 $706,250
T9  Maverick McNealy -13 $706,250
T11  Joel Dahmen -12 $606,250
T11  Taylor Montgomery -12 $606,250
T13  Corey Conners -11 $489,583
T13  Christiaan Bezuidenhout -11 $489,583
T13  Nate Lashley -11 $489,583
T16  Sam Ryder -10 $406,250
T16  Sepp Straka -10 $406,250
T16  Doug Ghim -10 $406,250
T19  Shane Lowry -9 $285,536
T19  Harris English -9 $285,536
T19  Dylan Wu -9 $285,536
T19  Kurt Kitayama -9 $285,536
T19  Alex Noren -9 $285,536
T19  Adam Schenk -9 $285,536
T19  Rory McIlroy -9 $285,536
T26  Mackenzie Hughes -8 $186,250
T26  Chris Kirk -8 $186,250
T26  Nick Taylor -8 $186,250
T26  Matt NeSmith -8 $186,250
T26  Matti Schmid -8 $186,250
T31  Ben Martin -7 $152,812
T31  Mark Hubbard -7 $152,812
T31  Sungjae Im -7 $152,812
T31  Taylor Moore -7 $152,812
T35  Denny McCarthy -6 $119,286
T35  Jimmy Stanger -6 $119,286
T35  Aaron Rai -6 $119,286
T35  Tommy Fleetwood -6 $119,286
T35  Lee Hodges -6 $119,286
T35  Brice Garnett -6 $119,286
T35  Jason Day -6 $119,286
T42  Grayson Murray -5 $93,750
T42  David Lipsky -5 $93,750
T42  C.T. Pan -5 $93,750
T45  Adam Scott -4 $70,062
T45  Ryan Moore -4 $70,062
T45  Jake Knapp -4 $70,062
T45  Tony Finau -4 $70,062
T45  Collin Morikawa -4 $70,062
T45  Sam Burns -4 $70,062
T45  Austin Eckroat -4 $70,062
T45  J.T. Poston -4 $70,062
53  Andrew Putnam -3 $60,250
T54  Min Woo Lee -2 $57,500
T54  Francesco Molinari -2 $57,500
T54  Zac Blair -2 $57,500
T54  Martin Laird -2 $57,500
T54  Sami Valimaki -2 $57,500
T54  Cameron Young -2 $57,500
T54  Tom Hoge -2 $57,500
T54  Emiliano Grillo -2 $57,500
T62  Thomas Detry -1 $55,000
T62  Viktor Hovland -1 $55,000
T64  Seamus Power E $53,500
T64  Max Homa E $53,500
T64  Tyler Duncan E $53,500
T64  J.J. Spaun E $53,500
T68  Rickie Fowler 2 $51,500
T68  Patrick Cantlay 2 $51,500
T68  Chan Kim 2 $51,500
T68  Peter Malnati 2 $51,500
72  Gary Woodland 3 $50,250
73  Keith Mitchell 4 $49,750

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Scottie Scheffler makes PGA Tour history with 2024 Players Championship win, title defense

“He found a way, which is what the great players do.”

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Scottie Scheffler refused to relinquish the Players Championship trophy.

It didn’t matter if he suffered from neck pain, or if he fell as many as nine strokes off the pace in the third round, Scheffler made no excuses. He persevered until his neck improved on Sunday and fired a final-round 8-under 64 at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass to edge Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele, three of the top-10 players in the world, and become the first player to repeat as champion in the 50-year history of the Players.

“It’s tough enough to win one Players,” said Scheffler, whose final-round 64 tied for the lowest for a Players champion, joining Fred Couples in 1996 and Davis Love III in 2003, and he tied Justin Leonard in 1998 with his five-shot comeback. “So to have it back-to-back is extremely special.”

The final round played out under glorious sunshine at the Pete Dye-designed masterpiece and turned into great theater on Sunday. Schauffele, the reigning Olympics champion, entered the final round with a one-stroke lead and remained in front with six holes to go thanks to a splendid short game. But he made back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15 to drop two back. He bounced back with a birdie at 16 but missed a golden opportunity from 7 feet at 17. When his second shot at 18 flew 62 feet past the hole to the back ridge of the green, he placed his hands on his knees in disappointment as if he knew he’d let the title get away. Schauffele, who closed in 70, is winless the last six times he’s been in the final pairing.

“When I went to bed last night, it’s not exactly how I envisioned walking off the 18th green,” Schauffele said.

Harman, the reigning British Open champion, rallied from an opening-round 72, and made four birdies in a five-hole stretch starting at No. 7 to join the fray. He closed to within one with a birdie at 15 but managed just pars on the closing three holes. His 17-foot birdie putt to force a playoff at 18 never had a chance and he closed in 68.

“I had my chances,” he said, “just didn’t cash in.”

Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion, made bogey at 14 and fell to 17 under, but he added a birdie at 16 and stuffed his approach to 4 feet at 17 for another one. His 17-foot birdie putt at 18 was the last-ditch effort to force overtime and it caught the left lip and cruelly spun out the right side. Clark covered his mouth with his right hand in disbelief.

“I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in,” said Clark, who shot 69. “It was kind of right center with like a foot to go, and I knew it was going to keep breaking, but it had speed and I thought it was going to go inside left, and even when it kind of lipped, I thought it would lip in. I’m pretty gutted it didn’t go in.”

Scheffler, who was warming up on the range in case of a playoff, heard a collective groan from the gallery that said it all. He won for the second straight week but this one was a pain in the neck – literally. On his second hole of his second round, he strained his neck while hitting a long iron that required two separate mid-round sessions with his personal physical therapist to continue and shot 69.

“I told my wife Friday night, I don’t see him playing this weekend,” said Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott. “His mobility was maybe 10 degrees.”

The 27-year-old Scheffler received treatment on his injury after the round, which also radiated pain to his right shoulder, and woke up the next day feeling a touch better. It hurt to finish his swing and he took one more club on most shots. As he put it, he “slapped it around,” somehow closing with four birdies in his final five holes on Saturday to stay in the trophy hunt.

“He found a way, which is what the great players do,” Scott said.

Scheffler said he felt “close to normal” on Sunday, though Scott isn’t buying it. On the range before the final round, Scheffler, who wore two strips of KP tape on the left side of his neck, asked Scott to check his alignment.

“When he opened up to hit the shot and looked at the shot, his hips opened up 20 degrees. He couldn’t turn his head (left),” Scott said. “I didn’t know how today would go. Adrenaline is a crazy thing.”

The juices were flowing when Scheffler holed out from 92 yards for eagle at the fourth hole. Scheffler clenched his fist, then slapped hands with Scott who flashed six fingers to Scheffler, noting it’s his sixth hole out of the season. Scheffler followed with an 18-foot birdie putt on 5. He caught fire around the turn making four birdies in a five-hole span beginning at No. 8.

“Maybe this could be our day,” Scott recalled thinking.

It didn’t hurt that Scheffler played bogey-free over his last 31 holes. At No. 11, Clark eyed the leaderboard for the first time all day and there was confirmation that Scheffler, who’d beaten him the week before too at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, had made his move. He chuckled and said, “Of course.”

Schauffele noticed the charge in front of him, too. “Just another week,” he said.

“He’s the best player in the world, and this is a championship golf course,” Harman said.

Indeed, Scheffler is going to be a pain in the neck to beat for some time. Scheffler splashed out of a pot bunker to a foot at 16 to set up his final birdie and reach 20 under, the lowest winning score at the Players since Greg Norman’s record 24 under aggregate in the 1994 Players.

Scheffler became the seventh man to win the Players multiple times, joining Jack Nicklaus, Hal Sutton, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Steve Elkington and Tiger Woods. It marked Scheffler’s eighth wins in 26 months, and he’s got an iron-clad hold on world No. 1. But Scheffler isn’t the type to let any of it go to his head. He recalled that just last month he hit a tee shot at the Genesis Invitational and a fan yelled out, “Congrats on being No. 1 Scottie. Eleven more years to go.”

That’s all it will take to match Woods’s reign at the top of the mountain of men’s professional golf. He did note that he already matched Woods with two wins at the Players. After the trophy ceremony, Scheffler was prepping to take photos with his family and gripped the golden trophy loosely with one hand. His sister, Callie, offered to help him, but Scottie would hear none of it. “I’ve got it, I’ve got it,” he said.

He most definitely does – and for a second straight year.

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Patrick Cantlay confirms meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for Monday

Golfweek was first to report a group of PGA Tour players were nearing a meeting with the PIF.

On Friday, Golfweek was first to report a group of PGA Tour players were nearing a meeting with the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in an effort to continue to broker a deal between the Tour and the controversial sovereign wealth fund that has been disrupting men’s professional golf.

Two sources told Eamon Lynch a meeting was tentatively scheduled for Monday at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, following the conclusion of the Players Championship at nearby TPC Sawgrass. Patrick Cantlay, a player director on the PGA Tour policy board, confirmed the meeting with Sports Illustrated on Sunday and tabbed the event as a meet-and-greet.

“Well, I’ve gotta hear out what they have to say, and I will always do my best to represent the entire membership whenever I am in a meeting in that capacity,” Cantlay told SI after his final round at the Players Championship. “I think more information is always better.”

Cantlay didn’t provide any details for the meeting. It’s unknown who else from the Tour, PIF or Strategic Sports Group may be in attendance.

“If it weren’t to happen, we would go on in a similar paradigm to how we’re going on right now,” Cantlay said when asked about if a deal could not be consummated. “I think there’s pros and cons.”

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 — were in the field at the Players this week: Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson. Only Tiger Woods did not compete. 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.

From Golfweek’s original report on the meeting:

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.

Earlier in the week during his annual State of the Tour address, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed he met with PIF governor and LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan in Saudi Arabia in January and that he was accompanied by representatives of the SSG. In January, SSG invested $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the vehicle through which the future of the sport will be shaped.

“While we have several key issues that we still need to work through, we have a shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential,” Monahan said of the “accelerated” discussions. “It’s going to take time, but I reiterate what I said at the Tour Championship in August. I see a positive outcome for the PGA Tour and the sport as a whole. Most importantly, I see a positive outcome for our great fans.”

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch contributed to this article.

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2024 Players Championship Sunday tee times, how to watch PGA Tour at TPC Sawgrass

The purse at the Players is $25 million with $4.5 million going to the winner.

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Wyndham Clark’s lead was four heading into the third round of the 2024 Players Championship. He trails by one with 18 holes to play.

Xander Schauffele shot 7-under 65 in the third round Saturday at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He didn’t have a bogey and by the afternoon took the lead from Clark, and leads by one at 17 under heading to the final day of play.

Scottie Scheffler, dealing with a neck injury, shot 4-under 68 and is at 12 under. Brian Harman shot 8 under on Saturday (15 under the last two days) and is solo third at 15 under.

The Players Stadium Course ranks 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 it ranks No. 10 among all resort courses in the U.S.

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

PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ has a massive coverage plan called All-Access, which will include more than 30 streams Sunday, in addition to a Main Feed, Featured Groups, Featured Holes (the par-3 No. 3, the drivable par-4 12th, and the par-5 16th) and Marquee Group feeds each day. Fans will also be able to see every shot at the par-3 No. 17 island green at TPC Sawgrass.

The purse at the Players is $25 million with $4.5 million going to the winner. The winner will also receive 750 FedEx Cup points. It’s the richest event on the PGA Tour.

From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2024 Players Championship. All times listed are ET.

Sunday tee times

1st tee

Tee time Players
7:35 a.m. Seamus Power
7:40 a.m.
Rickie Fowler, Grayson Murray
7:49 a.m.
Gary Woodland, Max Homa
7:58 a.m.
Keith Mitchell, Thomas Detry
8:07 a.m.
Patrick Cantlay, Min Woo Lee
8:16 a.m.
Francesco Molinari, Andrew Putnam
8:25 a.m.
Ben Martin, Tyler Duncan
8:35 a.m.
Mark Hubbard, Harris English
8:45 a.m.
Denny McCarthy, Shane Lowry
8:55 a.m.
Viktor Hovland, Jimmy Stanger
9:05 a.m.
J.J. Spaun, Adam Scott
9:20 a.m.
Martin Laird, Zac Blair
9:30 a.m.
Cameron Young, Ryan Moore
9:40 a.m.
Dylan Wu, Kurt Kitayama
9:50 a.m.
Sami Valimaki, Mackenzie Hughes
10 a.m.
Tom Hoge, David Lipsky
10:10 a.m.
Lee Hodges, Chris Kirk
10:20 a.m.
Alex Noren, Chan Kim
10:30 a.m.
Sungjae Im, Tommy Fleetwood
10:40 a.m.
Aaron Rai, Jake Knapp
10:50 a.m.
Jason Day, Nick Taylor
11:05 a.m.
Taylor Moore, Collin Morikawa
11:15 a.m.
Brice Garnett, Tony Finau
11:25 a.m.
Sam Ryder, Corey Conners
11:35 a.m.
Si Woo Kim, Emiliano Grillo
11:45 a.m.
Matti Schmid, Peter Malnati
11:55 a.m.
Matt NeSmith, Sepp Straka
12:05 p.m.
Joel Dahmen, Austin Eckroat
12:15 p.m.
Sam Burns, Adam Schenk
12:25 p.m.
Rory McIlroy, C.T. Pan
12:35 p.m.
Ludvig Aberg, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
12:50 p.m.
J.T. Poston, Doug Ghim
1 p.m.
Taylor Montgomery, Hideki Matsuyama
1:10 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler, Nate Lashley
1:20 p.m.
Matt Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala
1:30 p.m.
Brian Harman, Maverick McNealy
1:40 p.m.
Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark

How to watch, listen

ESPN+ is the exclusive home of PGA Tour Live. You can also watch the Players Championship on Golf Channel free on Fubo. All times ET.

Sunday, March 17

NBC: 1-6 p.m.

Sirius XM: 12-6 p.m

ESPN+: 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m

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Giddy after a 66, Peter Malnati goes on a rant (and shares more than he probably should)

Before he finished his rant, Malnati found time to torch LIV’s team-golf concept.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Peter Malnati has been working overtime – on his game so that he can continue living his dream on the PGA Tour, on his role as a Tour player director because he cares about the future of professional golf and feels a responsibility to voice the concerns of the players outside the top 50 and most importantly, as a husband and father of two.

It doesn’t leave much time to talk to the press, but after making eight birdies, including sticking inside 2 feet at 17, and shooting 66 on Saturday during the third round of the 2024 Players Championship, Malnati went on a rant about the state of the professional golf and shared some thoughts on what unification might look like for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

“I think something needs to happen for our sport,” he said. “I want to see a unified game where, when we have events like the Players Championship, that we have all the best players in the world and we’re proud to call ’em PGA Tour members. That’s what I want. I don’t know how we get there, but that’s what I want.”

Malnati also voiced what many players surely think but have been reluctant to say about this week’s Players.

“Whoever wins this golf tournament is going to have achieved the most incredible accomplishment, to win on this golf course, against this field, but it would be even better if we had Jon Rahm here. I’ll just say it. It would be even better. It would be an even better win,” he said. “So that’s something that we as a membership and as leaders of the membership, we need to figure that out, how do we make this happen for people to come back, and do it in a way that has some semblance of fairness, some semblance of just, how do we do it in a way that can at least somewhat pass the sniff test and get us to a place where, when we have championships like this, we have a group of the best players – like, we already have a group of the best players in the world – how do we get to a place where we have all of the best players in the world here.”

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

Malnati may have best articulated how LIV players would be permitted to return.

“That might be the thing that’s most top of mind for people. You would find opinions that ran the gamut, from guys that just have a line in the sand that say never, and guys – I mean, I think Rory’s been pretty outspoken that he wants to see the best players playing on the PGA Tour – so we’re going to have to net out somewhere in the middle.”

He reiterated what fellow Tour player director Webb Simpson previously told Golfweek – that LIV defectors will have to earn their status back. But then he offered some new insights publicly, suggesting defectors will never be eligible to be part of the equity ownership plan.

“I think there’s certain methods that we’ve been able to establish and put in place that will be really, really good for the PGA Tour and its membership, and our fans, too. This player equity plan, I don’t understand it, it’s a little bit above my head, but I certainly know enough to say that I really do support it. It’s going to make players owners of the Tour, and guys who violated our policies aren’t ever going to be eligible for that. That’s a big deal. Like, that’s a big, big deal,” Malnati said. “So I think, if we do find a pathway for guys to come back, there will certainly be safeguards in place to protect the members of the Tour who stayed here.”

Asked about a potential meeting with the leaders of PIF, which was first reported by Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch on Friday, Malnati said, “I think at this point I probably should have more details because, yeah, there may be a meeting, but I don’t even know, I don’t know where it is or how I’m getting there. I would like to know that information, and I would like to then tell the membership about it before I talk about it.”

Malnati pointed out that when the framework agreement between the Tour and PIF was announced on June 6, he resisted the idea.

“As I’ve learned more, I think I understand better and I’m very open minded to learning what involvement they want, what they want out of this and how they think they can help. I’m very open minded to that now,” he explained. “But, yeah, on the surface, I think there are players who have resistance to that relationship, for sure. So that’s why I do think it’s important that maybe our next step is to meet at some point.”

Malnati also suggested that when it comes to determining the deal, the players should only have so much of a say.

“At its core, like, players have no business running the PGA Tour, but this is a member, this is a members’ organization. Like, we should have input in the direction it goes. For something, some of these monumental changes that are bound to happen as we start up this for-profit company and take on investment, whether it’s from the private sector here or the whatever it is, like, players should have involvement and knowledge of that, and even input.

“Like, players do not need to be running this organization, but we certainly, yeah, we certainly should be a part of decisions like that. I think we’ve almost swung the pendulum too far in the other direction now after what happened on June 6th, where players and the whole organization were left in the dark, the pendulum has swung too far to where players are probably feeling like they have, you know, more input than we should. So I think, as it comes back to sort of neutral, I think we’re going to land in a really sweet spot where we have the leadership of the Tour doing what they should, which they are, and we have a lot of transparency where the players know what’s going on and are able to give their input.”

Before he finished his rant, Malnati found time to torch LIV’s team-golf concept.

“I need to understand better what Yasir is really trying to accomplish there,” he said, adding that he doesn’t see a place for team golf as part of the FedEx Cup schedule. “Are there any fans that care which team won the tournament? And, like, and I don’t know, I don’t know what fans of LIV want or care about, but are there any fans that care about who won it? I mean, that seems so contrived to me.

“I feel like we could also create some contrived team golf something, somewhere outside of the FedEx Cup season, but, like, what does he really want is a question that I want to understand better. Because I don’t think it’s some contrived, fake, add up random guys’ scores and call them a team. I don’t think that’s it. I think what he means is more stuff like the Ryder Cup, I would guess, but I have no clue because I haven’t talked to him.”

That day may come as soon as Monday.

Watch: Doug Ghim has ‘better than most’ moment on 17, celebrates with Tiger-like fist pump

Even the celebration mimic’d Tiger.

Tiger Woods sinking the long birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass gave us one of the best golf calls of all-time, courtesy of Gary Koch.

“Better than most,” is what Koch said as Woods drilled a triple-breaking, 60-foot putt for birdie on the famous island green.

Well, on Saturday during the 2024 Players Championship, Doug Ghim had his own “better than most” moment.

With the pin on the front left of the green and Ghim’s ball on the back edge, he hit a chip shot that landed on top of the slope before gaining speed and going toward the cup. And of course, it went in.

The celebration was a Tiger-esque fist pump, and it was shades of what Woods did in the third round of the 2001 Players.

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

The birdie moved Ghim to 6 under for the day and 9 under for the tournament.

Two things are clear: the Players Championship has been diminished, and the PGA Tour is reeling

Monahan talked about the fans, but he talked more about what is best for the members of the PGA Tour.

When Jay Monahan met with the media ahead of this week’s Players Championship, the flagship tournament for the PGA Tour for which Monahan is the commissioner, two things became apparent.

First, with many of the LIV golfers in the world able to play in the four major championships, the Players Championship might be the tournament that is impacted the most by the absence of the LIV Tour players like Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. The narrative that the Players is the fifth major isn’t very strong when the majors are actually letting the LIV Golf and the PGA Tour players play together, but the Players Championship isn’t allowing that.

The second thing that is crystal clear is that the PGA Tour is still in trouble two years into the battle with the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Tour. Monahan answered plenty of questions, but didn’t, in reality, give many answers.

Monahan said that the negotiations with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund over a potential investment deal are still ongoing, but his unwillingness to offer details about the negotiations or what a potential deal will look like are hardly the things that disgruntled and frustrated golf fans want to hear.

What fans want is a deal. They want the talk of negotiations and player defections and money and money and more money to go away. Monahan basically told those fans that the battle will continue and there is no deadline for a deal. And there is certainly no guarantee that PGA Tour players will ignore overtures from LIV in the coming months.

Monahan talked about the fans, but when push came to shove, he talked more about what is best for the members of the PGA Tour. The fans have been rising with a more unified voice of frustration and are showing that frustration through a drop in television ratings for PGA Tour events. Only the American Express with its amateur winner Nick Dunlap has seen a ratings increase among tour events this year. Fans still don’t seem to be a priority.

2024 Players Championship
Viktor Hovland focuses on the 10th hole during the first round of The Players Championship Thursday, March 14, 2024, at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Will fans stay or revolt?

The thinking is probably that the fans are the fans and they will continue to be fans, and that they won’t abandon the game they love over two years of money grabs and insults. That might be dangerous thinking as the Tour continues negotiations with LIV, especially given that the PIF seems to have greater leverage than the PGA Tour because of money.

That was obvious in December when the PGA Tour’s Dec. 31 deadline for a deal with PIF grew closer and closer. The Tour did make a $3 billion deal with investment group Strategic Sports Group, but LIV poached Rahm from the PGA Tour with a deal of more than half a billion dollars, showing that its money advantage perhaps overruled the PGA Tour’s arguments of history and tradition or its SSG deal.

Members of the newly established 13-member board of directors of the new PGA Tour Enterprises need to understand that every week that goes by without a deal is another opportunity for fans to become a little more fed up with the constant noise and bickering between the two rival tours.

Fans honestly don’t care about player equity in the new structure of the PGA Tour. I’m not sure fans really care whether the top 10 players in the world all play together every week, just that they are all united on a single tour and have a chance to play together more often.

If this sounds like a condemnation of what the Tour is doing, that’s only partly true. The LIV players elevated guaranteed money to their greatest goal in the game. They took the money knowing there would be no world ranking points and there would be no easy path back to either the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour.

And they now play in a certain amount of obscurity, because the television ratings for that tour are worse than the worst PGA Tour event. Even adding Rahm, one of the great players in the game at the moment, hasn’t changed the television story for LIV. As Scottie Scheffler said this week, the splintering of professional golf came from the LIV players leaving, not the PGA Tour players staying.

So fans could walk away from Monahan’s press conference Tuesday with little hope that things are going to change in the coming weeks. And the prospect of federal intervention that could delay any final deal by a year or more has to be depressing for all parties involved.

In the end, it isn’t promises of an accelerated negotiation or $3.6 million first-prize checks or player equity fans want. Fans want a deal and for the rancor to go away. Without a deal, the fans might go away.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.