Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass – Syndication Server

Lynch: Three years after his death, Pete Dye is still twisting the thumbscrews at TPC Sawgrass

The first Players held here was in 1982 when J.C. Snead famously sniped that Dye had ruined a perfectly good swamp.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The aphorism about not speaking ill of the dead is believed to have originated with Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. It’s a noble sentiment, admittedly, but then Chilon never had to play a Pete Dye golf course. It’s been three years since the celebrated architect died at age 94, but his name has surely been muttered in vain by quite a few competitors this week at TPC Sawgrass, where the Stadium Course ranks among the most taxing of his designs in a career that spanned half a century.

As many a USGA official can testify, elite professional golfers are often unable to distinguish between being tested and being humiliated. The higher the number on the scorecard, the greater the odds a player will hold a dim view of both golf course and architect. T’was always thus with the Stadium Course. The first Players Championship held here was in 1982 when J.C. Snead famously sniped that Dye had ruined a perfectly good swamp. (His verdict probably didn’t soften in eight subsequent appearances, during which he broke 70 only once and even carded an 85).

Dye earned the moniker of the ‘Marquis De Sod’ for what Tour players saw as his gleeful embrace of sadism.

Four decades after it opened, the Stadium Course is golf’s equivalent of a medieval rack, across which the world’s best players are stretched until their breaking point is identified. By Sunday evening, 143 competitors will have snapped as cleanly as the club Shane Lowry angrily pulverized in Thursday’s first round. Perhaps even all 144, since some years not even the winner emerges unscathed. Aaron Wise must have wanted to snap all 14 of his after rinsing three balls at the 18th hole on his way to a 10.

Friday brought more misery. Lucas Herbert followed his opening 82 with 85. Through 36 holes, his scorecard showed 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, leaving the Australian only an ace and a Wise shy of batting for the most improbable cycle in elite golf. And Herbert didn’t even have the worst day.

More: Pete Dye’s top 10 courses according to Golfweek’s Best rankings

Justin Lower eyes his shot from the rough on hole 5 during the first round of The Players golf tournament on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union)

Max McGreevy signed for 89 after a day in which he had more 7s than 3s. To borrow a quip from the late Peter Alliss, his card resembled the dialing code for Tierra del Fuego. It will be cold comfort to McGreevy that Herbert still clipped him by nine strokes for high finisher.

A course that shows no mercy also showed no favoritism, as players who arrived in form were sent packing early. While world No. 1 Jon Rahm was felled by a stomach bug, others had to sign for their woes. Like Chris Kirk, fresh off victory two weeks ago at the Honda Classic. And Kurt Kitayama, winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational five days ago. He will have the weekend off to celebrate his victory. The two men who finished tied second behind Kitayama — Rory McIlroy and Harris English — were also rendered roadkill.

The Stadium Course is one of only two PGA Tour venues (Pebble Beach being the other) where the course is not merely the stage upon which great actors work, but itself a character in the drama. Fans remember the triumphs and disasters, particularly on the closing holes, a challenge more terrifying than being caught short in a long line for the portalet on Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open. Like Hal Sutton’s right club on that day in 2000, or Tiger’s better than most putt. Looming as large are the misfortunes. Len Mattiace was one shot off the lead when he got to the 17th hole 25 years ago and made 8, a painful moment for a popular figure in the locker room. Ten years ago, Sergio Garcia came to the 17th tee tied for the lead with Woods and made a quadruple bogey, prompting peers in the locker room to wonder if Schadenfreude is capitalized.

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The Stadium Course at Sawgrass provides something seldom seen now in elite golf, at least outside of a U.S. Open: the turning of the thumbscrews. Most weeks on the PGA Tour we see a battery of birdies propel someone to victory. We likely will this week too — it’s inevitable in a stacked field that at least one guy will get hot. But for those of us who enjoy seeing the world’s top golfers get mugged — to experience the kind of frustration the rest of us endure with every outing — this is as good as it gets.

The greatest day in golf during 2022 was Saturday at Sawgrass, when high winds battered the course and the psyches of the best. The flip side is that brutality can be a buzz kill, claiming the very stars upon whom an event relies for eyeballs. That’s not ideal for a Tour touting its designated events, which to be fair have produced stellar leaderboards in recent weeks. Just not this week.

Through two rounds, TPC Sawgrass remains the most entertaining venue on Tour — fair enough to generously reward those in full flight, capricious enough to harshly punish those who aren’t. So while some of those slamming trunks in the Sawgrass parking lot might be taking Pete Dye’s name in vain, the rest of us have reason enough to whisper it as a blessing.

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What some of your favorite players will be wearing at The Players Championship

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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Why Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and other big names hate being reminded of their records at TPC Sawgrass

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.”

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Check the yardage book: TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course for the 2023 Players Championship on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for the 2023 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, including the island-green 17th.

The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, the site of the 2023 Players Championship on the PGA Tour, was designed by legendary architect Pete Dye with plenty of input from his wife, Alice. The layout in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, opened in 1980 and has been home to the tournament since 1982.

The Players Stadium Course ranks No. 1 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in each state. It also ties for No. 15 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the U.S., and it ranks No. 11 among all resort courses in the U.S.

The course will play to 7,275 yards and a par of 72 for the Players Championship. The layout this year includes a new back tee on the par-5 ninth that could stretch the hole past 600 yards.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.

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Players Championship: Tiger Woods chooses to sit out PGA Tour’s flagship event in 2023

The Players Championship will be contested next week without its biggest draw.

Tiger Woods announced on Friday that he won’t be playing in the PGA Tour’s flagship event next week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Woods, 47, is a two-time Players champion – 2001 and 2013 – and also won one of his record three straight U.S. Amateur titles at TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. He’s made 18 appearances at the Players during his career, most recently in 2019, just weeks before he captured his 15^th major at the Masters.

Woods remains eligible for the Players through next year’s tournament via a five-year exemption for winning the Masters. He had until 5 p.m. Friday to commit to the tournament.

Woods finished T-45 at the Genesis Invitational in February, his first official start since the 150^th British Open at St. Andrews in July. Since being involved in a single-car accident in February 2021 that required multiple surgeries to his right leg and ankle, he has been consistent in saying that his focus is on playing the majors, saying, “that’s all my body will allow me to do.”

“My intent last year was to play in all four majors … I got three of the four,” he said. “Hopefully this year I can get all four and maybe sprinkle in a few here and there. But that’s it for the rest of my career. I know that and I understand that. That’s just my reality.”

The decision to skip the Players suggests Woods prefers rest over reps, and likely won’t make another start before the Masters, which begins on April 6.

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Cameron Smith’s jump to LIV Golf will leave a major void at the upcoming Players Championship

The Aussie will always be a Players champion. No one can take that away, and the Tour is not.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Contrary to chatter in 19th holes and bars along A1A, all vestiges of Cameron Smith’s victory in the 2022 Players Championship have not been washed clean at the TPC Sawgrass or the Players Stadium Course.

It’s true that the Jacksonville-area resident and Australian native lost his playing and practicing privileges at the home of the Players when he defected to the LIV Golf League last year after becoming the first man since Jack Nicklaus in 1978 to win the Players and the British Open in the same year.

But the Tour has acknowledged, with traditional gestures, Smith’s one-shot victory over Anirban Lahiri in the first Monday finish since 2005.

The flag of the previous champion’s home country flies between The Perch and the clubhouse, and Australia’s has been fluttering in the breeze every day since Smith’s 66 in the final round.

Unless another Aussie such as 2004 Players champion Adam Scott or 2016 winner Jason Day comes up big again this week at the Stadium Course, the flag will change to the new champion’s country sometime during the evening of March 12, the day of the final round.

There are also two ways past Players champions are honored within the clubhouse: a recap of their victory, with a caricature of the player, is made into a framed poster and hung in one hallway; and a display of clubs that each winner used during their triumphal week in another hallway.

Smith’s smiling visage, his long hair spilling from under his flat-brimmed hat, is in one hallway, and a pitching wedge he used last year is in the other.

He will always be a Players champion. No one can take that away, and the Tour is not.

But he’s still an absentee champion, only the fourth time in the 49-year history of the Players that a winner has not defended his title and the first since Tiger Woods missed the 2014 tournament with a back injury.

The other champions who didn’t defend were Jerry Pate in 1983 (shoulder injury) and Steve Elkington in 1998 (sinus infection), which means Smith is the first Players champion to miss the tournament the following year for non-injury reasons.

“He’s one of our champions and history speaks for itself,” said Players executive director Jared Rice. “The play of all of our past champions speaks for itself. But 2023 is about the players who will be here. We have our eyes forward on the product, which is the best field in golf again.”

Cameron Smith plays his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Final round highs and lows

Smith’s victory in 2002 was remarkable for its highs and lows. He birdied his first four holes and five of his first six, weathered three bogeys in a row in the middle of his round, birdied another four in a row and five of eight, and escaped with a bogey at the last when he hit his second shot from the right trees into the water on the left of the 18th fairway.

Smith dropped, pitched onto the green and made a putt for bogey, then had to wait for Lahiri to finish before he knew he had won the Gold Man Trophy. Smith finished at 13-under 275.

And it was a week in which Smith worked magic with his wedges and putter. He was dead last in driving accuracy, hitting only 24 fairways, and tied for 52nd in greens in regulation.

But Smith was first in strokes gained putting and fourth in the total feet of putts made, more than making up for any issues with finding short grass.

The Players galleries took Smith to their embrace as the day wore on. The fact that he’s a world-class golfer, loves to fish (he participated in the Kingfish Tournament last July) and has a personality that exudes a beach vibe has made him one of the most popular players among First Coast golf fans.

“I’ve never been one to expect much of myself,” he said after the 2022 Players. “My expectations are that I wake up, go to the gym, practice as hard as I can for a couple of hours and then go have a good time.”

More evidence that Smith is an all-world good dude was in the aftermath of his victory at the Stadium Course. His caddie passed the word among other caddies: the party was at Smith’s home along the Intracoastal Waterway.

It was pure Cam: pizza and beer with his friends, a fitting end to a marvelous week.

A poster with the scorecard and artwork depicting Cameron Smith’s 2022 Players championship hangs in the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse along with those from other past champions. (Photo by Garry Smits/Florida Times-Union)

Smith’s game in good form

The Times-Union has made numerous attempts to contact Smith for recollections of his Players victory.

Multiple emails and social media messages were left with the LIV Golf League communications department. Nearly two weeks later, a one-line email from LIV Golf directed inquiries to Smith’s agent, Bud Martin, “since the interview is related to the Players Championship.”

In response to an email requesting an interview, Martin sent a three-word reply: “Pass for now.”

Two PGA Tour players who have remained friends with Smith were also sought out and asked if they could intercede, to no avail. One of them said the chance of an interview with Smith was “one in 100.”

A reporter for Golfweek attempted to interview Smith after a practice round at Mayakoba, Mexico, last week but didn’t get a response.

While Smith’s victory is still honored in three places at the TPC Sawgrass, LIV Golf seems to make a point of avoiding the mention of any PGA Tour titles in its players’ online biographies, citing only major championships, college and amateur accomplishments and other international victories.

Smith’s bio, for example, has 13 bullet-point career highlights, none of which mentions the 2022 Players.

Smith may not be playing golf at the TPC Sawgrass but he’s been spotted numerous times around the First Coast since he went to LIV Golf. He’s been seen playing at Glen Kernan and The Yards and his game appears in good form.

Smith tied for fifth in the first LIV event of the season at Mayakoba and won the Australian PGA for the third time in his career in November. He will play next in two weeks in the LIV event in Tucson.

He was ranked second in the world behind Scottie Scheffler after winning the British Open and despite receiving no rankings points for his LIV Golf starts, he’s now fifth, the highest-ranked LIV player.

After winning the British Open and announcing his move to LIV, Smith played five times, winning in Chicago and Doral and tying for fourth in Boston. He finished 10th on the League’s points list in 2023.

The Australian flag flies at the TPC Sawgrass in honor of Cameron Smith winning the 2022 Players Championship. Traditionally, the flag of the winner’s country is flown for one year after his victory.

Cam Flag

Again, no repeat champion

Smith’s absence also means there will not be a repeat champion, which has never happened in Players history – speaking to the depth of the field and difficulty of the course.

“That just goes to show you how hard it is come back and play this golf course,” Day said during Players week in 2017. “Because it does test every aspect of your game, not only the physical part, but the mental part as well.”

Scott said that same week that the nature of the course, which favors no style of player, doesn’t mean a defending champion will find it any easier.

“We have so many different styles of game, so I think the course is open to so many different guys to have a chance to win,” he said. “There’s more guys in the mix … leaves it open for anyone.”

For further context in how hard a task it would have been for Smith, or any defending Players champion to repeat, the Masters has had two repeat winners (Nick Faldo in 1989-90 and Woods in 2001-02), the U.S. Open two (Curtis Strange in 1988-89 and Brooks Koepka in 2017-18), the PGA Championship three (Woods in 1999-2000 and 2006-07 and Koepka in 2017-18) and the British Open three (Tom Watson in 1982-83, Woods in 2005-06 and Padraig Harrington in 2007-08).

No defending Players champion has finished higher than a tie for fifth (Tom Kite in 1990) or been closer than four shots to the winner (Mark McCumber in 1989).

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Golfweek’s Best: Ranking the courses on the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing

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.

The Florida Swing starts this week with the Honda Classic at PGA National’s Champion Course, followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, The Players Championship on the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, then the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort.

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.

Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses 2022: From Bandon Dunes to Kiawah Island, the top 200 golf courses built after 1960

Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straights, TPC Sawgrass, Kiawah and more.

Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Modern Courses built in or after 1960 in the United States.

Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Modern Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Classic Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.

To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.

Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.

Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.

After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:

• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino

* Indicates new to or returning to this list.

Editor’s note: The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for the top 200 layouts built before 1960 in the U.S. will be posted Wednesday, May 25. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.

Players Championship: Third round finally ends with Anirban Lahiri atop the leaderboard at sun-lit TPC Sawgrass

“I’m just trying to stay in the moment and just do what I need to do next,” said Lahiri.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – And on the fifth day, the final round of the Players Championship will begin.

With various storms pushing the PGA Tour’s flagship event into a Monday finish – we hope – the third round was completed at 10:55 a.m. ET, 19 hours and 39 minutes after it began.

At the top of the leaderboard was India’s Anirban Lahiri, who is ranked No. 322 in the world and looking for his first PGA Tour title. He completed a third-round, 5-under 67 to move to 9 under through 54 holes.

“I got off to a really good start yesterday, kept the momentum going, and came back out this morning,” he said. “I’m happy with the way I finished and just looking forward to the rest of the day.

“There’s not much to get too far ahead of yourself. I’m just trying to stay in the moment and just do what I need to do next.”

Players: Leaderboard | How to watch Monday | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+

The final round began at 11 a.m. ET, with the leaders scheduled to go off at 1:01 p.m. ET. Threesomes will go off both the first and 10^th tees.

There were 14 players within three shots of the lead heading into the final round. A shot back in second place was Sebastian Munoz (65), Doug Ghim (68), Paul Casey (69) and Sam Burns (71).

Plenty of fireworks exploded across the sun-drenched Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, the biggest was an ace from 219 yards on the 8th by Viktor Hovland, who hit 4-iron. He shot 68 to move to 4 under through 54 holes.

It was his second on the PGA Tour, the eighth on the hole since 1983. But there was little time for celebration.

“If I would have made the putt on 9 (on his last hole), as well, to get to 5, I would have felt a lot better,” he said. “But I’ve been playing really well the whole week. I just haven’t really been able to capitalize on any putts. Maybe if I get a few putts going early and maybe it starts blowing in the afternoon and gets a little shaky, then maybe (I can contend), but got a lot of work to do.”

Munoz polished off a bogey-free 65 with his seventh birdie of the round coming on the last. Kevin Streelman made six birdies in his last 11 holes over two days to get back into the tournament at 6 under with a 66.

“I could have made one more putt, but I mean, I’m really happy where I am,” Munoz said.

Said Streelman: “Clearly it’s soft right now, which allows the fairways to get a little wider. Also allows the greens obviously to get a little softer. We’re able to maybe fire at a few more pins than we would otherwise, and we’re all ready to get out of here, too, so the better you play, the quicker you play.”

The players are playing the ball down after being able to lift, clean and place in earlier rounds. While some players were expecting mud balls Monday morning, there were few and they were far between.

“The course is in fantastic shape for all it’s been through in the last five days,” said Kevin Kisner, who shot 68 to move to 6 under. “I think it’s totally fair to play the ball down these last two rounds. Greens are still super receptive. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get out and do anything to them between rounds, which I doubt, but there will be some low scores this afternoon, I imagine.”

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Hal Sutton was a master of Players Championship Monday finishes, including toppling Tiger Woods

Hal Sutton and Jack Nicklaus share a unique piece of golf history.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – When Hal Sutton held off Jack Nicklaus by one shot to win the 1983 PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles, the Golden Bear turned to his crystal ball.

“This will be one of many major championships for you,” Nicklaus told the 25-year-old Sutton that day, adding that he could be the “Next Jack” and become the game’s dominant force with the game he possessed.

While that never came to be – Sutton didn’t win another major – the two are linked in Players Championship history as the only players to win the PGA Tour’s flagship event twice – with all four titles captured on a Monday.

“That’s something. Monday finishes are rare, and we each did it twice,” Sutton said over the phone. “Not bad standing next to Jack in that way.”

This week’s storms have forced the Players Championship into a Monday finish for just the eighth time. Nicklaus won the inaugural Players in 1974 on Monday and the 1976 Players on Monday; the runner-up both years was J.C. Snead. Add his 1978 Players title – coming on a Sunday, mind you – Nicklaus is the only three-time winner of The Players.

Sutton won the 1983 championship in the second year it was played at TPC Sawgrass. Seventeen years later, he won the 2000 Players by holding off heavy favorite Tiger Woods by one shot with his “be the right club today,” on 18.

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“It’s hard enough to win a golf tournament when you have to play four days, but when you add the fifth day to it, it just makes it that much harder,” said Sutton, 63, a winner of 14 PGA Tour titles, a former Ryder Cup captain and the PGA of America’s Player of the Year in 1983.

Sutton said his mindset heading into the Mondays was different.

“I was chasing the lead in the first one and I was sitting on the lead in the second one,” Sutton said.

In 1983, Sutton came from four shots back with a final-round, 3-under-par 69 on Monday to win by one shot over Bob Eastwood.

“My mentality was to just string one good shot after another good shot and see what happens,” Sutton said. “It wasn’t blowing as hard as it was (on Saturday of this year), but it was blowing hard. A key shot was on 17 when I hit an 8-iron into the middle of the green and it rolled back to the hole to about six inches.

“Believe me, I wasn’t aiming at the flag.”

Seventeen years later, Sutton was ranked No. 11 in the world heading into the Players. Woods was No. 1 – by an astonishing 10 points. Woods, who had yet to play four full years on the PGA Tour, already had won 19 of his record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, including three in 2000 heading into the Players. He had won two of his 15 majors; he would win three consecutive majors later in 2000.

But when play was halted on Sunday due to another storm, Sutton had a three-shot as the two were on the 12^th hole.

“My mindset was, and I was pretty specific about this, I had to get to the 16^th hole with a three-shot lead,” Sutton said. “Because I might not go for the green in two at 16 and he probably would, which means he might make eagle and I might make par. And that’s exactly what happened. He made eagle and I made par and I went to 17 with a one-shot lead.”

Both parred 17, setting up Sutton’s memorable call from the middle of the fairway on 18. He was 178 yards from the flag and pulled a 6-iron. As the ball flew toward the flag, Sutton emphatically said, “be the right club today.” It was, coming to rest 10 feet from the hole. Woods went over the green but chipped to less than a foot, forcing Sutton to two-putt. He did.

“It felt great. I had never said, ‘be the right club today’ in my life,” Sutton said. “But I knew I had the perfect yardage; I knew there was nothing that could take the tournament away from me after I hit it. The only thing that could hurt the shot was a puff of wind. That’s why I said what I said, I just didn’t want to be surprised.

“Playing alongside Tiger made it a lot different. He was beating everybody at the time. That week Colin Montgomerie said we were all playing for second. The week before Davis had a three-shot lead and Tiger ran him down and won.

“Tiger needed to be beat at the time. I felt the pressure of being the guy in charge and trying to beat him. It was added pressure and the win felt a little bit better.”

With his victory in 1983, Sutton won $126,000 – becoming the first six-figure winner in The Players. Seventeen years later, he won $1.08 million – becoming the first seven-figure winner in The Players.

“I think back to those tournaments all the time whether the PGA Tour is playing on Monday or not,” Sutton said. “When you’ve had success on a demanding course like the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, against the best field in golf, you don’t forget you won there.”

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