PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | For a PGA Tour season that has been starved for marquee drama, last week’s Players Championship was a welcome tonic. Were you not entertained?
Sunday became all about who was there instead of who was not, with five major champions, an Olympic gold medalist and a past Players winner among the top six. Every putt on the 18th green in the last half hour mattered. It was like a series of March Madness buzzer-beating attempts, one right after the other.
In the end, Scottie Scheffler held the trophy – the first repeat Players champion overcoming a record-tying five-shot deficit with a record-tying final-round 64. Like Thanos in “Avengers Endgame,” the world No. 1 is inevitable.
The three players who had a shot to tie him at the end all left “bummed,” but they should not get too down on themselves. That was a helluva collective effort to present one of the most dramatic Players worthy of a 50th anniversary.
BIRDIE: Wyndham Clark. There’s no shame in finishing runner-up to Scheffler in consecutive weeks, especially when that last putt was halfway in the cup. The reigning U.S. Open champ is developing into a killer not afraid of any moment.
BOGEY: Viktor Hovland. At the end of 2023, the Norwegian had sharpened his short game to the point of being the hottest golfer in the world. Switching from swing coach Joe Mayo in the offseason to Grant Waite has not made him better. He scowled more than smiled at Sawgrass.
BIRDIE: Brian Harman. That Open win at Hoylake was no fluke. The wee lefty doesn’t back down to anyone, and the native Georgian will take a solid history to Augusta next month.
PAR: Xander Schauffele. It was another tough result to swallow for the world No. 5 who still is seeking a major caliber victory (he also finished runner-up at the Players in 2018). The consecutive bogeys at 14 and 15 and missed chance at 17 might weigh heavily on him for a little while.
BIRDIE: Marnus Marais. The physical therapist deserves a big assist for his on-course neck massage and manipulation after Scheffler suffered acute neck pain early in his second round. Scheffler powered through to shoot a 69 that kept him within six shots of the lead.
BOGEY: The fifth major. As long as prominent LIV golfers remain banished from the PGA Tour and the Players, discussion of the tour’s flagship event ever officially being accepted as a Grand Slam peer is as dead as a ball in the water at 17.
BIRDIE: Ludvig Åberg. This kid is a future world No. 1. Finished solo eighth in his Players debut. Next month, he will make his major debut at the Masters. It’s not unreasonable to expect him to contend.
BOGEY: Player directors. The six players on the PGA Tour Policy Board meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan and PIF this week didn’t exactly distinguish themselves at the Players last week. Tiger Woods didn’t play. Jordan Spieth and Webb Simpson missed the cut. Adam Scott (T45), Peter Malnati (T68) and Patrick Cantlay (T68) got participation checks.
DOUBLE EAGLE: Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch. After their unceremonial release by NBC in 2022, the veteran analysts returned for Players cameos and made everyone listening wonder why they ever were let go in the first place. They breathed life into the first two rounds on Golf Channel, illustrating why they were always “better than most.” Said Maltbie: “I miss this. A lot.” We did, too.
BOGEY: Rory McIlroy. After an opening 65 when he looked as if he had tightened up the loose ends in his iron game, McIlroy seemed all out of sorts in a roller-coaster of a week that included 26 birdies, 11 bogeys and three doubles that added up to a relatively ho-hum T19.
PAR: Jay Monahan. I’m not sure what else we could have expected from the commissioner who is unwilling or unable to negotiate peace in public with LIV Golf, but his assurances of “progress” and an “acceptable” and “satisfying” conclusion didn’t really sway those skeptical of his leadership, such as Xander “he’s got a long way to go” Schauffele and Viktor “swept under the rug” Hovland.
Smylie Kaufman’s entertaining Golf Channel “talk show” seated on the 17th tee with co-host Kevin Kisner (and two Georgia Bulldog guests Brian Harman and Keith Mitchell) is turning into broadcasting gold and a fan favorite.
BOGEY: Matt Fitzpatrick. The fifth-place finisher at Sawgrass played from February 2023 to February 2024 with a 4-gram weight in his driver grip that was mistakenly left in after testing, causing a common miss left. When it was discovered, he “almost had a heart attack” and called the change “night and day.” Fitz won twice anyway, at RBC Heritage and Dunhill Links last season: “Maybe I’d have won four times if I had it out.”
BIRDIE: Friday Happy Hour. Smylie Kaufman’s entertaining Golf Channel “talk show” seated on the 17th tee with co-host Kevin Kisner (and two Georgia Bulldog guests Brian Harman and Keith Mitchell) is turning into broadcasting gold and a fan favorite. More of this, please.
BOGEY: Ben Silverman and Ryo Hisatsune. The only two players not to finish the second round before play was suspended spent the early morning Saturday preparing in vain for their make-or-break chances to qualify for the weekend. Silverman’s tireless wedge prep for a 109-yarder on the ninth that needed to go in for eagle sailed long into a bunker, and Hisatsune’s 33-foot birdie putt slid by the cup.
BIRDIE: Johnson Wagner. The former tour pro is terrific on camera for more than just a magnificent mustache. Wagner beautifully illustrated on Golf Channel’s “Live From” – using physics, geometry and common-sense logic – why McIlroy properly assessed what happened to his ball in a blind-spot hazard on the seventh hole Thursday.
BIRDIE: Jessica Hadwin. After water balls in the opening round on 17 and 18, Canadian Adam Hadwin didn’t want his iron anymore and majestically heaved it deep into the lake. His must-follow wife had a critique of the “moment in question” on social media: “If I’m going simply on the aesthetic of the toss…. 10/10.”
EAGLE: Ryan Fox. Consecutive eagle-ace in the first round on Nos. 16 and 17 is quite a feat – never been done in the Players, especially in the middle of three bogeys. He came 2 feet, 4 inches from an albatross.
BOGEY: David Skinns. The 42-year-old English journeyman was poised to make the cut as a Players rookie. You can’t help but root for players like that. It was excruciating to see him struggle to 39 on the back nine Friday, bogeying 17 and 18 to miss the weekend by one shot.
QUAD: Justin Rose. Inside the cut with a stroke to give away on Friday, Rose put two balls into the water over the back of the 17th green en route to a derailing quad. The Englishman finished T6 last year.
BIRDIE: Caleb Williams. The presumptive No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, who has never played golf before, was like a regular fanboy hanging around TPC Sawgrass watching play and meeting players – particularly McIlroy and Spieth. “Thank you for telling me what sport he played,” McIlroy said when asked about the 2022 Heisman Award winner from Southern Cal.