Slaughter at the 17th!! The Players Course Hurts All

After more than 54 hours since the start of The Players, the first round was finally completed at 2 PM Saturday EST. Catastrophes lurked at every hole due to 43 MPH winds and lots of water. The 17th the island green, took its toll.  Only 4 balls landed in the water in the first two days of play, and 29 balls found their way to the drink in just six hours of play on Saturday.

Conditions were truly hideous. Fortunately, the rain subsided. That was the only blessing.  When play began on Saturday, it looked like a shotgun start with players on every hole.  That’s because the first round was stopped several times on Thursday and Friday.

Those who teed off early Thursday didn’t have to return to the golf course until late Saturday and will finish their second rounds Sunday before the pairings for round three are issued.

Not only was the wind relentless. The temperature was plummeting.  It dropped from 70 at 11 AM to 55 at 3 PM.

How windy was it? Colin Morikawa had his caddie hold his hat when he teed off on the 17th, his first hole on Saturday at the Players Championship.

The first four golfers who teed it up at the 17th found water.  Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Brooks Koepka played together, and all hit the drink.

Collin Morikawa, who was in the next group, went first and suffered the same fate. He was playing with Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, and they both hit the green safely.  Thomas, however, would go on to put his second shot at the 18th in the water left.

“I hit a 7-iron today that pitched 123 or 124, and my 7-iron goes between 185 and 190. So playing 60 yards of wind.”  Rory Mcilroy

Once players finished, they had some interesting commentary.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Brooks Kopeka said about the conditions. “I don’t think it was going harder for anybody else out here than when me, Scottie, and Xander played it. When we first teed off, that was my first shot of the day, and I thought it was blowing the hardest.”

He said it blew hard again during their second round, particularly when they got to 16 and 17.

“I hit 8-iron, flew 205 yards on 16. On 17 hit it 105,” he said. “I felt like I got some bad breaks along with not playing well. Kind of one of those things for me. It’s just tough, man.”

Rory McIlroy said club selection at the 17th was interesting.

“I hit a 7-iron today that pitched 123 or 124, and my 7-iron goes between 185 and 190. So playing 60 yards of wind,” he noted.

On the18th, he hit driver, 3-iron, and only got to the front fringe of the green.  The hole is 462.

Tommy Fleetwood maintained his 6-under par lead at The Players by not playing until very late in the day.  He had only played three holes in his second round which will not be finished until sometime Sunday morning. Anything could happen to his score.

After 36 holes, Bubba Watson has an outright lead temporarily at 3-under par.  Even though he is a high ball hitter, the wind didn’t seem to bother him as much as the course design.

“I hit some wayward shots, maybe not because of me but because of the conditions, but I made the putts, and that’s really what kept the whole round going all the time,” he said after his round

The visual tricks of Pete Dye’s design bother him, he said.

“Blind shots are very difficult for me, and this golf course, the designer knew what they were trying to do,” he explained. “I like to look at certain shots or see certain shots. Number 1 looks like it has no fairway. Number 2 fits my eye on the tee shot, then the second shot is tough.”

He said if he’d had a different tee time, like the one Tommy Fleetwood had, he might have been in better shape.

When play was halted on Saturday at The Players, Watson was tied with Thomas who was able to get back on the leaderboard.  He finished at 3-under par despite a comprehensive hook at the par five, 9th hole.

“To be perfectly honest, I blame Tiger,” he kidded.  “I played in the afternoon so I could go to his Hall of Fame ceremony. If I would have just maybe stuck to my guns and played early, I would have been better.”

In truth, he said he was thrilled with the way he played, given the conditions.

“I hit two pitching wedges 185 yards today, and I hit a 5-wood 193 yards,” he said. “It was some of the most bizarre conditions I’ve played in.”  Last year, he hit a 5-wood tee shot on the 18th 315 yards.

Because the whole field has not played the same number of holes, there is no real leader.  The first round started at 7:45 AM Thursday and wasn’t completed until 2:01 PM Saturday.  The PGA Tour believes that there may be one or two situations where rounds took longer to complete, but really, they don’t keep these kinds of records. They hope it doesn’t happen.

Balls in the water at 17 during The Players:

4 on Thursday and Friday

29 on Saturday

The 29 was for about six hours of golf. If the entire field had played on Saturday, the total could have been in excess of 50.