![]() It’s particularly notable this year with the calm conditions and fantastic round one scoring. ET with 21 players yet to complete their round.ĭraw a line through the weather day in 2022 and you can still see the trend going from one player not completing play, to three, to 21 and 21. Thursday, MaFirst round was suspended at 6:28 p.m. with 69 of 72 players in the morning wave completing play. Thursday, MaWeather delays throughout the day. Thursday, MaRound was suspended due to darkness at 6:32 p.m. Thursday, MaPlay was suspended due to darkness at 7:40 p.m. with one player (Anirban Lahiri) left on the course. Thursday, MaPlay was suspended at 7:52 p.m. Weather twice played a part, while a COVID-19 prompted cancellation caused another. ![]() Since its return to March in 2019, The Players has not been able to complete 36 holes on time. But even under calm, sunny conditions, play at TPC Sawgrass still bogged down throughout the course and round one did not sniff completion on Thursday. And while the drivable 10th was still as much as a 25-28 minute affair for players waving groups up, the change in wind direction did not mean any dent was put in the five hour and twenty-minute-plus rounds.Īt The Players this week where the Tour rules staff moved the 12th tee back on Thursday, this should have eliminated the drivability pace mess created since that hole was re-imagined. Then there are the distance and agronomic influences: par-5’s and par-4’s where groups back up when most of the field can get there in one shot when it used to take two, and greens often Stimping 13 or inches more, thus making even silly little 18 inchers legitimately scary.īut this year there’s a sense the greatest culprit to the pitifully slow rounds may not be distance related as much as a collective entitlement-driven intangible effect spurred on by the LIV era where players are king.Īt Riviera where I can attest to the slowing effect of the par-5 11th and 17th becoming reachable in two, those holes played into the wind for three rounds to actually reduce wait times significantly. We know the classic culprits: a few super slow players messing it up for the rest, plenty more who do not hit a shot until they’ve worked through every conceivable option with their caddie, and a select few princes who feel entitled to only pull the trigger when they are good and ready. Maybe.Īlready glacial pace of play has been worsening this year despite the PGA Tour rules staff’s best efforts to set up courses in a speed-friendly fashion. With longer days ahead for Grand Slam events only bad weather will prevent finishing 36 on time. ![]() Right now, only a bad tee time wave seems to be the only thing in the 26-year-olds’ way. I’m not sure what else to say about Scheffler’s win given that it’s so similar to 2022 efforts where he put everything together on grand stages. Scheffler becomes the ninth player to win The Players and the Masters and third to hold both titles at the same time, joining, whoa Nellie… Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods The five-stroke win over Tyrrell Hatton gave Scheffler another signature win and his sixth PGA Tour title, plus ridiculous momentum headed toward Magnolia Lane and a title defense looking more plausible as Rory McIlroy struggles with is driver and Jon Rahm recuperates from a stomach bug that caused a first round WD.Īll six of Scheffler’s professional victories have come in his last 27 starts ![]() Typically, the two events do not share many common leaders, but given Scheffler’s play and the company he joins in holding both titles at the same time, apparently he’s going to be a defy-the-numbers guy. If nothing else, we’re going to get a fascinating case study this April in the whole Players-Masters combo platter of (supposedly) non-compatibility.Īmong other compelling tidbits from Scottie Scheffler’s 2023 Players win and stunning run over the last year: the 2022 Masters Champion has won a high-rough, accuracy-matters Players in the build-up to his Masters title defense. ![]()
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