Tournament Preview - THE PLAYERS Championship

Tournament Preview - THE PLAYERS Championship

The 5th major is here!  The Players.  Huge purse of $25m with the winner getting $4.5m.  Hell even the golfer finishing in 41st will make over $100k.  The field is stacked and ready to go.  Last year's winner Cam Smith is absent due to LIV reasons.  However, since he is a Jacksonville local, he may walk around the course and watch?  That would be wild.  TPC Sawgrass is primed and ready to go.  Fingers crossed we have a leaderboard like last week's tournament. 

If Jon Rahm wins this week, he will set a Tour record for most money won in a year.  We aren't even 25% done with the year yet. 💰  Thanks to LIV for pushing the Tour forward with elevated events and purses, amirite Jon?  Actually, I guess Jon and the other players are sick of talking about new events, LIV, and whatnot.  They just want to play golf. Big golf guys.

LIV was still a hot topic during media day.  The commissioner of the PGA Tour, Jay Monahan, confirmed there still is no hope for a former PGA player that joined LIV and want to come back to the PGA.   I wonder if at some point that will change?  Monahan also wouldn't really confirm if the broadcasts will improve for the Tour events.  There's been a lot of chatter online about disappointed fans are with the Playing Through segment, commercial timing, and coverage in general.

Rory actually gave some praise to LIV and how it's pushed the Tour forward with more innovation.  Pretty big change in stance from Rory there.  JT threw some shade on the quality of players in LIV.  Phil mentioned online that he tried to push Monahan to build these designated / elevated events and give equity to the players.  Monahan basically said no way.

Weather

Weather seems fine this week, with the exception of potential storms on Friday.  Temperatures range from low 60s to mid/high 70s.

The tournament socials can be found here for Twitter, Instagram, and their own website. 

ESPN Plus starting at 6:45am ESTGolf Channel starting at 12:00pm EST

Another designated event with an impressive field.  43 of the top 50 players are playing.  

• Previous Winners in this week's field:

  • Justin Thomas - 2021

  • Rory McIlroy - 2019

  • Webb Simpson - 2018

  • Si Woo Kim - 2017

  • Jason Day - 2016

  • Rickie Fowler - 2015

• Notable previous winners absent:

  • Cam Smith - 2022 (LIV)

  • Martin Kaymer - 2014 (LIV)

  • Tiger Woods - 2013

Betting Odds provided by Bovada.lv at this link (not sponsored)Some notable players to consider:

• Justin Thomas +2000 - previous winner

• Viktor Hovland is playing well right now and at +2800

• Still hard to pick against Jon Rahm at +900

• TPC Sawgrass has one of the most famous golf holes in the world - the Par 3 17th island green (seen below).

  • Over 100k golf balls are retrieved from the water around the island green.

• There are two courses on property - the Stadium Course and Dye's Valley Course. The Stadium Course is the only course played this week and also designed by Pete Dye. The Stadium Course was the creation of the former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane R. Beman back in 1980 to not favor a specific type of golfer by design, be a permanent home for The Players Championship, and to improve the overall on-course fan experience.

• TPC Sawgrass is open to the public, albeit the rich public. The minimum Stay and Play package right now is $904 per person.

Notes and News

• Full Swing season 2 was confirmed this week by Netflix (twitter)

• Tiger's ex-girlfriend is suing the GOAT for $30m (twitter)

• A pretty cool story about the golf club logo on Phil Mickelson's bag (twitter)

• James Hahn is trying to redeem himself after his PIP comments... Harry Higgs has a suggestion for him (twitter)

• For some awful reason, the USGA announced the US Amateur location up to 2051 WHY (twitter)

• This guy took a 66 on the Par 3 17th. Yes, a 66. (twitter)

Twitter Roundup

May your rounds be filled with #oneputts.