It's Time For Golf's "5th Major" at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass

Jared C. Tilton. Getty Images.

Ah yes! THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. The one they call the 5th major. And ya, it's all caps. THE PLAYERS Championship. Don't ask me why, it just is.

And they're doing their damndest in recent weeks to slap the major label on this bad boy. "March… it's going to be major" they say. It's a little ridiculous but I love that they're trying after years of dancing around it. It could be an entire blog in itself, but I'll leave you with this:

There's no question that his is a monster tournament. A big one. HUGE. It's unique and it's special. I'll throw just about any adjective on it that isn't "major", but that isn't to diminish this tournament, because it's certainly an awesome one.

We're at one of golf's most iconic venues. Behind the eden that is Augusta National, this is the most well known annual stop on the PGA Tour. It's their premier event, as the Tour's main headquarters reside right here in Ponta Vedra Beach. It's also the single event (East Lake notwithstanding) where the Tour gives out the most coin - a purse of $25 MILLION is up for grabs, including $4.5M to the winner.

For comparison's sake, the Masters only gave out $21 million last year. So yeah, this is a big one where you're sure to see a lot of hubbub about the guy late on Sunday whose lipout on the 72nd hole costs him $450k. 

Last year we found ourselves in a Monday playoff! Rory McIlroy against the scrappy then relative no-name-to-the-casuals JJ Spaun after weather delays pushed regulation right up against sunset. Spaun had come into Sunday with a 1 shot lead over Bud Cauley and a 3 shot lead over the rest of the pack, but struggled to get anything going. After an awful bogey on the scoreable par 5 11th, he was +2 on the day and had easily been overtaken by a surging Rory a few groups ahead. Rory had come out of the gates with birdie-eagle and sat -5 thru 12 and built a 3-shot lead that looked pretty insurmountable with Spaun fading.

However, Rory failed to keep his foot on the gas, bogeying the tough 14th and producing no other birdies the rest of the way to finish at -12 for the tournament and a final round 68. Spaun however had gotten himself off the mat and actually birdied that same 14th and got up and down for birdie on 16 from nearly the identical spot short left of that green where McIlroy had been and couldn't.

That put Spaun on the 18th tee in a tie with Rory and a chance to go win the tournament. He gave himself a look from about 30 feet for birdie, but left it a roll short in what somehow would have ended up as his 2nd most epic putt of the year if it had gone. 

Can't help but think he had that putt in the back of his mind at Oakmont in June.

The 3-hole aggregate playoff on Monday was all Rory. Striped his tee shot and darted one at 16 to set up an easy 2-putt birdie, where as Spaun failed to get up and down from the front bunker and took par. On 17 disaster struck for JJ as he mailed the island green and didn't hit a great shot after the drop and ended up making triple and giving Rory a 4 shot lead. Ballgame. Rory kinda goofed off a bit on 18 nearly hitting a punch out into the drink, but ultimately didn't and coasted to his 2nd Goldman trophy.

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The Course

TPC Sawgrass is one of Pete Dye's greatest masterpieces and easily his most well known. Those who know the game well know a Pete Dye design immediately when they see one and this course exemplifies everything they tend to feature - long fairway bunkers, bulkhead-lined greens protected by water, and thoughtful holes of a variety of lengths. His objective was often to make his golf courses visually imposing and this course has that by the truckloads.

It's also an immaculate golf course. I've had the pleasure of going in years' past and the property is glorious. Perfectly manicured and every little detail tended to a T. Just a mow pattern clinic out there. I haven't had the delight of going to a Masters (plz send me Dave or anyone else…) but I have to imagine the condition of this golf course is the next best thing. And the range… chef's kiss. Look at this place.

Sawgrass measures 7,352 yards and is your traditional par 72 with par 36 on each side. It's not terribly long, but there are a good handful of holes where driver may not be the play off the tee. The 4th is probably the best example of that. All four par 5's are reachable in two, with the 583 yard par 5 9th being the most challenging with trees protecting the green short left and some bodacious grass bunkers to the right. The finishing 18th is a menace, one of the most intimidating final tee shots in all of golf that always makes for great drama. They always play it up on TV how scary it is, but you really cannot grasp how small the margin of error is until you see it in person.

What I find most interesting is that this course historically does not favor any one type of golfer. It's extraordinarily balanced. Bombers have won here, ball-strikers have won here, guys with incredible short games and hot putters have won here… there's hardly one area of expertise to target. Since THE PLAYERS moved to this course in 1982, no golfer had defended his title until Scottie a couple years back and no one has ever won here 3 times. Only Tiger, DLIII, Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton, and Freddie Couples have won here twice. Nobody should be walking on to the property this week thinking that they own the place. If you play good golf, you'll have a chance and if you don't, you won't. Crazy how simple that is, right?

Best Hole - 17th Hole, Par 3 137 yards 

Chris Condon. Getty Images.

I mean, could it really be anything but the island green? It's one of golf's most iconic holes. I think its status as "one of a kind" is a little bit overblown (PGA West #17 says hi), but in terms of the stage that it's on and what's at stake, there might be nothing better in golf. The stadium atmosphere surrounding the lake delivers on TV and after going in 2021 I'm so jealous of anybody who will be there this weekend.

So many great moments here over the years:

"Better than most"… 25 years ago

Freddie's birdie in '96. 

Rickie's epic showing in '15 

Gold Man bringing down the house 

And so many more. 

The Weather (add in Tuesday)

Weather Thursday could be a problem in more ways than one. It obviously could cause delays (which have affected this tournament a bunch in recent years), but it also could soften greens that are currently being lauded as the firmest they've ever been for THE PLAYERS. Storms on Sunday present a problem too. The field has been slightly lessened to 120 players this year, so that helps squeeze in the golf a little bit, but we're keeping an eye on it this weekend. Wind looks like it should create a solid challenge too. Should be fun.

TV Coverage 

The Trophy

David Cannon. Getty Images.

For a long time the prize here was Waterford crystal, which I guess was nice and shiny and all, but at the end of the day it's just a hunk of crystal.

Starting in 2019 with Rory's first win, they unveiled a new trophy that takes after the logo for THE PLAYERS, which is an awesome and easily recognizable logo.

What makes it cooler is that the face on the trophy is actually a composite grafting of all the previous champions? Pretty whack.

Where this trophy really brings it is the fact that the player is standing on an outline of the 17th island green. 

BAM. That's an instant 2 point boost to what was already a very solid trophy. I'm giving this trophy a 9.2/10. You won't want to swap it out for a hockey guy on top. 

The Board Presented by Draftkings #DKPartner 

Two-time champ Scottie Scheffler is going that elusive 3rd title and is the favorite at +435. Naturally behind him is Rory trying to acheive the same thing at +1475. Both those numbers have gotten slightly longer as the week has progressed, particularly Rory's after what was thought to be a small blip of a WD at last week's API with a back injury has turned out to be enough to keep him from making the trip to Ponte Vedra until Wednesday.

The next man up is Collin Morikawa, who is my pick at +2100 (now +2050 as I'm typing this so jump on it). He's been the recipient of a lot of steam in recent days and weeks here and rightfully so. He won at Pebble a few weeks back and has followed that up with a T7 and a solo 5th in Orlando. He's always been a strong irons player, but little by little fell behind the pack of elite players when it came to driving distance. He was middle of the road on Tour when he was winning majors, but fell to an oddly consistent and lackluster ranking in driving distance the past 3 years, landing between 134th and 136th each year at around 297 yards per drive. This past offseason that must have been a major focus area for him, as he's gotten himself back to the middle of the pack at 64th at 306 yards per drive, all while maintaining top 10 in driving accuracy. That has helped him to leverage his iron play that much more and is the root of his resurgence.

This is the type of track where he can eat with his irons. He played very well here last year in placing 10th where a Saturday 77 took him out of the running. He's playing consistent good golf again and I expect him to contend again.

Other Plays 

Collin Morikawa Top 5 +365 / Top 10 +182

Cam Young +3300 / Top 10 +270

Jake Knapp +5100 / Top 10 +370

Sahith Theegala +8400 / Top 5 +1200

Brian Harman Top 10 +1175

Tom Hoge Top 20 +630

Jhonny Vegas +75000 / Top 20  +990

Ludvig Aberg 1R Matchup -154 over Brooks Koepka (fading Koepka wherever I can)

17th Hole in one - Yes +200

Whenever the daily 17th hole water ball odds pop up… take the over. Greens are firm and wind is up. We're gonna get wet.

That's what I got this week. Enjoy THE PLAYERS