Players Championship Friday leaderboard/tee times here
Here's a little secret, most of us in the media, when we were allowed to attend, or even when our bosses wouldn't pay to send us, cover the tournament from the air conditioned comfort of the "media tent" or in a few cases 'room"
When I started we followed the live feed on TV's and on a big, beautifully hand written board by a guy who made his living travelling the PGA Tour loop, doing just that.
In recent years the advent of first "shot tracker" and now "TourCast" have been a god send by pgatour.com and it was there from my humble dwellings in Toronto I followed every shot of Corey Connors -4 68 on Thursday morning.
We Canadians and I know my colleagues in the UK have railed for years about the lack of coverage of our country's players by the US TV based television productions. Unless Mike Weir was leading an event, we never saw him until he did something dramatic, or as he putted out on 18, for example.
Now with a click of a "TourCast" button, I watch an animated version of each shot, backed up by an in screen taped replay of whom every we want to broadcast/write about.
Corey played a very solid round yesterday and it could have been better. His tempo is sublime, almost effortless for a guy who hits it's so long.
His left to right shaping off the tee was a little untidy resulting in a couple of fairway bunkers, his natural draw was almost impeccable, he got unlucky on the par 5 18th when he found the fairway but a hard first bounce carried it through to a thick bit of rough growing aside the water hazard at 330 yards, so he had to lay up.
Now remember TPC Sawgrass along with Riviera are two of the tour's toughest venues, Sawgrass has water everywhere demanding shot making of the highest level, especially off the tee.
His iron play is superb, long, medium and short, and he did miss three putts from 12 feet or less for birdies, however I'm being picky because for the last 2 weeks his putter has saved par for him time after time.
Corey is in the late wave today 1.33 off #1 with Rickie Fowler and Lanto Griffin, and TPC Sawgrass, as the leader Sergio Garcia said, will just get firmer and faster as this week goes on, especially with even the slight breeze that is blowing.
20 players by my count will be out early this morning to complete their 1st rounds after darkness halted play last night.
35 balls, or 23% bounced into the pond of an extra firm 17th island green, Kevin Na took an 8 on his way to 81 and withdrew afterwards citing a "bad back"...
In a hilarious Instagram post, Ian Poulter (77), Henrik Stenson (85), Tyrrell Hatton (76) and Rory McIlroy (79) are sitting having lunch a combined +29..."what a bunch of muppets we are!" says Poulter..
Sergio's leading -7 65 was a masterclass of him at his finest, Sawgrass along with Valderamma his two favourite courses. He has 25 rounds in the 60's and 4 top 5 finishes, both more than anyone, Lee Westwood still having the time of his life after his runner up finish last week, -3 69, Brian Harman the little lefty proves what a shotmaker he can be, -5 67.
Canadians: Nick Taylor -2 70, Mac Hughes began with an 8 on the 10th, ended up +3 75, Adam Hadwin +2 74
Follow all the scores by clicking on here, above.
Bryan Angus
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