PGA Tour: Players Championship
This week, another tough test for the PGA Tour at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra. It is the strongest field in all of golf, 46 of the top 50 are scheduled tee it up at 6.45am, paired in 3's off the 1st and 10th tees. Justin Thomas is the defending champion, you'll remember he beat a red hot Lee Westwood with his wife on the bag by 1 shot.
"Ponte Vedra Beach is an upper income tourist resort area best known with it's association with golf and the home of the PGA and the Players Championship "
WEATHER: The first thing I did re this week was look up the weather and I can tell you there is heavy rain in the forecast for Thursday with moderate rain right up until Saturday afternoon with temperatures in the low to mid 20'sC until the front passes through and the high on Sunday is only 11*C. There is a breeze Thursday, Friday then a gale on Saturday 35 kph NW then 20-25 N on Sunday. There is your #1 story...
With that in mind Roger Sloan kicks it off for the Canucks 7.07 1st tee, Corey Conners 8.13 1st tee, Taylor Pendrith 8.46 1st tee, Mac Hughes 12.12 1st tee and Adam Hadwin 1.29 10th tee.
Veteran Canadian Richard Zokol is not a big fan of this Pete Dye design, however he agrees that it is a great spectacle, with all the annual drama that the layout provides every year, especially the closing 3 holes with the island green at 17.
His theory is that TPC Sawgrass dictates the one shot the players have to play, For example at the 17th you only have one type of shot, you can't run the ball up, and that scenario repeats itself around the difficult 18 holes.
So if you are looking for some picks, he suggests you look no further than the players who are in form right now. There were at least 10 guys in and around the lead last week and as I've said Scottie Scheffler made the least mistakes and the most putts, so he won again.
The best of the Canadians was Corey Conners T11th who was right in contention until the back 9 on Sunday. His ball striking is superb right now, that should keep him in the mix.
However the big story looks to be the weather and how that affects the greens, then all that wind coming on the weekend which will surely make scoring very difficult..
Sounds familiar, doesn't it.
Bryan Angus
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