IN THE DRINK
Koepka among US quartet to find water at Players’ notorious 17th
WHEN play finally resumed at the Players Championship yesterday, the first 30 minutes of action was all that was needed for the most famous hole in America to add to its diabolical reputation.
The island green 17th hole here only measures 137 yards but throw in the protection of a gusting 25mph wind and each of those yards was fraught with terror for four of the best players in America.
Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka and Collin Morikawa were the first four players, in turn, to reach the 17th tee as they completed the opening rounds they had begun on Thursday afternoon. All four were doing well.
Scheffler, winner of two of his last three events, was five under par. Olympic gold medallist Schauffele was four under. Four-time major champion Koepka was two under. Open champion Morikawa was one under.
What a starkly different picture by the time they reached the 18th tee. All four, would you believe, put their tee shots into the water at the 17th. Only four players in total found the water on Thursday and Friday.
Between them, the decorated quartet played the hole in an aggregate of six over par. Even the first player to hit the green, Rory McIlroy, did so with a fortunate mishit, and promptly followed it with a three-putt. What a hole on a day like this.
The travails of the American Ryder Cup quartet set the scene for a dramatic afternoon at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, as the first round was mercifully completed, just the 55 hours and 16 minutes after it began.
For the first time in the 40-year history of the event there were delays on three successive days, as the torrential rain and storms on Friday continued into
Saturday morning. Almost five inches of rain fell over the three days. Just to complete the picture, there was even a tornado warning yesterday.
When the sun finally came out at lunchtime, it was accompanied by the considerable wind. As if this water-laden layout wasn’t scary enough…
Not surprisingly, given the conditions, no one was able to match
the first round 66s posted by Tommy Fleetwood and American Tom Hoge way back on Thursday. Justin Rose completed a fine 69 while McIlroy, faced with the scary trinity of the last three holes, manfully played them in level par for a 73.
An indication of the strength of the wind came at the scary par-four 18th, one he normally plays in a drive and a wedge. On this occasion, he was still short with a flushed tee shot and a wellstruck three iron.
The bad news for players in McIlroy’s side of the draw was that they had to go straight back out into the wind to play their second rounds yesterday afternoon, while those in Fleetwood’s wave sat in their hotels or rental homes and thanked their lucky stars. They will play the bulk of their third rounds this morning when there’s little wind predicted, with the event due to be completed tomorrow.