Podcast looks at past, present, future of TPC
Did you know: The Players Championship has never seen a back-to-back winner?
During the prior 49 years of the tournament, five players have won it twice, while Jack Nicklaus is the only person to win it three times.
As the 50th anniversary of The Players Championship arrives this week, 2023 champion Scottie Scheffler is looking to do what no other golfer before him has done.
Scheffler goes into the tournament as the betting odds favorite.
Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay are close behind.
The tournament has been held annually at the TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville since 1982. It’s been held in Ponte Vedra Beach since 1977.
The first three tournaments were held in Georgia, Texas and South Florida before moving to Northeast Florida.
On this week’s “The *State* of Florida Sports Podcast, we welcome in golf expert Garry Smits of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.
Garry’s been covering The Players Championship since 1981, and he’s seen some great golf along the way.
Garry began covering the tournament as a spry 24years-old working for a 5day-a-week PM paper in the west area suburbs.
Garry will talk about some of the history he’s seen, from the best shots to the most exciting winners.
In addition, he’ll break down this year’s field, one that was announced Friday, and will not be featuring Tiger Woods.
“It’s a little bit of disappointment, especially when he did not enter Bay Hill this week, a tournament he’s won eight times,” Garry says during the podcast. “Tiger had stated the goal of playing once a month leading up to The Masters and he played in L.A., played one round, then he got the flu the next day and withdrew. So, OK, this is a good chance he’s gonna play in this.
“It’s not gonna make a difference to what’s going on at the tournament as far as attendance goes, because Friday and Saturday parking was already sold out before we knew Tiger wasn’t going to play.”
He’ll also give us a course breakdown, from famed Hole No. 17 to the toughest to play on the course.
“Historically, the most difficult hole on this course is No. 18,” Garry said. “It’s a long dogleg left par-4 hole. It’s got water all the way down the left hand side. It’s got trees down the right.”
Garry’s also been looking into what the tournament might look like in 50 more years when it reaches its centennial.
“I’ve talked to people such as equipment managers, manufacturing representatives, digital people in the digital department, both the social media and the digital TV product, and the head agronomist at the TPC Sawgrass,” Garry said. “I asked them, just be a little bit forward thinking, expand your imagination.
“There are no crazy ideas, but what do you think the product of professional golf will look like, both for the inhome TV viewer and the spectator on the ground of the golf course? And we’re getting some people having fun with it.”
And that just scratches the surface.
If you love golf, then you have to check out this podcast.
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If you like it, you can check out previous shows, which feature current and former professional athletes and coaches, as well as our stable of journalists who cover beats and write columns, all of whom have a tie to the Sunshine State.
Walters can be reached at twalters@gannett.com