TPC Sawgrass demands accuracy
playing well longer. They are finding ways to stay in the mix. And guys coming out of school are better than they’ve ever been.
“So if you’ve got more guys playing well deeper into their career and more guys starting stronger than ever before, that just creates more depth.
“And it makes it tougher to win out there.”
DEPTH OF TALENT
Nowhere is that more true than in The Players, the Tour’s flagship event.
The depth of talent in the field and the TPC Sawgrass track combine for an epic examination of the game’s best players this week.
Winning cases can be made for every one of the 144 players in the toughest field in golf.
No player has dominated the tournament; no player in the 41year history of the event has gone back-to-back. There is no horse for the course, which, as the saying goes, tests everyone and favors no one.
“This tournament’s as tough as any,” McIlroy said. “You’re trying to beat the best players in the world on a golf course that again doesn’t really favor anyone. Any week that you win you have to play the best golf, but there’s certain tournaments you go to and you could sort of count on two hands who really has a chance to win that week, whether it be because of the conditions or the setup of the golf course or whatever. But here you could pick basically the entire field and feel like they have a decent chance to win.”
Woods, by far the dominant player of his generation, is one of six players to win at least two Players. The others are Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton and Jack Nicklaus, the only player to win three.
Woods said his pedestrian track record around this place had as much to do with the course as it did with the strength of the field.
“It’s really a tricky golf course,” Woods said. “When you’re on, this golf course doesn’t seem that hard. You feel like every round you should shoot 67 or lower. Then you get days where, ‘God, I feel like I can’t break 75 here.’ It’s one of those places. It’s very polarizing; you either have it or you don’t.”
PRECISION OVER POWER Sergio Garcia, who at 19 in 1999 was going to be the game’s next big thing and chase Tiger’s tail for decades, counts the 2008 Players among his eight Tour titles, in addition to 11 on the European Tour.
As one of the game’s best ballstrikers, it’s not surprising he loves the course, which requires precision more than power.
“It’s the kind of golf course that’s asking you for a lot of different shots. It’s really pushing you to the limits,” Garcia said. “The greens are fairly small, so you have to be accurate, not only off the tee but into the greens. If you hit a good shot, you’re always going to have a birdie putt. And if you miss the greens, then chipping is very challenging.
“Ball striking is very, very important here, because you can’t be going into these greens from the rough every time. The greens are too small and, if they get a little firm, too difficult to hold if you’re going from the rough all the time.”
Spieth says the course plays well for him — if he’s on his game.
“But if I go out there and I’m struggling with a certain ball flight, then it’s going to eat you up,” he said.
Ogilvy provided a Cliff Notes version of the course that is downright scary.
“There are short holes; there are long holes. You have to move the ball both ways, and you have to do that on the same hole a lot. You have to play well in the wind. You have to have an amazing short game, and you have to be a very good putter. This is the most complete test of any course we play on a regular basis.
“You would have thought Tiger would have found the key to this place, because he figured out every other place where he played a lot. Akron, Bay Hill, Doral, Torrey, Augusta. He worked out the recipe there.
“But here ... this course is just ruthless.”
As is the field.