One of the biggest changes to the PGA Tour schedule takes place this week as we head north from Orlando to Ponte Vedra for the PLAYERS Championship. For the first time since 2006, the “unofficial 5th major” is being played in March. Since 2007, the event had been held in May, but prior to 2007 it was traditionally held in March dating all the way back to its inception in 1974.
Defending Champ: Webb Simpson – won by 4 shots last year. The last person to win this event when it was held in March was Steven Ames.
Here are our overall records.
Here is who we are going with this week:
Two Inches Short ()
Give us the current World No. 1 at The Players thank you very much.
Dustin Johnson is fresh and rested after his 20th career PGA Tour win and we don’t see any reason why he won’t dominate the year’s first maj…..errrrrrr the strongest field in golf this season to date.
You could argue DJ’s record at TPC Sawgrass is less than stellar with his best finish being a T12 back in 2017. However, that was when the championship was played in May. In fact, the last time it was played in March was in 2006, before DJ turned pro.
The course will play totally different and you can basically throw out the old record book. And did you hear he’s improved his wedge play since then?
If DJ brings his A-game, the tournament is usually over before it starts.
Players to watch:
Tiger Woods
Rickie Fowler
Dan Hauser ()
Since the last time this thing was held in March most of today’s top players were still in grade school, picking a winner this week is largely going to be a crap shoot. As we have heard pretty much everyone say, TPC Sawgrass plays significantly different in March than it does in May. As a result, you can pretty much throw past results at this tournament out the window when making a pick.
So, who am I taking this week?
I am going to go way out on a limb here and take Phil.
For all the reasons that you would think that I wouldn’t take a guy like Phil this week is exactly why I am doing it. Up until a day or 2 ago he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to play. He seems to have enjoyed his practice round, but I still feel like Phil isn’t fully “committed” to this week, and that’s exactly why he is going to win. His laid-back DGAF attitude is going to lead to some true “Phil” golf this week. Give me Phil the Thrill and call it a day.
HELLO WORLD!
I am usually on site for this event and love every second of it, however, this year things changed a bit and well … here we are reading this on MY site.
This really was not an easy decision. Rory is playing out of his mind right now, Tiger is Tiger and has been playing well, Justin Thomas is playing well, Justin Rose is always a consideration, Rickie Fowler has won here, but …. I’m going to be taking Brooks Koepka!
I know that’s not much of a reach considering he’s ranked third in the world and has 3 major championship wins under his belt, but I had to go with the odds here.
The change to March should help the distance guys out as the ball won’t be flying quite as far and Koepka has already proven he can finish in the top 20 at TPC Sawgrass.
Guys to watch: Francesco Molinari, Xander Schauffele