My Five Takeaways from the 2016 Players Championship

Well another Players Championship has come and gone.  This is always one of my favorite tournaments of the season because in my opinion it’s the event that really kicks off the summer, and also hosts one of the best fields of the season.  Golf’s unofficial “fifth major” witnessed a lot over the course of the weekend, with storylines ranging from the course to the players themselves.  Here are my five big takeaways from the tournament.  Let’s roll.

5. Spieth fails to rebound.

(Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Jordan Spieth walked off of the 18^th green on Sunday at the Masters having blown a five shot lead, highlighted by an all-time collapse on the par-3 12^th hole.  Since then Jordan has been on a month long hiatus, during which we were all introduced to #SB2K16.  The Players Championship was his first scheduled event since the Masters and many of us were unsure of where his game would be.  As I previously blogged, Spieth was my pick to win the Players despite having missed the cut last year because I felt his methodical approach with his caddie would help them navigate around such a challenging course as TPC Sawgrass.  Spieth proceeded to miss his second straight cut at the event after finishing tied for fourth in 2014.  With his early exit this week, Spieth continues to raise questions but I’m not reading too much into this.  As I have also said in the past, Spieth can get red-hot at any moment and there is still a lot of golf to be played this season.  The Players Championship has not seen eye-to-eye with some of the best players in the world, and while Spieth has only played the event three times it may be an event that truly just doesn’t fit his game.

4. TPC Sawgrass: A tale of two courses.

(PGA)

It is always one of the most exciting (and most recognizable) courses in all of golf, with its signature three hole stretch (16 through 18) capping off an overall mentally challenging track.  That being said, it can yield low scores when the northeast Florida conditions settle and we saw just that on Thursday and Friday.  Jason Day (more on him in a bit) set the tone with a course record-tying 63 (-9) to open his Players Championship, but that was just the beginning.  The next day Colt Knost matched Day’s round with a 63 of his own, while Rory McIlroy flirted with the number as well.  However, a bogey on his final hole of the day limited Rory to a 64.  Overall the average score for the first two days of the tournament was 71.06—almost a full stroke under par.

Then Saturday came, and the average score shot up to 75.59.

The biggest factor contributing to MANY high scores on Saturday was the speed of the greens, rolling much faster than the previous two days.  With so many slopes on Sawgrass’ greens combined with lightning fast speed, players could simply not figure out how to make putts when they needed to.  If that’s not enough to convince you, just look at the record 149 three-putts recorded on Saturday by the 76 players who made the cut.  Jason Day, who shot a 75 on Saturday, called it “the toughest day I’ve ever had to play in my life.”  Sunday’s conditions were more feasible, but Saturday will go down as one of the toughest days in Players Championship history. 

3. Sunday drama? No thanks.

(24 Hour Sports)

Over the last several years, we’ve been treated to some awesome finishes to the Players Championship.  Last year especially.  But this year was a bit different as Jason Day had things on cruise control for pretty much the entire back nine, being challenged by virtually no one. His four-shot victory was the largest since 2009. I guess we were due for a drama-less finish one of these years though, but it honestly sucks that it came right after such an electric finish last year when Rickie owned the 17^th hole down the stretch.  While it was still great to see such a talented player like Day close out a victory there, I never felt any sort of real excitement like the Players has given us in the past.  Of course, there’s a great chance next year may return to a truly exciting finish. 

2. KEN DUKE.

(Golf Digest)

What a week for Ken Duke! Five missed cuts on the season and his best finish was a tie for 37^th. WHO CARES? Ken Duke is a great story to anyone that follows golf like I do (so probably no one).  He has been plagued by many injuries in the past and has only one career victory, but has still managed to continue playing on the PGA Tour.  Entering this week no one really thought anything would come out of Ken Duke.  That is until he shot 65 on Saturday at the 2016 Players Championship.  Are you kidding me?! He blitzed the scoring average by ten shots. TEN. He’s 47!  Ken Duke’s Saturday round, which launched him into the second to last group on Sunday, may very well be the round of the year—and one of the best rounds in recent golf history.  Seriously.  On a day where no one could do anything right, Duke came within two of tying the course record at 47 years old. He finished tied for 3rd, his best finish since that lone victory almost three years ago. Spectacular. 

What wasn’t spectacular? The missed birdie putt on 18 on Sunday.  Had it dropped, Duke would have made an additional $430,000.

1. Jason Day continues his dominance.

(Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

I think we’re really running out of things to say about Mr. Day at this point.  He now has 7 wins in his last 17 starts, 3 of which were wire-to-wire.  In the last 9 months, Day (among his other victories) has collected a major, two playoff wins, a world golf championship, and now a Players’ Championship. Not bad huh? Not once did Day look uncomfortable or phased this entire tournament, and his game may very well allow him to remain atop the World Golf Rankings for a significant amount of time.  No one on tour may ever be able to copy the type of player Tiger Woods was, but this run that Jason Day has been on (and the way his game looks) has to be drawing some comparisons at this point.  Hats off to him on a great victory.