A memorable Players

A spat between two bitter rivals, an unheralded rookie who almost pulled off a remarkable victory, a potential victory for who would have been the oldest ever winner of the tournament - the 40th edition of The Players Championship at the short but tricky TPC Sawgrass course had it all.

Tiger Woods with his trophy (Source)

Tiger was in complete control of the tournament (three shots ahead) come the back nine on Sunday, until one bad tee shot led to a double bogey on 14. Some good play from overnight co-leader Sergio Garcia, 49-year-old Jeff Maggert and rookie Swede David Lingmerth, made it a four-way tie for the lead at 12 under. Things were getting really exciting.

Maggert found the water on 17 and Sergio found it twice. Lingmerth held his nerve, but needing to birdie the tough 18th hole to force a playoff with Tiger, he pushed his approach to the right part of the green and could not hole what would have been a remarkable long putt.

David Lingmerth (Source)

Tiger had his victory and his second Players to go with the one he won back in 2001. This was Tiger's 300th start on the PGA Tour. He also won on his 200th start and 100th start.


Lingmerth has won me over with the way he played this week and especially with how he handled himself in the final round. For a rookie who had missed his last few cuts, Lingmerth was very impressive. I look forward to seeing his name near the top of leaderboards throughout the season.


This is the earliest Tiger has won four tournaments in a season. I declared the "is he back" argument over when he was winning last year. Now, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that Tiger is playing some of the best golf of his life. Out of his last 22 starts, Tiger has won seven - at a strike rate of almost 1/3.

Here are some intriguing questions that we will know the answer to come season's end...

Can Tiger double his tally by the end of the 2013 season and win eight times?

Can he win five more times and make it 83 PGA Tour wins, therefore taking the title from Sam Snead as the most successful golfer ever on the PGA Tour?

Can anyone catch him in the FedEx Cup race?

Sergio Garcia (Source)

Will he win one of the three remaining majors or, even better, how many of the three will he win?


As for Sergio, I would like to see Sergio do an Adam Scott and erase the demons of his collapse by winning something big and soon. For sure, Sergio did not blow a big lead like Scott did last year at the Open Championship, but how will he bounce back mentally? How will he go in his next tournament? Will he keep up his ok start to the season (8/8 cuts, 7/8 top 25s, 4/8 top 10s) or will he fall off the radar for a while? I guess the history of Sergio's attitude and mental game tells us that those last two holes, especially 17, will haunt him for a while but I do hope he can move on from this and contend in the majors and the FedEx Cup.

Petulance vs Arrogance

I will not bore you with all the history surrounding the strained relationship between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia. Simply put, they do not like each other. Well actually, on the surface, it looks like they hate each other. 

Neither are golfing saints. Sergio: Spitting in a cup, blaming the gods for bad breaks, throwing clubs in the water; Tiger: Spitting on the green, swearing and throwing clubs.

The incident that occurred early in the second round of the weather-delayed 2013 Players Championship was just one of many examples over the last 14-15 years that prove Tiger and Sergio do not have a lot of time for each other.

Sergio was about to hit his second shot on the second hole, a par 5, when he heard some crowd noise, or to use his words, "everybody was screaming", from the area where Tiger was waiting to hit his second shot - some 50 yards away, in the pine straw, to Sergio's left.

Sergio claims the crowd noise was due to the excitement of Tiger pulling a 5-wood or 3-wood out of his bag - signalling he was going to go for the green in two as opposed to playing safe.

The crowd noise did begin before Sergio started his backswing, so there is the possibility he could have pulled out and gone through his pre-shot routine again. However, we will never know when Sergio first heard this noise - maybe it was during his swing as he said, or maybe Sergio was just looking for a quick and easy excuse for a bad shot. And who easier to blame than his arch-nemesis?

Awkward: Sergio and Tiger on the first tee (ESPN)

Still, what Tiger did and said does not add up. The video of the incident clearly showed Tiger putting his finger to his mouth and point in the direction where Sergio is about to play his second shot from, or in simple terms a gesture to hush the crowd - a good piece of etiquette from Tiger. But why would Tiger gesture to the crowd, wanting it to be quiet when, as he said afterwards in an interview, a marshal had told him Sergio had already hit and that was why he took the club out of the bag?

Let me break this down into sequential order according to Tiger's actions and his post-round comments about the marshal...

(1) The marshal signalled to Tiger that Sergio had played his shot.

(2) Tiger took a wood out of his bag and began to plan his shot.

(3) Tiger gestured to crowd (puts his finger to his mouth) and pointed in Sergio's direction, presumably asking it to be quiet while Sergio was hitting.

As you can see (1) cannot possibly occur before (3). There is no reason for Tiger to ask the crowd to be quiet for Sergio if a course official had already told him to play his shot.


Why would the marshal lie to Tiger? He wouldn't.

Of course, Tiger did not purposely pull a club out his bag in the hope the crowd would cheer and put Sergio off. No one is that cold-hearted.

Still, the mistake falls on Tiger for not waiting for Sergio to play and not seeing with his own eyes Sergio complete his swing. It is the responsibility of the player who does not have the first shot to make sure that they do not put the other player off until that player has completed their swing.

Watching on: Sergio and Tiger (Daily Telegraph)

It certainly makes for great viewing when these two complete the final few holes of their third rounds on Sunday. Here is some dialogue from separate interviews during and after the third round...

Sergio (during the weather delay and after the incident) - "...you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit and right as I was in the top of the backswing, I think he must have pulled like a 5-wood or a 3-wood and obviously everybody started screaming. So that didn't help very much."


Tiger (at the end of the third day's play)- "The marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot...Not real surprising that he's complaining about something."

Sergio (when told by a reporter what Tiger's response was to his initial comments) - "That's fine. At least I'm true to myself. I know what I'm doing, and he can do whatever he wants.''

The Players Championship - Trivia and Preview

The 40th edition of The Players Championship gets underway this Thursday at the TPC at Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Here is a bit of background on the tournament widely regarded as the "unofficial fifth major" because of its quality of field and the highest prize purse in golf (the winner picks up  just over 1.7 million US dollars).

• It has not always been played at Sawgrass. The fist three editions were played at three different courses: Atlanta Country Club in 1974; Colonial Country Club in 1975 and Inverrary Country Club in 1976. From 1977-1981 it was hosted at Sawgrass' Oceanside Course, before settling at the Stadium Course at the Tournament Players Club (TPC) at Sawgrass.
• Jack Nicklaus won the inaugural event and remains the only player to have won The Players three times. Four players have won it twice - Fred Couples, Steve Eklington, Hal Sutton and Davis Love III.
• Australian Greg Norman holds the record winning score at -24, a feat he achieved in 1994.
• Americans have dominated the event historically. Australia is in second place in terms of number of different winners (four).
• American Matt Kuchar is the defending champion and, if he wins this year, will become the first person to defend the title.

The daunting 17th hole (Source)

Even the smallest of golf fans should be familiar with the 17th hole - nicknamed the "island green". Although not technically an island, the green is almost completely surrounded by water and has destroyed the hopes of hundreds of golfers over the years. Did you know...

• In 2007, a record 93 balls ended up in the water. That is, 21 percent of all attempts.
• Australian Robert Allenby has the longest active streak of avoiding the water - 36 rounds - but don't tell him that!

Enough of the trivia - who are the contenders, favorites and dark-horses? Current Fed Ex Cup and world rankings in brackets.

Horschel with his first PGA Tour trophy (Source)

Billy Horschel (3-49) - Arguably the biggest talking point on the PGA Tour at present. Horschel won his first tournament just under two weeks ago - the Zurich Classic of New Orleans - and has the longest active streak of consecutive cuts made at 23. Five top 10s in 12 tournaments so far this year.

Luke Donald (44-5) - Has not been in his best form lately with only two top-10s in six starts in 2013, but he has finished in the top 10 at The Players the last two years.

Jason Day (15-25) - Almost pulled off a victory at the Masters last month. Four top-10s in nine events. Would be great to see him follow in Adam Scott's footsteps and pick up a significant victory.

Lee Westwood (38-12) - Four top-10s in nine starts, including three out of his last three. Westwood has improved his short game in recent years, and now ranks highly in sand save and all-round scrambling percentages.

Mickelson won The Players in 2007 (Source)

Justin Rose (23-4) - Ranked 2nd in scoring average, 1st in sand saves, 2nd in total driving and 3rd in ball striking. Rose has one of the more consistent games in golf at present and should be right up there come Sunday.

Phil Mickelson (6-10) - Mickelson had a late stumble at Wells Fargo last week but was his usual self - amazing the crowds with a vintage display of accurate putting from within 15 feet. First in birdie averages and par 3 birdie averages will certainly help at TPC Sawgrass. Has already won this year at the Waste Management Phoenix Open back in February - where he just missed a putt to shoot a 59.



What about the world's two best players? Tiger Woods is currently first in the FedEx Cup and has won three times this year, but has not won The Players since 2001. You would expect the world number to be in the mix come the business end of the tournament. Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, has had a disappointing season so far, but has regained some form lately with three top-25s in his last three tournaments, including a 10th place finish at Wells Fargo. However, in three attempts, he has never made the cut at The Players.