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.