Tommy Fleetwood, more than most players, always knows exactly which way the wind is blowing on any golf course. Shortly after noon Thursday at the Players Championship, Fleetwood was standing on the third tee — his 12th hole of the day — as the wind whipped at both his long locks and the nearby line of flags.
At the time, Fleetwood was at 5-under on the day, holding a one-stroke lead on the field. But one rain delay and seven holes later, he’d surrendered the lead to Maverick McNealy (-5) and had fallen two strokes back. Sepp Straka and Lee Hodges later joined McNealy atop the leaderboard at -5. Austin Smotherman, also at -5, halted his round because of darkness with a 15-foot birdie attempt yet to go on his 18th hole.
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The weather — sideways rain, 40-mph wind gusts — had its way with both halves of the draw on the first day of The Players. The result was a maddening day that frustrated many of the game’s best players, including the two most recent champions.
“I did some good things [with the] changing weather out there,” Scottie Scheffler said after his round, “but overall I felt like I gave away some shots. Hoping to clean it up a little bit the next few days.” Scheffler finished at an underwhelming-for-him even par on the afternoon, capping the day with a birdie on his final hole.
“Birdieing the last is nice,” he said. “It doesn’t taste as good when you bogey the 16th and 17th holes.” Scheffler particularly struggled around the green and spent several hours after his round ended working on TPC Sawgrass’ driving range.
Rory McIlroy, the defending champion, struggled all day — and even before the day, really, given that he termed himself a “game-time decision” to play. McIlroy had withdrawn from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational with back spasms and only arrived in Ponte Vedra on Wednesday. Perhaps not surprisingly, he struggled early in his round, carding two bogeys in his first five holes and finished at +2 for the day.
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“It’s weird, I obviously played on Friday; it’s not as if I’ve taken a ton of time off,” McIlroy said after his round. “But just felt, like, unbelievably rusty out there.”
Much farther up the leaderboard, McNealy enjoyed a landmark day that gave him all he could handle.
“I think today I just mastered the variability of what the golf course threw at us really well. It was a mixed bag of everything, felt like four different seasons out there,” he said. He also played smart golf, as on the 18th when he and his caddy discussed how to handle a tricky lie: “He said he was going to push me in the water if I tried to cut one onto the green, so I decided to punch out.”
Hodges, meanwhile, attributed his performance on the course to some pretty significant changes off it. “My off-the-course life is great. It’s getting better and better,” he said. “Me and my wife are expecting a child, and like, you know, honestly it makes you realize that this game doesn’t really matter that much. Maybe a little perspective change, like just on and off the course, has really helped me.”
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The shot of the day belonged to Sahith Theegala, who bank-shotted an eagle on the 12th en route to the top of the leaderboard:
“Golf is a fickle game,” Theegala said. “All these guys out here are grinding and putting in hard work. It never necessarily leads to anything, so to see this kind of start is really cool.”
Michael Kim drained a cinematic birdie on the picturesque 17th:
The rough weather blew out to sea in the late afternoon, leaving typically beautiful scenes as the sun set. The last few players, including Smotherman, were halted by darkness and will return to the course early Friday morning.
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“No one went really low this afternoon, which I expected them to, just because the conditions were pretty benign,” McIlroy said. “If I can go out and shoot a good one tomorrow, I feel like I’ll be right in it for the weekend.”
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