Players Championship Recap

Story posted March 14, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Rob Cardini

It was a weekend of ups and downs in all aspects at the Players Championship this past weekend at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Inclement weather caused a round of play to be suspended which caused some players to get a lack of feel for the course which was reflected in almost everyone’s scorecard except the winner, Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler was the only player in the field to shoot under par in each round and had his best round on “moving day,” Saturday, with a seven-under, 65. Scheffler locked up the tournament with an impressive three-under round on Sunday and would go on to win by five strokes.

While Scheffler was one of the betting favorites for the tournament coming in, he didn’t get off to as hot a start as others. Chad Ramey shot an opening round eight-under-par to take an 18-hole lead.

Then on Friday during the second round, the PGA had to suspend play due to inclement weather which left 24 groups having to finish their second round early Saturday morning. But, maybe the craziest part of the weekend was some of the records that were set.

On Saturday, Tom Hoge set the new tournament course record with a remarkable 10-under-par 62. And on Sunday, Alex Smalley hit the only hole-in-one ever on the famous 17th hole on a Sunday at the tournament which would make it the third hole-in-one of the week.

In the end, Scheffler would come away with an earning of $4.5 million and join legends Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus to be the only players ever on the PGA Tour to be both the current winner of the Masters and the Players Championship.

Players will now shift their focus to the challenging Valspar Championship which takes place this coming weekend. 

Rob Cardini is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email rvc5706@psu.edu