Sobel: How Will TPC Sawgrass Play in March? Tour Pros Tell All

Sobel: How Will TPC Sawgrass Play in March? Tour Pros Tell All article feature image
Credit:

Peter Casey, USA Today Sports. Pictured: Webb Simpson

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Welcome to Conference Championship Week, when the elite contenders start trying to get their games in shape for the impending Big Dance.

And no, I’m not talking hoops.

For the first time in 13 years, The Players Championship is being contested in March – and for the first time in 13 years, competitors will be playing with one eye toward the upcoming Masters, no matter how much the powers-that-be here at PGA Tour HQ despise that notion.

There’s a definite correlation between the current paradigm in college basketball and that of golf. In both sports, this week is important, but as much for what it could mean moving forward than anything else.



There are more tangible changes to this event, though, than just its’ place in the schedule.

The biggest, of course, is the golf course itself. In May, TPC Sawgrass played fast and firm, with players often holding back from hitting driver, just to maximize accuracy.

That won’t happen this week.

Instead, we should expect a longer, softer and by some accounts tougher track two months earlier.

“It's soft, it's wet,” said Tiger Woods. “We had the rain [Monday] night; we were getting mud balls and it's back to how it used to play. Cooler, ball's not going as far. The last hole, last year I hit 3-iron, 9-iron. Today, it was 3-wood and a 3-iron. So a little bit different.”

Woods is one of two dozen players in this week’s field who’s previously competed in the tournament in March – and along with Adam Scott, one of only two players here who’s won the tourney in the earlier part of the schedule.

Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods thinks TPC Sawgrass will play shorter in March than it does in May. Credit: John David Mercer, USA Today Sports.

Even so, he wouldn’t allow that he owns any sort of advantage.

“The golf course plays so much shorter in May than it does in March,” Woods continued. “That's probably the biggest difference. We're going to have to hit more clubs off the tees, have a little bit longer clubs into the greens, but the difference is the greens are much slower and much more receptive.”

“It would be a very, very, very small advantage, but possibly,” said Justin Rose, one of those 24 players who previously played this tournament in March. “The only thing that I remember from it is that it seems the course plays a little bit more extreme in terms of I think there's some lower scores to be had, but I think there are also some higher scores to be had. The rough's little bit thicker, so if you're on your game, I feel like can you work the ball to the pins a little bit easier when it's overseeded and the rough plays thicker, so therefore, if you're off your game, you can run into more trouble.”

Rose has company in his assessment of the potential volatility in scoring this week.

As Jason Day offered, “The only tough part about this is that the weather can have a huge factor in how the score finishes. [A winning score of] 24-under has been as low as it possibly has been in the March date, and then I think as high as 3-under has won this, as well. So there's a very big gap, and that's obviously due to the fact of the weather.”

“Obviously very fond memories of playing this event in March for me,” explained Adam Scott, who won here in 2004. “Course definitely played a little longer than we saw it the last 10 years or so in May, with some slower fairways and wind out of a different direction than we see often here. So I think we're in for a good challenge this week. It's not brutally difficult, but if the wind blows, it's going to play tough.”

Colder. Softer. Windier. Longer.

Those characteristics are all good to know, but they don’t answer the one question on most bettors’ minds: What type of player can win the tournament this week?

Expect a solid ball-striker, a player who doesn’t get himself into too much trouble, one whose game won’t be too adversely affected if the wind does indeed blow throughout the four tournament rounds.

Or as Woods so succinctly put it, “It's a very simple formula here: Hit it good. It's not real complicated.”

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