THE PLAYERS:
Overnight leader and World No. 1 Jason Day orchestrated a 1-under-par 38-33=71 in the final round of the 43rd edition of THE PLAYERS for a 72-hole aggregate of 15-under 273, good for a four-shot victory over Kevin Chappell.
This was Day’s 10th PGA TOUR title in his 181st career start and SEVENTH in his last 17 TOUR events. (Mathematicians will tell you the latter is a 41.2 percent win percentage).
It’s his third this season in 10 events and second in wire-to-wire fashion, having also won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in that manner.
In stroke-play wins, it’s Day’s THIRD straight wire-to-wire dating back to the 2015 BMW Championship, the penultimate FedExCup (FEC) Playoffs event, where he won by six shots.
Let’s not forget Day also won the WGC-Dell Match Play in March with a perfect 7-0-0 record and capped it with a 5 & 4 thumping of Louis Oosthuizen in the Finals.
This was the Aussie’s 12th career 54-hole lead/co-lead and has now converted six times, including his last FIVE straight.
He won in his sixth appearance at TPC Sawgrass with a previous best of T6 in 2011, and becomes just the third different player to win THE PLAYERS while ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), joining Greg Norman (1994) and Tiger Woods (2001, 2013).
Day set or tied several tournament records en route to victory, including:
Tied, low 18-hole score with 9-under 63 in R1.
Set, 36-hole scoring record (15-under 63-66=129), previously 14-under 130 by Norman in 1994.
Tied, low start by a winner with two players
Set, largest 36-hole lead, 4 (previously 3 by two players)
Day also set a personal mark by playing his first 36 holes bogey-free.
With 600 FEC points for the win, the 28-year-old bumps countryman Adam Scott out of the top spot in the FEC standings. Thru 27 events this season, he and Scott (2) are the only multiple winners.
The Winner’s KEY Stats (ranking of 76 players):
Birdie to Bogey Ratio: 4.40 (1st); 2nd-ranked was Colt Knost at 2.63
Scrambling: 17/20 (1st) at 85.00 percent
All-Around: 1st
Par-4 Scoring: 3.78 (1st)
Other Stats:
Par-5 Scoring: 4.44 (T5)
Birdie or Better Percentage: 30.56 percent (T3)
Total Putts: 107 (T3); by rounds: 24-24-32-27
Greens in Regulation (GIR): 52/72 (T15) at 72.22 percent
Proximity to Hole: 37’10” (T50)
Putts per GIR: 1.673 (13th)
Strokes gained: tee-to-green (SGTTG): 11.132 (3rd)
Strokes gained: putting (SGP): 5.821 (8th)
Driving Distance: 311.5 yards (1st)
Driving Accuracy: 33/56 (T51) at 58.93 percent
Par-5 Scoring: 4.56 (T17)
Par-3 Scoring: 3.06 (T25)
Birdies: 22 (T2)
Bogeys: 3 (1st)
Double Bogeys: 2 (T40)
Golf Channel Perfect Picks ($4,032,000):
Group 1: Jason Day (Won): $1,890,000
Group 2: Matt Kuchar (T3): $504,000
Group 3: Kevin Chappell (2nd): $1,134,000
Group 4: Colt Knost, Ken Duke (T3): $504,000
Draw:
Despite a second-round delay of 2 hours and 2 minutes (lightning) that eventually stranded 33 (of 71 PMers) on Friday, early/late was the better draw with 41 (of 69) making the cut (three WD’s) versus 35 (of 72) late/early.
The champion and the runner-up were both early/late while all four T3’s were late/early.
Jason Day (Won): Early/late
Kevin Chappell (2nd): Early/late
Justin Thomas (T3): Late/early
Matt Kuchar (T3): Late/early
Colt Knost (T3): Late/early
Ken Duke (T3): Late/early
Yahoo! Low Rounds:
R1: Jason Day (63)*
R2: Colt Knost (63)*
R3: Ken Duke (65)
R4: Justin Thomas (65)
*Note: Day and Knost tied the course record.
Bogey-free Rounds:
R1: EIGHT: Jason Day (63), Bill Haas (65), Brendan Steele (65), Boo Weekley (66), Jerry Kelly (67), Paul Casey (68), Jon Curran (70), Jimmy Walker (71)
R2: EIGHT: William McGirt (65), Adam Scott (65), Jason Day (66)*, Jason Dufner (66), Russell Knox (67), Bryce Molder (68), J.J. Henry (69), Soren Kjeldsen (70)
R3: NONE
R4: ONE: Jon Curran (67)*
*Note: Day (R1/R2) and Curran (R1/R4) were the only two players with multiple bogey-free rounds.
The Champion’s Recap:
15-under 273 (63-66-73-71)
Jason Day: The Aussie began the finale on 14-under (63-66-73), four clear of three players, including playing competitor Hideki Matsuyama, who shot 73 and finished T7.
Similar to R3, he bobbled on his first half, stumbling to a birdie-less two-bogey 38 after finding just three GIR.
At the turn, the leaderboard read:
Day: -12 (thru 9 holes)
Justin Thomas: -10 (in with 65)
Matt Kuchar: -9 (thru 13)
Cameron Tringale: -9 (11)
Colt Knost: -9 (11)
Francesco Molinari: -9 (10)
Ken Duke: -9 (10)
Kevin Chappell: -7 (10)
Day not only protected his two-shot lead after the turn, he extended it by hitting 8-of-9 GIR, coming home in bogey-free 3-under 33. He did not suffer a single dropped shot on the back nine all week, playing the final nine holes in a cumulative 12-under.
The Runner-up:
11-under 277 (71-67-70-69)
Kevin Chappell: The 29-year-old remains winless on TOUR in 155 career starts but nabs his fifth career runner-up, THIRD this season in 15 events. He also finished solo second at The RSM Classic and solo second to Day at the API, though the margin there was one.
Chappell began the finale T6 on 8-under and after a first-nine 1-over 37, had dropped to T11, seemingly out of it. But, similar to what he did on the back nine in R2, where he shot 29, the UCLA product came home in bogey-free 32.
Chappell pitched-in from 36 yards away (from the rough) for eagle at the par-5 11th, his third eagle-3 of the week. It’s the first time he’s recorded three eagles in a single TOUR event, and matched the tournament record in that category. Chappell led in par-5 scoring at 4.25.
Chappell was also No.1 in SGTTG with a cumulative 17.493 and co-led in birdies with 23, but was 71st (of 76) in SGP at -4.537, including -2.996 in R4.
He jumps 10 spots to No. 5 in the FEC standings and is the leader of those WITHOUT a victory. Patrick Reed, who missed the cut, is next best at No. 8.
*Note: Three players shot back-nine 29s this week (6-under 30 was the previous record): Shane Lowry/R1, Rory McIlroy/R2 and Chappell/R2.
Surprises:
Eleven golfers finished in the top 10. Of the 11, they had 48 previous PLAYERS appearances among them with only FIVE top 10s.
The only player that had more than one previous top 10 was Molinari, who had two of the five. The only player with a previous top-5 finish was Kuchar, who won in 2012.
Colt Knost: Prior to this week, Knost’s three career laps at TPC Sawgrass totaled 20-over-par (79-78-79). He toured it four times this week, three at par or better, for T3 on 10-under 278 (72-63-74-69).
The 30-year-old’s 63 in R2 tied the low round of the week, matched the course record, and matched a career mark as well in 470 rounds. Since we’re matching, his T3 also ties a career-best finish on TOUR in his 161st event, most recently solo third at the 2012 RBC Heritage 91 starts ago.
Knost was No. 1 in GIR at 80.56 percent (58/72) despite being 72nd in driving distance at 277.3 yards, and was No. 1 in proximity to hole at 29’4”.
He improves to 15-for-16 on the season with five top 25s, though this was his first top 10. The SMU alum jumps 29 places to 56th in the FEC standings.
Ken Duke: At 495th in the world, the 47-year-old was the second-lowest ranked player to 58-year-old Bernhard Langer. He finished T3 on 10-under 278 (74-67-65-72), his best finish on TOUR since his lone win at the 2013 Travelers.
It’s easily his best at TPC Sawgrass in his seventh appearance, supplanting T37 on debut in 2007. The Palm City, Florida, resident also bagged his first top-30 finish of the season in his 10th start and was the biggest mover in FEC points leaping 47 spots to 147th.
Duke’s 65 in the third round was the low lap of the day and was 10.592 strokes better than the field average, the most of any player versus the field at this event.
Disappointments:
Rickie Fowler: The 27-year-old lands in this category for the second straight week. At last week’s Wells Fargo, he was the 54-hole leader by one and backed up to T4 with a closing 2-over 74, dropping to 0-for-3 in his career when leading/co-leading after 54 holes.
This week he was the defending champion and at 72-71=143, missed the cut by one stroke.
Jordan Spieth: The World No. 2 played the first two rounds with the would-be-champ and while the World No. 1 was setting a 36-hole tourney scoring record, Spieth missed the cut by one with 72-71.
This was the 22-year-old’s first action since the Sunday collapse at the Masters and Day bested him by 14 shots in two rounds.
It’s his second missed cut of the season in 10 events (Northern Trust) and second straight at TPC Sawgrass. The AT&T athlete heads to this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson with more questions than answers.
Henrik Stenson: The 2009 PLAYERS champ missed the cut at last week’s Wells Fargo by two (72-75), ending a TOUR-leading streak of 35 consecutive cuts made. He got worse this week, missing the cut by eight at 6-over 77-73=150.
What We Learned:
The pre-tourney odds-favorites have won just ONCE this season thru 27 events (Jordan Spieth- Hyundai TOC). Day was 11/1, third-highest behind Rory McIlroy (8/1) and Jordan Spieth (10/1).
The best field in golf assembled at TPC Sawgrass with a Strength of Field rating of 841. By comparison, last week’s Wells Fargo was 436 with the Zurich Classic a week prior at 250.
Also by comparison, the Masters was 798 and the WGC-Dell Match Play (won by Day), was 779.
In total, 24 of the Top 25 OWGR were in the field, minus No. 21 Charl Schwartzel, and 46 of the Top 50.
Of the 24 in the Top 25, 10 missed the cut:
No. 2: Spieth
No. 5: Fowler
No. 6: Stenson
No. 9: Danny Willett
No. 12: Reed
No. 16: Brandt Snedeker
No. 17: Phil Mickelson
No. 19: J.B. Holmes
No. 22: Kevin Kisner
No. 24: Byeong-hun An
Of the 24, ONLY TWO finished in the Top 10:
No. 1: Day (Won)
No. 14: Hideki Matsuyama (T7)
Of the 46, just FIVE finished in the Top 10. Joining Day and Matsuyama were:
No. 30: Matt Kuchar: T3 on 10-under 278 (71-67-72-68)
No. 38: Justin Thomas: T3 on 10-under 278 (70-68-75-65)
No. 45: Daniel Berger: T9 on 8-under 280 (66-72-73-69)
There were 25 first-timers in the elite field of 144, including four (of 17) TOUR rookies.
Si Woo Kim: The 20-year-old was the top debutant with T23 on 4-under 284 (68-70-72-74). It’s his ninth top 25 of the season in 20 events and bumps eight spots to 40th in the FEC standings.
Harold Varner III: For the FOURTH straight week, the 25-year-old has either claimed or shared top rookie honors, this time with T57 on 3-over 291 (73-66-78-74). He’s 12-for-19 on the season with three top 10s and dips three places to 69th in the FEC standings.
Patton Kizzire: The 30-year-old was the only other rookie to make the cut and finished 76th (last) on 12-over 300. He played his first 36 holes in 3-under 71-70=141 – one inside the cut line – but played his last 36 (during the more difficult course conditions) in 15-over 82-77=159. The Auburn alum is 14-for-17 on the season with five top 10s and drops one to 32nd in the FEC standings.
Shout Outs:
Jim Furyk: The newly minted 46-year-old (May 12th) made the cut in his second start following a 34-week rehab from wrist surgery. In his first start, he missed the cut by three at last week’s Wells Fargo (73-75). The Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, resident finished a more than respectable T35 this week on 2-under 286 (71-70-75-70).
Will Wilcox: The 29-year-old finished T72 in his tourney debut. He opened with 68-71 but collapsed to 82-74 for 7-over 295. That aside, Wilcox recorded an ace on the famous par-3 17th in R2 using a pitching wedge from 147 yards. It was the first hole-in-one at the 17th in the last 6,300 tee shots dating back to Miguel Angel Jimenez in 2002/R1.
Up Next:
The TOUR heads back to Texas for this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving. Texas resident Steven Bowditch is the defending champion after winning his second TOUR title – both in Texas – by four over runners-up Charley Hoffman, Jimmy Walker and Scott Pinckney.
Stay tuned to this space for all the latest player news and opinions as the TOUR readies for its 28th tournament of the season.
