The Players Championship leaderboard 2017

Ninth hole: Tee shot into the primary rough, second shot into the fairway bunker, third shot into the rough and a missed nine-foot par putt.

McIlroy shaved the hole for another at 17, but he lifted his spirits with a rare birdie at the last as he holed his best putt of the round from just inside 35 feet.

World No.1 Dustin Johnson, whose late run last week came up just short of a fourth consecutive PGA victory, is confident as The Players Championship opens Thursday (Friday in Manila). – Rory McIlroy explained on Tuesday following news he’d signed an endorsement deal with TaylorMade that it was the golf ball that prompted his decision. Putting the 2017 M2 Driver and M2 Tour Fairway Woods in his bag. He was antsy, not knowing what to expect in his first tournament since winning the Masters on April 9.

McIlroy acknowledged that TPC Sawgrass presented a unique challenge to him before the tournament began. We can’t wait to see!

David Duval on Golf Channel went with Sergio Garcia who shot 40 on his front nine but aced the 17th.

“My mentality on the golf course, I feel, will just be the same”, he said. “Then next week try to get that better and try to recover and try to play a good stretch of golf from here through the summer and obviously focus on the majors”.

“Good numbers at a good time, made a good swing at a good time”, McGirt said. DJ nearly scored his fourth victory in a row last week until Brian Harmon drained a 25-footer to win the Wells Fargo. As the 29-year-old gets set to defend his title at TPC Sawgrass he told reporters about the mental and emotional pressures being and losing the number one spot had caused him.

“It would be nice to be the first in history (to win back-to-back), but it’s day one, it’s going to be hot tomorrow and play tough the next three days, so I just have to slowly inch my way up the leader board and hopefully be in there Sunday”. So I ended up doing that.

All we can say is watch out DJ!

The 28-year-old four-time Major champion has never won at TPC Sawgrass, where the victor will take home a cheque of $1.89m, making it one of the most lucrative events on the USPGA Tour. I feel like I turned a 75 or a 76 into a 73, so it wasn’t all bad. It’s definitely a challenge for me.

“I’ve played here 25 years, so it’s not like that one round was going to make a big difference”, Mickelson said.

The Real Star of The Players…. He looks ready to do it again, hitting a hole-in-one in practice. Sergio Garcia was added to that list when he won the Masters. “The game is in really good shape”. Leading many to observe you don’t win on 17, you lose on it.

If you were trying to flavor beef or pork or chicken, it would have been a good thing.

The Invernesian has recorded three top-10 finishes this season and believes there is more improvement to come from his game during the summer.

The Players carries the second largest purse in golf at $10.5 million as well as exemptions to each major championship.

Don’t count Rickie Fowler out of the hunt for The Players Championship.