Simpson matches course record, Woods struggles to make cut at Players

The course record, and perhaps even more, was in reach.

After some indecision on the tee, he pushed his shot right, his luck running out as his ball took a huge bounce off a railway sleeper and ended up in the water.

The hole already offers players plenty to think about, with water surrounding the island green, but how would the players cope when face when taking on the hole with the opposite hand?

Day, the 2016 victor, fired a bogey-free round of five-under-par 67 to race out to eight under and sits just two shots back from the clubhouse lead. I would love to add this event to my CV’.

Simpson played his third shot from the drop zone en route to a humbling double-bogey five.

“You start just kind of laughing”, said Simpson, whose halfway score of 15-under 129 matched the tournament record set by Jason Day two years ago. “If we were able to put all of our facets of the game together, I think there would be a lot more tournament winners out here”.

“I think it’s a handsome golf course in the sense that I could go shoot a few under tomorrow because there’s birdie holes out there”, he said. The first time you get on some Pete Dye courses they’re very odd and they set you up at wrong angles, and visually they’re just a little bit not what you want to see, but you learn to deal with it and play the way he wants you to play.

“I made good decisions all day and just stuck to the game plan”.

“I didn’t quite swing it right today, and I didn’t quite have the shape, ball flight”, said Woods, who made two birdies and a bogey.

Woods hit just 12 greens in regulation and was never inside 10 feet with his approach shots.

“I played probably the best golf I’ve played here”, Schwartzel told the Golf Channel. I’m sure he was nervous playing that hole.

“Last year’s results don’t really factor much at (TPC) Sawgrass“.

In other words, players on the PGA Tour are waiting for the rest of the planet to get on board. “I’m not a fan of Pete Dye courses“. Feel like I’m putting well. “It’s hard to ask for anything more than that”.

You’ve got undervalued guys like Patrick Reed, who is somehow still at +3500 despite following up his Masters win with a Top-10 at the Wells Fargo Championship-his fifth straight.

Adam Scott was the youngest golfer to win THE PLAYERS Championship back in 2004 until 22-year-old Si Woo Kim stole the honour last year. After missing out on a chance to take the top spot in the Official World Ranking from Dustin Johnson last week, we’re thinking he gets it done (a missed cut might even do the trick depending on what DJ does) this time. The bad news is that they’re facing a two-touchdown deficit and sit four shots outside the top 25, with little if any chance of factoring into the final outcome. In the past 20 years, we’ve seen odds on favorite Tiger Woods deliver in 2001, just a couple of weeks before he collected his fourth consecutive major at the Masters Tournament during what is generally considered the best twelve months of golf in history. Of course the inevitable “what’s wrong with Jordan Spieth?” backlash will follow, and then he’ll win two of his next five events.

Nobody wanted to lead on Thursday at the 2018 Players Championship, it appeared.