The PLAYERS Championship…Fun to Watch

It’s wonderful to see a redemptive story like Webb Simpson’s PLAYERS Championship victory. He had struggled from the day he was forced to give up his long putter. After all he won the 2012 U.S. Open with that broomstick but when it was banned he actually broke it over his knee to signify a new start in his putting game. (He did keep the putter and has it in his trophy case, both pieces.) So watching a comeback from the putting hinterlands (182^nd) to win on a tough track like Sawgrass has to be one of the feel good stories of the year.

One of my first articles back in 2009 was about a hot rookie making his way on the PGA Tour. Click here for an old school, inside look at a young Webb Simpson.

And from what I can tell, Webb has changed his game a bit. He is still as slow as hell but on the greens once he gets his read he steps up and strokes it without delay. Now, if he and Paul Tesori could just integrate that into the rest of his game.

The Must See Pairing of Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth was fun to watch early and Woods did his best to mount a charge but both lost their mojo on the back nine.

Brooks Koepka started the early morning buzz around Sawgrass by tying the course record (63) which included the rare double eagle on sixteen.

I have it on good authority, my (big spender) older brother, that TPC Sawgrass is a fun course to play. I bet a few pros will dispute that today. But it certainly is fun to watch the action on such an intriguing layout.

The par three seventeenth is probably one of the most recognized holes in golf. And I thought the Golf Channel and NBC did a great job covering that hole with all their camera angles and anemometers showing us the wind up high and down low. Seventeen is a hole I could watch all day.

Jason Dufner is Ray Floyd reincarnated. All due respect to Mr. Floyd who is alive and well and will be back at Shinnecock this year but Duf is doing his best Ray Floyd impersonation. His waggle his reminiscent of Raymond. He had a pair of saddle shoes on today that were vintage Floyd and the old school PLAYERS golf hat he had on brought back images of the old Amana hat Floyd wore for years. And since Duf went off his old diet that had him fit and trim and is obviously back on the carbs that gut he has gives him Floyd’s old profile too. Get off the carbs Duf! But I guess there could be worse pros to copy other than a Hall of Famer with four major championships.