The debate can rage on whether The PLAYERS should be classified a major or not, it’s not in my opinion, but it is one of the best tournaments regardless of what it is labeled. The best players in the world on a course that demands control of all the shots makes for great theater. And the 2019 PLAYERS gave us just that and was one of the best tournaments in history, period.
Nick Faldo, Paul Azinger and the multi-talented Mike Tirico shared a bit of booth time together early in the week and it was great television. All three do a good job separately but together they are special.
Not to be outdone by their analyst brethren the Live at The PLAYERS crew played investigative journalists as they dove into Tiger Woods’ triple bogey on seventeen in the second round. Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo and David Duval broke the news that Tiger could have taken a drop on the walkway to the green and saved a few strokes. Woods was shocked to hear that as Duval broke the news to him on the phone.
John Rahm spoke all week about being more in control of his emotions on the course and that worked up until the eleventh hole. Faced with an impossible shot from the left fairway bunker that needed to fly 200 yards, hook around the trees into a fifteen mph wind he ignored his caddie, Adam Hayes who was pleading with him to lay up as he knew the shot Rahm was trying was suicide. As the ball splashed into the water Rahm’s temper rose and he was done then.
All hail the captain! Jim Furyk brought his forty-eight year old bones and figure eight swing to walk among those young punks at Sawgrass and showed them that the ball doesn’t care how old your are. The 2018 Ryder Cup Captain did his best to exact a bit of revenge from those European Ryder Cup players that closed him out in Paris. He posted a number and made them come get him. Only Rory could do it. Classy move by Furyk to wait to congratulate Rory as he came off eighteen. Classy men both of them.
As far as stupid shots went, PLAYERS champion Rory McIlroy had a few of his own as early on at the fourth he mishit his approach from the deep rough with what looked like a half-hearted swing and rinsed his ball on his way to double bogey. But true to his word, he has a new attitude on the course that allowed him to get it behind him. Previously a double early in a round could have unsettled the new world number one, but no longer.
Rory’s great shots out-numbered his poor ones for sure and on sixteen he crushed his driver leaving him only a nine iron into the par five. That’s massive and he executed a solid shot that allowed him an easy birdie to get him to sixteen under and one shot ahead of Jim Furyk.
The three final holes at Sawgrass are a bear. Bogey, doubles and more are common and when a player stands on the tee at the eighteenth hole with nothing but water left and trees right hitting driver can be courting disaster. Not for Rory…he pulled his driver and hammered it down the middle and followed it with a daring approach to fifteen feet. Done and done and the new and improved Rory claims his first PLAYERS trophy.
Great line from Roger Maltbie at the finish. With the winner decided both Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood were left to finish up on the eighteenth and while many may have lost interest by then Roger says that we’re not done as “they aren’t giving away seashells here ya’ know.” The PLAYERS has the largest purse on tour.
Another great line from the quipster David Feherty describing the bearded, long haired Fleetwood who was head to toe in Nike gear featuring an over-sized sweater, ”he looks like a homeless person that robbed a Nike store and got away with it.” Nice one.
As great as it was to watch Rory close the deal after weeks of near misses and it was fun to cheer on Furyk’s senior moment charge, I finished The PLAYERS with a new personal hero. Mike “Fluff” Cowan has been humping Furyk’s bag for twenty years and lifted Tiger’s before then and has over forty years on the tour. And he’s 71 years old! God bless him and those legs of his. If only I could still be walking the course at 71. That’s my goal…to still be walking and playing this crazy game at 71. A guy can only hope.
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