PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The 2025 Players Championship officially activated Tuesday. Rob Gronkowski — yes, that Rob Gronkowski — was on the bag for Will Zalatoris. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan dodged questions like Neo. News of Tiger Woods’ latest injury interrupted Ludvig Åberg’s press conference. TPC Sawgrass was filled to the brim with players and spectators alike following a rainy and windy Monday that shut down facilities.
As Dr. Frankenstein once said, “It is alive.”
The PGA Tour’s flagship event is beginning to feel more like it as the tournament fast approaches. Most players have fulfilled sponsor and media obligations — though Rory McIlroy is scheduled to speak Wednesday morning — and can now keep the main thing the main thing.
For most of the world’s best, that means putting the beginning touches on their preparations. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and world No. 3 Xander Schauffele shared a tee time on Tuesday, navigating the back nine at TPC Sawgrass in lockstep. They’ll see the front nine Wednesday. McIlroy made an appearance alongside his good friend Shane Lowry. That’s not breaking any news.
There’s still one day in between the start of the week and the start of the tournament, but Tuesday revealed plenty about what to expect.
Collin Morikawa hears you
Morikawa enters this week coming off the disappointment of his runner-up result at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a clear chip on his shoulder. While he did not admit to hearing the noise of “he can’t close,” he did admit that he reads what people are saying about him. (This was in reference to a clip of him and caddie J.J. Jakovac discussing a shot.) With Russell Henley’s win, it is Morikawa who has the most top-10 finishes without a win since the start of 2024 (10).
“I think I know where I’m at and I know where I’m at with my golf,” Morikawa said. “I just have to win. I have to be able to close it out. For me, that’s going to come down to me. I’m the one hitting the shot. I’m the one pulling off the shots, hitting, doing what I need to do.
“But for me, it’s not about the words to fluff it up. Like we all know what happened. I think the people — my team knows, like, I don’t need the fluff. Like I’m not about the B.S.-ing and saying,’All right, good job, we’re doing better,’ like we’re going to win next week. No, we know what our goal is at the beginning of the week. It didn’t happen, but it’s a lot better position than finishing 40th.”
J.T. admits he’s slow
Pace of play — rather, “speed of play,” as the PGA Tour has rebranded the phrase (hopefully the consulting firm got its pretty penny for that one — was a hot topic on Tuesday. News of releasing speed-of-play statistics later in the season was made known as the PGA Tour tests new policies on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas in the coming month and the use of distance-measuring devices on the PGA Tour following the Masters.
Players are privy to their own numbers — and where they stand relative to peers — leading Thomas comfortable to publicize that he is in fact on the slower side. I guess when you have so many shots at your disposal, it takes more time to cycle through all the options.
“I’m the first to admit I’m on the slow side of players,” Thomas said. “It bothers me, but I’ve talked to many officials about it, like I want to know why I’m slow because obviously the first thing that any slower player thinks is that they’re not slow. I never want to be the guy that gets paired with somebody and that person is like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to play with Justin, he’s so slow.’ … It’s not a good feeling because you know you’re going to be on the clock, and that’s not fun.”
Monahan puts up a double-double
Members of the media attempted to pry any semblance of news out of Jay Monahan regarding ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Despite their best efforts, they were unsuccessful as Monahan stuck to his talking points and directed those questions about the Saudis to, well, the Saudis.
“Listen, no surprise to you, I’m 100% focused on the PGA Tour and focused on everything that I control,” Monahan answered when asked what PIF may want from its investment. “I think that’s a question for [Yasir Al-Rummayyan] to answer, not for me to answer.”
I don’t know if Monahan put up any points, but there were plenty of blocks and assists to fill up the stat sheet.
Getting back up to speed
World No. 3 Xander Schauffele returned to action last week at Bay Hill following a rib injury that had sidelined him since the first week of the PGA Tour season. Just how prepared was Schauffele for last week? Well, the two-time major champion had played nine holes with Thomas at a par-3 course and another 18 holes with some his fellow members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
“[There were] a lot of nerves, a lot of thick rough, a lot of crusty greens,” Schauffele said of his return. “Just stuff you don’t see. I think I can see myself hitting a correct shot. It’s just it is different when the gun goes off. It’s different having to make a 6-footer after not having to make one for quite some time.
“I had an offseason, and I played Sentry, which is usually a cozy warm-up and then nothing, so it was literally — it felt like it was, you know, not just six weeks but sort of call it three months since I had to hit an important putt. So, just getting the nerves, getting everything out, clanking a few chips, dumping a few bunker shots, just all those bad shots I hit last week, trying to get them out of my system.”
Are you saying ‘tee’ or ‘tree?’
There are a number of notable changes to TPC Sawgrass for this year’s tournament. While one is on the back nine — the cart path right of No. 14’s fairway was moved to introduce more rough and mounds — the other is on the par-4 6th. Adding another tee box and lengthening the hole, the tournament has made it so that players will have to navigate a feature which had not been seen for many years.
At the direction of Monahan and Davis Love III, who aided in the process, TPC Sawgrass relocated a 250-ton tree near the tee box to give players an extra variable to compute off the tee. Let’s just say … some players may need more practice Wednesday as at least one was victim to the refurbished feature.
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