{"id":9992,"date":"2024-03-11T07:10:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T07:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/?post_type=article&#038;p=9992"},"modified":"2024-03-12T06:24:21","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T06:24:21","slug":"the-players-championship-at-tpc-sawgrass-2024-preview","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/article\/the-players-championship-at-tpc-sawgrass-2024-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass \u2013 2024 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On the heels of Scottie Scheffler&#8217;s return to the winner&#8217;s circle at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the stage is set for the PGA Tour&#8217;s marquee event as the 2024 edition of THE PLAYERS Championship kicks off this week at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The most iconic Pete Dye creation, TPC Sawgrass is a hazard-filled, positional, Florida-style test that hosts what many consider the most competitive and thrilling tournament of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While packed with talent again this year and still holding onto the mantra of &#8220;the best field in golf&#8221;, with a decent number of the world&#8217;s best competing on the rival LIV Tour, we can safely discard the title of THE PLAYERS Championship being golf&#8217;s &#8220;fifth major&#8221;. Even so, it remains one of the most important events on the calendar. 2019 champion Rory McIlroy summed up what the tournament means by saying, &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t consider my career complete if I hadn&#8217;t won a Players Championship.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Visually, TPC Sawgrass is one of the most perfectly manicured courses in the world. From the lush rough to the elaborately designed white sand bunkers to the 16 holes framed with water to the lightning-fast tiered greens, players will face challenges on every hole. Few other courses can match its risk\/reward brilliance. Tee shots on the angled fairways are well-designed and encourage golfers to hit toward the trouble for the least obstructed approach shots into the demanding greens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a course where any type of player can win. Pretenders are quickly weeded out. Toss in some typically windy March conditions. Errors get compounded in a hurry.  Players who are strong mentally with an all-around game and who are entering with sharp form typically have the best chance of surviving the torture chamber. It sounds cliche, but here at Sawgrass, the best overall player for the week raises the trophy on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"386\" height=\"679\" src=\"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9994\" srcset=\"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-1.png 386w, https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-1-171x300.png 171w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 386px) 100vw, 386px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, 47 of the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking will be in attendance at TPC Sawgrass. Thanks to continuing defections to the LIV Tour, the field is even more watered down this year. With the likes of Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Joaquin Niemann, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, and 2022 champion Cameron Smith banished from this event, it opens up opportunities for many of the \u201crank and file\u201d members as 47 players will make either their first or second start at this year&#8217;s PLAYERS Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While two-time champion Tiger Woods disappointed many by not entering the field this year, every single eligible PGA Tour golfer in the top-100 in the world will be in attendance this week. Past champions in the field include Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Si Woo Kim, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, and Adam Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The field contains a full 144 golfers this week with the top 65 and ties making it through the 36-hole cutline to play the weekend. The winner receives 750 FedExCup points and a $4.5 million first-place check from a $25 million purse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TPC Sawgrass &#8211; History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Located in Ponte Vedra Beach on 415 acres of northeastern Florida swampland, PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman purchased the property in 1978 for the sum total of $1. The &#8220;swampy jungle&#8221; was initially full of alligators, deer, wild boars, and poisonous snakes. Beman hand-picked famed architect Pete Dye who completed the course in 1980 after taking one of the least attractive sites possible, performing miracles to solve the drainage issues, and transforming it into the layout we see today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beman&#8217;s goal was to create a challenging and renowned course with stadium seating that could become the new host for the Tour&#8217;s Players Championship. In fact, TPC Sawgrass became the first course of its kind to provide spectators with a stadium-type atmosphere. THE PLAYERS Championship was held at the adjacent Sawgrass Country Club through 1981 and then moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After that first event, the story was not about Jerry Pate&#8217;s victory but instead about the litany of complaints that Tour players had about the new course. &#8220;It&#8217;s Star Wars golf, designed by Darth Vader,&#8221; Ben Crenshaw pronounced. When asked if the course suited his playing style, Jack Nicklaus replied, &#8220;No, I&#8217;ve never been very good at stopping a 5-iron on the hood of a car.&#8221; J.C. Snead went as far as calling the course &#8220;90 percent horse manure and 10 percent luck.&#8221; Dye seemingly had a fiendish delight in creating extremely demanding shots around hazards which included as much deception and mental stress as possible in some of his designs. As the story goes, Beman gave Dye a phone call with a clear message. \u201cI\u2019ve got a near mutiny on my hands, Pete. You have to get back down here and make some changes to the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the next year, Dye made minor changes to the course. He replaced several of more treacherous bunkers and made the sloping of the greens less severe. After the adjustments, players were satisfied. &#8220;Now it&#8217;s a darn good golf course,&#8221; Crenshaw said of the improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TPC Sawgrass: The Invention of Stadium Golf\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m4jbZUUfQF8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, Dye has tweaked his course further and today it amasses praise from almost everyone. In 2016, Sawgrass underwent its first official renovation led by Steve Wenzloff in consultation with Dye. Said Director of Operations, Jeff Plotts, &#8220;We have redone the golf course and carried out a major renovation following the 2016 Players Championship. We redid all the tees, bunkers and greens. The twelfth hole has been completely reconstructed, and a new lake between the sixth and seventh hole has been created.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2017 it was decided that starting in 2019, THE PLAYERS Championship would be bumped forward in the calendar to March instead of its typical slot in May. The biggest difference between the two dates is the weather. The tournament in May was played in warmer temperatures, with nothing close to the type of wind that can blow off the Atlantic Ocean in March. The wind in May was typically out of the south or southwest, while the prevailing wind in March is out of the north or northeast. This has led to much cooler temperatures along with wetter and windier playing conditions, which in turn has made scoring more difficult. The two-month change also meant that instead of being a 100% Bermuda grass course, TPC Sawgrass now has overseeded rye grass rough along with Poa Trivialis greens which both offer more protection from cold winters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2023 saw the most recent changes to the course. A new tee box was built which can lengthen the par 5 ninth hole to over 600 yards. This will put even more teeth into a hole that was originally designed by Dye to be the most difficult par-5 hole on the course, and a three-shot hole for most players. There were also some other subtle differences that Plotts said fans were not likely to notice, mainly at the par-4 first hole. The face of the right fairway bunker has been made a bit steeper and the &#8220;moguls&#8221; &#8211; undulations in the fairway &#8211; have been made a bit more penal. Three small pot bunkers have been added at No. 1. The faces of fairway bunkers at Nos. 6, 7, and 10 have been made slightly steeper. &#8220;We&#8217;re trying to put back some of the Pete Dye flair that may have softened over time,&#8221; Plotts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>We have partnered with\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vividpicks.com\/promo\/betspertsgolf\" target=\"_blank\">Vivid Picks<\/a>\u00a0to bring you an easy way to claim a FREE, no-strings-attached 2024 season at Betsperts Golf, plus a 100% deposit match up to $250! Click\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/betspertsgolf.com\/golf-betting\/free-2024-subscription-to-betsperts-golf-with-vivid-picks-deposit-and-play\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>\u00a0to learn more!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finish Position and Strokes Gained Course History (2015-2023)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round since 2015 for each of the categories. Players are sorted by SG: Total. TPC Sawgrass is the 24th-most (out of 44) predictive annual course on Tour.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass \u2013 2024 Preview<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10003,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"bs_types":[14,15],"bs_tags":[29,73,98],"class_list":["post-9992","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","bs_type-betting","bs_type-fantasy","bs_tag-golf-betting","bs_tag-golf-dfs","bs_tag-the-players-championship"],"acf":false,"featured_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/gettyimages-687411332-612x612-1.jpg","tags_list":[{"id":29,"name":"Golf Betting","slug":"golf-betting"},{"id":73,"name":"Golf DFS","slug":"golf-dfs"},{"id":98,"name":"The Players Championship","slug":"the-players-championship"}],"types_list":[{"id":14,"name":"Betting"},{"id":15,"name":"Fantasy"}],"bs_author":{"name":"Ron Klos","profile_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ron-Klos-150x150.jpg"},"bs_term_name":null,"is_paid":"true","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/9992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bs_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_types?post=9992"},{"taxonomy":"bs_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_tags?post=9992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}