PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – With the strongest field in golf, it’s almost inevitable that some of the biggest names in golf would have an off week and miss the cut. But this year, thanks in part to a wild weather week, more of the world’s best players struggled than normal.
It took 2-over 146 to finish among the top 65 and make the cut. (Seventy-one golfers in all made it.) There was cut drama as Scott Piercy finished with a quadruple-bogey 7 at 17 and a three-putt bogey at 18 to go from comfortably inside the cutline to packing his bags at 3-over 147. Squeaking in on the number were former Players champion Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, who has won two of his past three starts. Other big names weren’t so lucky.
Several players all firmly inside the top 20 in the world that had no answers for the wacky weather conditions that meant the 36-hole cut wasn’t made until Sunday afternoon.
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Most of them were doomed by the “luck of the draw,” as the late-early wave endured the worst of the rain on Friday and high winds when play resumed on Saturday. In all, 44 players made the cut among the early-late wave compared to 27 from the late/early wave.
TPC Sawgrass is a course that exposes any weakness in a player’s game and it did just that to some of golf’s best this week. Let’s take a closer look at what went wrong.
Brooks Koepka plays his tee shot on the par 4, 18th hole during the rain-delayed completion of the second round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
Brooks Koepka was 3-under par through 15 holes of his opening round at TPC Sawgrass before play was suspended on Friday. It was all downhill from there. He made bogey and 16 and then came up short on his tee shot at the par-3 17th and made double. All of his good work was negated and he settled for even-par 72.
Starting on the back nine, he was already 4 over by the time he got to 17 and pumped is tee shot into the water again. A triple there and a double at the fourth and he was sent home early for the second time in six starts at this event. His second-round 81 tied his highest score in 567 rounds on Tour. Koepka missed a cut for the fifth time this season in 10 starts.
“There’s nothing you can do,” he said of playing 17. “It’s gust dependent, and it is what it is.”
Jordan Spieth sets his ball on the 18th green during the first round of the Players Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports
Ever since Jordan Spieth nearly won the Players as a rookie in 2014 and finished T-4, he’s had a miserable record at TPC Sawgrass and it only got worse this week. Spieth missed the cut for the fifth time in his last seven starts at the Players with only a T-41 and T-48 to show for his efforts.
Spieth was skating along at 2 under through 16 holes when play was suspended on Friday. He proceeded to bogey 17 and 18 to shoot 72. Starting his second round on the back nine, Spieth made four straight bogeys beginning at No. 12 and a double at 18 to go out in 42. The second nine wasn’t much better as he made just one birdie at No. 7 en route to shooting 79, his highest score in 22 career trips around at TPC Sawgrass. Spieth took 33 putts and lost more than two strokes with the putter in the second round. He also rescued par when he missed the green just 3 of 14 times.
Xander Schauffele plays his tee shot on the 18th hole during the rain delayed completion of the second round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
Gold medalist Xander Schauffele won’t be collecting the “gold man” trophy on Sunday. Schauffele was 4 under through 16 holes when the wind picked up on Saturday and the wheels came off. Schauffele rinsed his tee shot at 17 but saved bogey. Schauffele’s bugaboo was the 18th hole. He made the dreaded “snowman” there in Round 1, which included a topped shot, and was only a stroke better in Round 2. He was 7 over on that hole alone.
Schauffele failed to make a birdie on Saturday en route to shooting 78, his highest score since a 76 at the Players a year ago when he also missed the cut. The last time Schauffele shot 78 was the opening round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament.
🚨XANDER SCHAUFFELE TOP ALERT🚨 pic.twitter.com/7uoPksUFPg
— The Plugged Lie (@PluggedLiePod) March 12, 2022
Tony Finau hits out of a bunker during the first round of the 2022 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
Tony Finau’s struggles at TPC Sawgrass continued. Finau missed the cut for the fourth time in six attempts.
Last year, an opening-round 78 doomed him. This time, his 76 wasn’t much better and factored into Finau being a cut casualty again. The happy-go-lucky Finau has now missed three of his last four cuts and is outside the top 150 in the FedEx Cup standings. Finau struggled to find fairways, which led to missing too many greens and his short game was more foe than friend as he scrambled for par just 6 of 15 times.
Patrick Cantlay reacts on the 14th green during the second round of the Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 13, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Patrick Cantlay hadn’t shot over par in his first 21 rounds of the year, but that streak came to an end in the second round of the Players as Cantlay signed for 5-over 77. It’s his first missed cut since the British Open in July, and his third straight cut at the Players.
The reigning FedEx Cup champion had a four birdie, four bogey opening round 72. He didn’t make a birdie until his 10thhole in the second round. Three bogeys on the front nine had him straddling the cut line. His fate was sealed when he rinsed his tee shot at 17 and proceeded to make triple-bogey six.
Cantlay’s ball striking did him in. He lost more than 5 ½ strokes to the field in approach to the green in the second round.
Collin Morikawa waits to play his second shot on the 18th hole during the rain delayed completion of the second round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
World No. 2 Collin Morikawa missed his first cut of the season and first since the Northern Trust in August. Shockingly, his iron game let him down. Arguably the best iron player in golf lost strokes to the field on his approach shots in both rounds, ranking 103rd for the week.
Water balls at No. 17 led to bogeys both times he played the hole. He didn’t scramble well either, going just 5 of 12. On Saturday, Morikawa made just two birdies, both at the par-5 16th, which played down wind. It all added up to 73-75—148 and a weekend off.
Adam Scott keeps warm as he walks the sixth hole during the second round of the Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 13, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Adam Scott dug himself a big hole early and never dug out of it.
Starting on the back nine on Thursday, Scott pumped two balls into the water off the 18th tee and made quadruple-bogey 8. He didn’t make another birdie in the opening round and signed for 78.
Scott has been struggling with his driver, playing without one for the first round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and switching to a TaylorMade model this week. He hit just 13 of 28 fairways and was dead last in SG: Off the Tee in the opening round (132nd for the week). Scott, the 2004 Players champion, missed just his fourth cut in 20 starts at TPC Sawgrass and his first since 2011.
Justin Rose hits out of a bunker during the second round of the 2022 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
Former World No. 1 Justin Rose birdied four of the first six holes of his opening round and was among the early leaders. It wouldn’t last long.
Rose held on to shoot 3-under 69, but the high winds eventually got the best of him. The Englishman bogeyed three holes in a five-hole stretch beginning at 11 to back up to even. He returned to red figures with a birdie at 16, but then disaster hit at 17. After a lengthy discussion with his caddie, Rose’s tee shot landed short in the drink and his next attempt from the drop zone went for a swim too. A quadruple-bogey seven had Rose suddenly outside the cut line and he failed to make another birdie.
Rose missed the cut at the Players for the first time since 2015.
Jason Day watches his tee shot during the second round of the 2022 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
Jason Day, the 2016 Players champion, was playing at TPC Sawgrass just a week after his mom’s passing. He opened with a 69, but couldn’t avoid the big numbers in Round 2.
He posted a second-round 78 that included three double bogeys: at Nos. 11, 15 and 18. Day struggled to find fairways (15 of 28), lost nearly three strokes to the field with his approach shots in Round 2, and was unusually poor at scrambling (5 of 12). Day’s SG: Putting numbers weren’t too shabby, but it owed in part to sinking an 82-foot bomb for par at 14 on Saturday, which was the second-longest putt of Day’s career. Day missed his second cut of the season in seven attempts and first missed cut at the Players since 2015.
82 feet to save par.
2nd longest made putt of @JDayGolf‘s career. pic.twitter.com/IqDSQVu1en
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 12, 2022
Webb Simpson of the United States plays a shot from a fairway bunker on the sixth hole during the second round of the Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 13, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Webb Simpson played in his first tournament since the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, and the rust showed.
Simpson, the 2018 Players champion, made six bogeys against three birdies in his opening round 75 at TPC Sawgrass. It took 11 holes before he made his first birdie in his second round and he just didn’t make enough of them en route to shooting 2-over 74.
Simpson had a good putting round in his second round, holing 133 feet of putts, but the rest of his game looks as if it will need some more reps to work his way back in to shape. Simpson, who missed his second straight Players cut, has now made six cuts in 12 career starts in the Players. He’s scheduled to be in action next week at the Valspar Championship.
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