PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Sepp Straka saved a par 7 late in Thursday’s round, chipped in for eagle and avoided major trouble at TPC Sawgrass with a 5-under 67 and a share of the lead at The Players Championship through wind, rain, sun and darkness.
We won’t know until Friday morning whether he remains at the top of the leaderboard along with Maverick McNeely, Lee Hodges and Sahis Segala.
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Austin Smotherman was 5 under and made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole, the par-5 ninth. It looked like he was going to score, but two players in his group ran into trouble and as darkness grew thicker, he stuck his tee into the ground and marked his goal until morning.
“Would I have been able to chip in in the morning? It was back and forth,” Smotherman said. “Given the fact that I had doubts about it, I probably should have backed out.”
The 12 hours of golf were plenty of time for many dramatic moments, including 38 balls falling into water along the Stadium Course’s three closing holes, two eagles from the fairway, and a 21-minute delay caused by a downpour. In the afternoon, the rain stopped within minutes and the sun cast a shadow.
Rory McIlroy missed the Bay Hill weekend with back spasms, but said on Saturday he had no doubts about playing. I didn’t feel any pain except for my putter, and I couldn’t get it past 6 feet in the 74th round.
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Instead, back problems fell on Collin Morikawa. He was one of the top players this season, but withdrew after the first hole. He felt his back stiffen during his practice swing. Ryan Fox did not reach the course. The illness he cited when declining turned out to be a kidney stone, which had to be surgically removed.
The sore spot for Scottie Scheffler was the opening round, the fourth time in the last five tournaments he has failed to crack par. He struggled to find the fairway and spent more than an hour at the practice range in a downpour after hitting the 72.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, depending on Smotherman’s putt Friday morning, was that no one shot lower than a 67. The last time 67 led the Players was in 2017.
Assessing his score and recognizing that he was still in shape, McIlroy said: “No one was down too much this afternoon, which was what I expected. It’s just that the conditions were very good.”
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Despite some intense scrambling on the back nine, Straka managed to finish without a bogey. He saved par with a 12-foot putt on the 10th, sank his second shot into the water on the par-5 11th, and escaped with another 12-foot putt for par. He chipped in from 50 feet for eagle on the par-5 16th and drove a wedge into tap-in range from 67 yards down the fairway on the 18th.
“I felt like I was playing from the rough all day, which is not ideal here,” Straka said. “Fortunately, my iron play and wedge play were really good today and I was able to make a lot of putts and save par.”
Segala, who had three consecutive birdies early on, suffered trouble from the left bunker on the par-5 ninth and suffered a bogey, but his fortunes turned around on the 12th when his wedge from less than 100 yards remaining hit the cup for an eagle.
“It’s pretty cool to crash into the pin and go in. It’s a nice bonus,” Segala said.
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Morikawa and McIlroy weren’t the only ones attracting attention to the Bucks. Justin Thomas returned from back surgery in November last week and shot 79-79 at Bay Hill. When he opened with three straight birdies and finished with a 68, it felt like a distant memory.
“I did pretty well in literally everything you can imagine,” Thomas said.
Cameron Young, Russell Henry and Taylor Moore, who competed at Bay Hill last week, also placed 68th. The 69th-place group included Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau, who had four straight birdies, followed by four straight bogeys.
Henry was lucky to finish the round without injury. He played in the morning during a short delay, but the rain was falling so hard that he rushed to the clubhouse from the nearby second green, unaware that the players were being held in place by a fast-moving storm.
Ben Griffin relieved him by telling him play was about to begin, and Henry returned to the green.
This delay was enough to prevent four players from completing the round.
