Contenders and Sleepers for the Players Championship

Contenders and Sleepers for the Players Championship











Travis Mewhirter May 7, 2013 3:40 PM




COMMENTARY | The Players Championship tees off on Thursday and, as always, it provides one of the best fields of any tournament of the season. In this little list here, I provide my three favorite (fairly obvious) contenders and two relative sleepers who could be expected
do a little damage at TPC Sawgrass this weekend.



The Obvious

Tiger Woods

Tiger remains the No. 1 player in the world. Tiger is in the field. There's not much left to do but put him on top. Even if he weren't the best golfer on the planet, he'd still be No. 1 because he's Tiger Woods, and any time Tiger is in the field, post-fire-hydrant era or not, he will always be the presumed favorite until Rory McIlroy assumes the throne for good.

Aside from Tiger just being Tiger, he is also playing some ridiculous golf. He's No. 1 in strokes gained-putting, No. 1 in scoring average, and No. 1 in percentage of holes under par -- he's birdied or eagled 97 of 360 holes on the year.

Sure, he hasn't won at the Players in 12 years, but that might actually turn out to be a blessing. After all, there has never been a repeat champ in the tournament's existence which dates back to 1974 and which is also why Matt Kuchar, the 2012 winner, is subsequently absent from this list. Woods might just be due.

Adam Scott

Winning the Masters goes a long way in my -- or anybody's -- book, especially the manner in which he won it. Scott did it after he proved he could contend in a major -- and then collapse down the finish. This time was different. We got a glimpse of Adam Scott the major champion, not Adam Scott the guy with the best swing on Tour who couldn't put it all together in the biggies. He held off Angel Cabrera breathing down his neck with air-tight 7-irons and pressure-proof putting. It was his first major, his first green jacket and became the first of his country to break the Masters curse. It was momentous, and it shouldn't surprise anybody when he's lurking somewhere at the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.

The Players, as I wrote in a previous column, is not a major, but it certainly has the closest feel to one of any non-major championship. The Stadium Course is an awesome venue for the fans and the players with a nerve-tingling final three holes that favors those who have proven they have the gumption to handle it. Scott proved he could do that when he won in 2004 and since has logged three top 15s here at TPC.

This is a quirky course, with three monsters of finishing holes, and experience here goes a long way, and experience is something that Scott has at TPC.

Justin Rose

When will this guy just become the breakout star we all know him to be? Seriously, Rose is 6-for-6 this year in Top 25s, was the runner-up at Bay Hill, is second on Tour in both scoring average and total driving, third in all-around ranking, and in the top 10 in Greens in Regulation.

His putting has been the issue -- he is 147th in strokes gained-putting -- which might help explain why he breaks par far less than Tiger despite hitting greens at a much higher clip. And this is a tournament that is won by players who go fairly low. Greg Norman won it back in '94 with a 24-under which, as the tournament record, is not to be expected, but that does put it in perspective at least a little bit. The highest score in the past 12 years to win it was a 5-under from Sergio Garcia in 2008, and the average in that time period is just shy of 13-under.

So, if Rose can capitalize on all those fairways and greens he hits with a little help from his flat stick, he should have as good a chance as any.

The Sleepers

Bo Van Pelt

Here's why I like Bo: He plays all the time. Already, just a few months into the season, the guy has played 11 times, nearly double that of Rose, picked up four top 25s and a top 10. Any rust or kinks in his swing are bound to have been worked out by now. More importantly, his top 10 came at the Wells Fargo last week where he finished T6, a nice confidence booster coming into a course where confidence can easily be shaken.

Now, Van Pelt's record here at Sawgrass is far from gaudy: In eight starts he has made the cut but three times. However -- and here comes the silver lining -- Van Pelt has finished in the top 10 every time he has made the cut.

A guarantee? Not at all. But a solid sleeper if he can put together a solid opening 36? Definitely.

Ryan Moore

Moore is never spectacular at Sawgrass (he has never cracked the top 25 here) but he's never awful, either (he's never missed a cut). He's also very similar to Rose, though perhaps the poor man's version. He strikes the ball remarkably well -- he hit all 18 greens in the opening round at Quail Hollow last weekend -- but has trouble getting his putter to cooperate.

Much like Rose, if Moore can just coax his putter into helping him out a bit, he should be OK. Look at what happens when he buries a few: At the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, he went 66, 66, 65, 65 for a 22-under.

Scottsdale is no Sawgrass, but you don't go 22-under without putting at torrid rate. He's shown he can do it, he's just got to get it down consistently.



Travis Mewhirter has been working in the golf industry since 2007, when he was a bag room manager at Piney Branch Golf Club in Carroll County, Maryland, and has been involved, as a player, since 2004. Since then, he has worked at Hayfields Country Club, where the Constellation Energy Classic was formerly held, and has covered golf at the high school, college, and professional levels.

The Curse of Winning the Players Championship

The Curse of Winning the Players Championship











Ryan Ballengee May 7, 2013 4:50 PM


COMMENTARY | Winning The Players Championship affords a champion a lot of perks: the game's largest first-place check at $1.71 million, five-year exemptions on the PGA Tour and into The Players and, now, a three-year invitation to the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship.



What it hasn't
afforded its winners in the last five years, however, is a slew of follow-up PGA Tour wins.





Since The Players moved to May in 2007, and Phil MIckelson captured the crown, the next five winners of the proverbial "fifth major" have won a combined two times on the PGA Tour.



Sergio Garcia won in 2008 in a playoff over Paul Goydos. He slipped so low that he eventually took a few months away from professional golf in 2010 before winning in consecutive weeks in Spain almost a year later on the European Tour and finally taking the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship last season.



A year after Sergio kissed his putter after victory, the Europeans kept on rolling with Henrik Stenson taking the Players crown. The powerful Swede seemed destined for more than faux-major glory. So far, he has not been. In fact, he sunk as low as No. 230 in the Official World Golf Ranking in 2012 before beginning the long climb back now inside the top 40. His only win since The Players was the South African Open a year ago.



Then there's Tim Clark who, unfortunately, was plagued by injury. An elbow problem sidelined him for the second two-thirds of 2011, but Clark has been close to another PGA Tour win. He was solo second earlier this season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, won by rookie Russell Henley and is 29th in FedEx Cup points.



K.J. Choi outlasted David Toms in 2011 to win The Players in a playoff, making a par on the first hole of sudden-death to capture the most significant of his eight on the PGA Tour. Again, however, the Korean who was rallied by Choi's Bois that week at the Stadium Course has been unable to notch a ninth Tour title. At nearly 43 years old, maybe that's expecting a bit much.



Matt Kuchar may, in fact, be the exception to this trend of precipitous Players drops. T he year as reigning champion has barely ended for Kuchar, who was outstanding amid the torrent of greats challenging for The Players last year to earn the trophy.



In blustery conditions in Arizona back in February, Kuchar captured the WGC-Accenture Match Play title. He has three other top-10 finishes this season, including a T-8 effort at the Masters as a follow on his T-3 from the year prior at Augusta National. Kooch is nowhere near a downturn. He's a slumpbuster.



Kuchar's brilliance this season doesn't portend a successful defense of his title this week. No one has ever won consecutive Players titles. However, if one player could manage to end that anomaly, it would be the Georgia Tech product.



For whatever reason, the Stadium Course does seem to identify the best player that week, but does not seem to always identify the most talented among the field.



By comparison, it seems Augusta National does allow the best of the best -- not just for those four days in April -- to contend for a green jacket.



Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have enjoyed tremendous success amid the blooming azaleas. Lee Westwood and Ernie Els, whose games do have flaws, have been able to get painstakingly close by flexing their strengths as much as the Jones-Mackenzie test will allow. Rory McIlroy seems to love the home of the Masters and feel the antithesis for Pete Dye's Stadium Course.



It is that dichotomy that perhaps makes Fred Couples such an interesting case. Couples is one of four to win multiple Players crowns (1984 and '96) at TPC Sawgrass and, even at 53, can still manage to contend on seemingly an annual basis at the Masters more than two decades after his lone major breakthrough.



What is it about the now-Hall-of-Famer's game, then, that has crossover appeal to two very starkly contrasting courses? At his best, Couples putted well enough, but the strongest facets of his game were effortless power and ballstriking, as well as the knowledge of when to step on the gas and when to throttle back a bit.



Greg Norman had the two pegged as well, with Norman winning a couples of Players titles. He also had three runner-up finishes at Augusta, including the painful '96 meltdown clearing the way for a third Nick Faldo title.



How about Hal Sutton and Davis Love III, the other multiple-time winners at Sawgrass? They could have been so much more, too, each only winning a PGA Championship in their careers.



So maybe it's not in the best interest of a player to have truly figured out TPC Sawgrass. For the ones that did, they arguably never reached their true potential. For the likes of Woods and Mickelson, just one win was enough -- they had more major business to handle.



Ryan Ballengee is a Washington, D.C.-based golf writer. His work has appeared on multiple digital outlets, including NBC Sports and Golf Channel. Follow him on Twitter @RyanBallengee.

PGA of America names Dawes Marlatt Senior Director, Education and Employment Departments

PGA of America names Dawes Marlatt Senior Director, Education and Employment Departments











PGA of America May 8, 2013 8:19 AM



PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. --PGA Master Professional Dawes Marlatt has been promoted to Senior Director, Education and Employment, following his four-and-a-half year stint as The PGA of America's Director of Education.

During his tenure overseeing The PGA's Education Department, Marlatt led several significant enhancements and new program additions to the Association's educational services, including: Professional Golf Management curriculum, Certified Professional Program 2.0, and Golf 2.0/Player Development education.

Marlatt will now take charge of The PGA's Education and Employment departments, both vital to the delivery of important programs and services to PGA Professionals and the golf industry. His expanded role will include working closely with the 12 PGA Employment Consultants who are regionally based throughout the country to assist PGA Professionals and employers in filling key positions at both the green grass and administrative levels.

"I am honored that The PGA of America would entrust me to take on this expanded role of leading the Employment department as well as the Education department," said Marlatt, 41, a PGA member since 1997. "I believe it is truly a testament to all the dedicated individuals whom I have had the pleasure of working closely with over the past several years as we strived to enhance the education services The PGA provides to its member professionals."

"We are thrilled to elevate Dawes Marlatt to the position of Senior Director, Education and Employment," said PGA of America Chief Executive Officer Pete Bevacqua. "His track record of taking the lead on enhancing The PGA's educational offerings provides us with great confidence that he will have similar success with enhancing the employment services that our more than 27,000 PGA Professionals have come to rely upon."

About The PGA of America
Since its founding in 1916, The PGA of America has maintained a twofold mission: to establish and elevate the standards of the profession and to grow interest and participation in the game of golf. By establishing and elevating the standards of the golf profession through world-class education, career services, marketing and research programs, The PGA enables its professionals to maximize their performance in their respective career paths and showcases them as experts in the game and in the multi-billion dollar golf industry. By creating and delivering world-class championships and innovative programs, The PGA of America elevates the public's interest in the game, the desire to play more golf, and ensures accessibility to the game for everyone, everywhere. As The PGA nears its centennial, the PGA brand represents the very best in golf.