5 groups to watch in the first two rounds of The Players Championship
By Luke Norris
Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods
Thursday, Round 1: 1st tee, 1:52 p.m. ET
Friday, Round 2: 10th tee, 8:27 a.m. ET
Rickie Fowler is a professional but he had to be geeking out just a little bit when it was announced that he’d be joining Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in this monster of a group. Each of these players has won this tournament, the most recent being Fowler’s incredible come-from-behind win in 2015. With six holes to play in his final round, Fowler trailed by five shots but went birdie-par-birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie, easily the best final stretch in Players history, to get himself into a playoff with Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. Garcia was eliminated following the three-hole aggregate playoff but Kisner and Fowler returned to the famed par-3 17th for sudden death and Fowler stuck his tee shot to within five feet and made the birdie putt for the biggest win of his career.
Phil Mickelson took home his Players Championship trophy back in 2007, a two-stroke victory over Sergio Garcia. In the next five years, he had three top-25 finishes but then missed the cut four consecutive times. He made it back to the weekend last year but was never in contention, finishing tied for 41st, 13 strokes behind winner Si Woo Kim. After 42 wins on the PGA Tour, Lefty went nearly five years without a win but broke that streak earlier this year by capturing win number 43 at the WGC-Mexico Championship by defeating Justin Thomas in a playoff. Prior to that victory, he finished tied for fifth in Phoenix, tied for second at Pebble Beach and tied for sixth at Riviera. He continued his solid play in 2018 this past weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship by carding yet another top-5 finish, which included rounds of 64 and 69 on the weekend. It’s Phil so you just never know what’s going to happen.
Last but certainly not least, there’s Tiger Woods, who returns to The Players Championship for the first time since 2015. Tiger is the only man in the field to have won this tournament twice (2001, 2013) and could join Jack Nicklaus as the only three-time champion of this event with a win this week. Of course, we all know that Tiger hasn’t won in a while — his last victory came in August 2013 at the Bridgestone Invitational — and yet he’s still in the top 12 favorites to emerge victorious come Sunday afternoon. Tiger played a great stretch of golf earlier this season with three consecutive finishes of 12th or better, including a T-5 at Bay Hill and a runner-up at the Valspar. He tied for 32nd at Augusta but finished well off the pace this past weekend at Quail Hollow in a tie for 55th. He was hitting the ball well but couldn’t get any putts to drop, something he’ll definitely need to do if he wants to contend this weekend. All eyes will certainly be on this group on Thursday and Friday.
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Which groups will you be following this week at The Players? Who’s your pick to win? Please feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below.