March conditions present new challenges at Players Championship

The Players Championship in March will be a much different experience this year for golfers accustomed to playing TPC Sawgrass in May.

Adam Scott knew from the first hole of his practice round this week at TPC Sawgrass that this was going to be a Players Championship unlike any other in recent memory.

“I hit a five-iron into the first hole, and I haven’t hit anything other than a nine-iron or a wedge in there for 12 years,” the 2004 champion said on Tuesday. “A lot of other holes like that, too.”

For the past 12 years, the Players Championship has been played in May, the final round often coinciding with Mothers Day. In August 2017, however, the PGA Tour announced the tournament was moving back to March, where it had been played since first moving to TPC Sawgrass in 1982 until 2006.

Scott is one of 20 players in the field this week who also played in 2006 and says the younger players accustomed to playing the course in May are in for a much different experience this time.

“I think it’s going to require some really good driving and some really good irons,” Scott said. “I think it’s a good test. It was in May too, but it kind of put everyone in the same place when it was firm in the fairways. Now it’s going to be a little bit less of that. You’ll have to decide how much you want to challenge off the tee.”

The biggest difference players will notice is the weather. The average March high temperature in nearby Jacksonville is 73 degrees, 12 degrees cooler than in May. The course will also be wetter and more prone to bad weather. Between 2000 and 2005 the tournament needed a Monday finish three times because of weather delays, something that never happened in the 12 years it was played in May.

The wind will also be a factor this week. In May the wind usually comes out of the south, but in March northerly winds are more common. For Jason Day, who won here in 2016, the change in wind direction affects how the golf course will play, particularly the 18th hole and the famous “Island Green” 17th.

“Typically we have a southeasterly wind here, and that’s…I shouldn’t say easy but it’s easier coming down 17 and 18,” he said. “I played it with a northeasterly today and hit nine-iron into 17 and then driver, five-iron into 18. With a southeasterly I remember winning and I hit two-iron, 54-degree wedge into it. So it’s just an amazing difference between a couple few months.”

A casualty in the date change is the Bermuda grass commonly used at TPC Sawgrass. Instead, the grounds crew had to install overseeded ryegrass, which grows better in colder temperature. Given all the changes, it’s no surprise that the course plays tougher in March than in May. The scoring average in March between 1995 and 2006 was nearly a stroke higher than in years played in May.

Like Scott, Tiger Woods has experience playing the course in both months. He’s also the only player to win the tournament in March and May. The 2001 and 2013 champion agrees with Scott that the biggest difference players will face this week is how soft and long the course plays.

“It’s just so much slower. It’s not as warm, ball doesn’t fly as far, and the golf course just plays slower,” he said. “The golf course plays so much shorter in May than it does in March. That’s probably the biggest difference. We’re going to have to play more clubs off the tees, hit longer clubs into the greens. But the difference is the greens are much slower, much more receptive.”

One factor that will help mitigate any effects of the weather, however, is how far today’s players are hitting the ball. In 2006, the last year the tournament was played in March, just 20 players averaged more than 300 yards off the tee. So far in 2019, there are 50. Players like Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka have emerged on the PGA Tour since then, with the athletic ability to match their golfing talent.

Woods, though, says he and the other veterans still have an advantage while the rising stars don’t know what they’re in for this week. “Knowing the fact I’ve been between six-iron and five-iron on 17 to hit the shot, not too many people can say that unless they played in March,” he said with a wry smile.

The young players can throw out the yardage books that they’ve collected over the past few years. The veterans, meanwhile, have to dig deep into their memories for recollections of what TPC Sawgrass was like more than a decade ago. Both of them will have to adapt to the changes, much like the golf course they’ll be competing on this week.