THE PGA Tour’s promotion of this week’s event, the Players Championship, has always been a little contrived and, one might argue, more than a little cock-eyed. They like to refer to it as “the fifth major”, a term that in their eyes elevates it in status, but which, viewed from another perspective, might be deemed somewhat limiting.
Not so much “best of the rest”, more “worst of the best”. This year, however, the tournament, which boasts the strongest field in the sport hence the bullish boasting, might find itself re-christened for 2020 as “the nearest thing we got to a major”. Let’s hope not and, with all fingers and toes crossed, start the search for a winner.
Each Way – Tommy Fleetwood 25/1
Some might think it crazy to back a man who last Friday missed his first cut since July 2018. I’d prefer to trust that a golfer who finished top 20 in each of his six starts before that, four times ending the week in the top three and winning once, isn’t going to lose his touch quite that quickly. Moreover, we’re discussing a man whose response was not to take sack cloth and ashes to the range, but dryly note: “If you’re going to do it (miss a cut), do it properly and be dreadful on all fronts.”
Before last week’s early departure, Fleetwood had contended all week at the Honda Classic and it maybe no bad thing to have avoided eight rounds played on the exceptionally tough tests at PGA National and Bay Hill. He returns to TPC Sawgrass for a fourth year and has always put up a decent show. Indeed, he was seventh in 2018 and fifth 12 months ago, when tied for the lead at halfway. His phlegmatic nature and strong tee-to-green game are both well-suited to the course, and that slip-up last week drifts him the right side of the 20/1 mark for punters.
Each Way – Webb Simpson 30/1
It is probably a statement of the bleeding obvious, but the 34-year-old from North Carolina is a wonderful fit for the Pete Dye-designed test at TCC Sawgrass. Why so clear-cut? Well, he played so brilliantly through 54 holes in 2018, grabbing a seven-shot lead, that he could afford to post 73 on Sunday and still triumph by four. A year before he finished 16th and he repeated that effort on defence 12 months ago. Referencing Pete Dye was important, too, because winners on his courses tend to perform with credit on his other creations and Simpson is a six-time top 20 finisher at Harbour Town.
Having strong Tee to Green stats often helps at Sawgrass and Simpson ranks in the top 20 for that category this year (as he did in 2019). Moreover, he proved two years ago that when his eye is in he loves the greens – no-one led him for strokes gained on the putting surfaces that year. He failed, for a third time, to make the top 30 in the WGC Mexico Championship last time out, but given his long-time woes there I prefer to take greater notice of his form before that week. He ended 2019 with finishes of seventh and second, and then opened 2020 with second in the Sony Open and victory at the Phoenix Open.
Outsider – Byeong Hun An 66/1
One of Webb Simpson’s career wins came at Sedgefield, where Sergio Garcia, Davis Love II and Si-Woo Kim have also lifted the trophy – and, like Simpson, they are all past champions at Sawgrass, too. When Sedgefield last hosted the PGA Tour Simpson very nearly won for a second time, with Kim in fifth, further enhancing the notion that the course is a great pointer for this week. The winner that week was JT Poston, but I’m rather more interested in the man who led the field after three rounds – Korea’s Ben An, who was ultimately third.
The 2015 BMW PGA Championship winner is yet to claim victory in America, but when he’s been close the venues have been very interesting with regard to this week, above and beyond that Sedgefield effort. He was second at TPC Louisiana, seventh at Harbour Town (both Dye courses) and his Sawgrass form is heading in the right direction too (MC-30th-26th). Two weeks ago he was fourth in the Honda Classic, a good effort and even better when you consider a lacklustre first round left him 132nd in the field.
