On Friday evening I wrote a post about the rather weak looking leaderboard at The PLAYERS Championship.
Titled: The PLAYERS’ Leaderboard is Not Exactly Looking Like a Major:
The leaderboard at the halfway point of the PLAYERS Championship is, well, not exactly what you’d call stacked. In fact, at first glance it looks more like the leaderboard you’d expect to see if an opposite-field event were scheduled against The PLAYERS. Not that of golf’s so-called “fifth major.”
How bad is it?
Well, not only were top-ranked favorites like Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson and Tony Finau sent packing, but of those big names who did make the weekend – at least the vast majority, require two swipes (maybe even three) to find them on the pgatour.com’s leaderboard.
Not. So. Fast.
After a low-round 64 by Justin Thomas, coupled with 67s by Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey and Jon Rahm – as well as a 68 by former world No. 1 Lee Westwood, the leaderboard’s top-5 (with ties) now includes three former world No. 1s, four of the world’s top-20 ranked players, and three of the top 6.
One further back, at 8 under, was former Masters winner Sergio Garcia and world No. 16 Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Oh. And as a bonus: we get a final-pairing rematch between the cagey-veteran Westwood, and the big-bomber Bryson.
What a difference 24 hours makes.
NBC has the coverage starting at 1 pm (est). The final two pairings tee off at 1:40 pm and 1:50 pm.
Get your popcorn ready!
THE PLAYERS Championship
Top-10 Leaders
Pos-Player-To Par (Score)
1. Lee Westwood -13 (-4)
2. Bryson DeChambeau -11 (-5)
3. Justin Thomas -10 (-8)
3. Doug Ghim -10 (-4)
5. Jon Rahm -9 (-5)
5. Paul Casey -9 (-5)
5. Brian Harman -9 (-3)
8. Chris Kirk -8 (-1)
8. Sergio Garcia -8 (-1)
8. Matthew Fitzpatrick -8 (E)
Sunday’s Final Pairings
1:20 pm – Kirk (-8), Harman (-9)
1:30 pm – Rahm (-9), Casey (-9)
1:40 pm – Ghim (-10), Thomas (-10)
1:50 pm – DeChambeau (-11), Westwood (-13)
How To Watch/Listen
- NBC Sports – 1-6 pm
- PGA TOUR LIVE – 7:55 am – 6 pm
- PGA TOUR RADIO (SiriusXM) – 11 am – 6 pm
- PGATOUR.com (Live Audio, Highlights, Tourcast)