If you are a professional golfer leading The Players and see the names Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler creeping up the leaderboard, it probably makes you a little nervous. That’s what the first-round leaders, Camillo Villegas, Lucas Glover, and J.J. Spaun are facing after Thursday’s play.
The trio may have the advantage today, but if you’ve watched Scheffler in action, he doesn’t try to win the tournament on the first day. He eases his way up the rows of players, sliding up a few places each round until he’s a realistic challenger on Sunday. It’s exactly what he did in round one.
Glover, however, has seen good play and bad. He’s a former U.S. Open champ, at Bethpage Black, no less. So tough defines him.
“I played nice. Somebody said 11 out of 14 fairways,” he said about his round. “Other than that, I played nice and made putts.”
J.J. Spaun and Camillo Villegas were more surprising as leaderboard candidates than Glover, but no less gritty. They all had to play their way to this championship.
McIlroy, one back of the lead, said he has learned from playing with Scheffler just what the Texan does, what kinds of decisions he makes. And he’s taking a page from the Scheffler playbook, trying to make “Scottie-like” decisions on the course. Perhaps a little less go for broke and a little more go for what’s reasonable and achievable.
The big change he has made is to his bag. He’s now carrying four wedges.
In addition, he’s improved his putting.
“I finished, I think, fifth in putting last week, so to see that turn around was really encouraging,” McIlroy said.
On the final hole Thursday, for his second shot, McIlroy manufactured a wizard-like, choked-down, iron shot from the pine straw on the right side in the trees to about 7 ½ feet and made the putt for birdie. It was spectacular golf at the end.
What they said:
Billy Horschel came in at 5-under par for the first round. Bud Cauley posted 4-under. And Rickie Fowler put on a late charge to end the day, finishing birdie, birdie par for 4-under. McIlroy is 5-under. Scheffler is 3-under.
“My game has been in a good space for a majority of this year,” Horschel said when he finished. “The driver and putter has been the two issues that haven't -- my two strengths usually haven't been great.”
“I grew up as a kid coming to this tournament every year,” Cauley said about The Players. “Every time I get to come play, it brings back a lot of memories of coming out here and watching and seeing the guys play and hoping one day I'd be able to play. It's always a lot of fun for me.”
“I think the golf course is playing nice,” Scheffler noted. “I did a lot of good things on the course. Hit a lot of good putts. I stayed patient out there. I didn't try and force anything around the golf course. I gave myself enough opportunities to shoot a better score, I just wasn't able to score as well as I would have hoped to.”
“I certainly didn't drive it the way I wanted to, didn't hit it in as many fairways as I would have liked,” McIlroy said when he finished. “I think with the greens being so receptive, you can get away with it a little bit. I'm not going to be able to get away with it for the rest of the week. Sort of rode my luck out there a little bit.”
