PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – TPC Sawgrass is no place to find your swing.
The Players Championship is no tournament to play when you’re spraying your driver.
With all the awkward lies around the greens, this course is no place to fine-tune your short game.
In summary, it doesn’t seem like this is the place for Tiger Woods to reassert himself, but therein awaits the grand opportunity. If Woods can mount a strong performance on this track, it’s a terrific message. It takes maximum control to contend on Pete Dye’s design.
Woods limped off TPC Sawgrass the last two years with injuries. He withdrew with his knee in pain after shooting a 42 over his first nine holes last year. He WD’d after seven holes on Sunday two years ago with neck pain.
“It’s either I’ve done really well, or I haven’t,” Woods said of The Players. “Either I’ve been right there in contention with a chance, or I haven’t. I think that’s the nature of this golf course.”
Actually, Woods has won The Players just once in 14 starts, and that was 11 years ago. He has three other top-10s, including an eighth-place finish three years ago.
“I think it’s going to be one of the harder courses for him to turn it around, but you never know,” NBC’s Johnny Miller said.