PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus never achieved this feat, even before The Players Championship was held at TPC Sawgrass, which used to be a swamp.
This is the 50th edition of the PGA Tour’s main championship, and no one has ever defended their title. The next participant is Scottie Scheffler, and he has good chances to do it.
This includes Woods, who only attempted it once in 2002, did not play well, and finished tied for 14th.
“I just think it’s a golf course where you don’t see many people winning again in general,” Scheffler said. “There’s not a guy that you have seen win on this golf course a lot.”
Only five players have won twice at TPC Sawgrass. Nicklaus won The Players three times, but that was before it moved permanently to this Pete Dye arena of endless excitement and that one (mostly) island green on the par-3 17th.
Scheffler is the No. 1 player in the world, marking the first time the defending champion of The Players has been at the top of the world ranking since Jason Day in 2016. The difference is Scheffler arrived at Sawgrass directly from a dominant performance to win at Bay Hill by five shots.
Already excelling from tee-to-green, his putter finally came to life, making the other top golfers nervous.
“I’ve personally had some really, really nice ball-striking weeks,” FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland said. “But for him to have done that for so long and won so many tournaments that he’s done the last couple years is very, very impressive. Because you get into periods of times where you feel like you can’t miss and you’re hitting it on a string, but then next month it might feel a little bit difficult. He just seems to keep doing what he’s doing.”
Scheffler has been No. 1 for the last 10 months, and it’s not difficult to do the math. Along with three victories in the last year — that includes the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas — he has finished out of the top 10 only three times in 22 tournaments.
How that translates to Sawgrass is yet to be seen, even on a course where a year ago it looked as though he was playing alone. He led by six shots at one point and won by five shots, just as he did at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
However, history is not in his favor. The Stadium Course is known for not favoring a single style of golf, and there is trouble all over the course that every player seems to encounter at some point during the tournament.
“That’s why I think it’s one of the best courses we play on tour, mainly because it really doesn’t suit one type of player,” Scheffler said. “Bomb-and-gouge doesn’t really work out here. But then you even have the shorter hitters that plot it around that can struggle here, because you got to hit it exactly where you’re looking or you’re going to be punished pretty severely.”
The Players now needs an asterisk, but only if it claims to have the strongest and deepest field in golf. World ranking aside, golf is so divided now because of the defections to LIV Golf that all the best are not at Sawgrass — not Masters champion Jon Rahm or Cameron Smith, who conquered Sawgrass two years ago. Not Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka or Bryson DeChambeau.
And based on the words of PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, there is not an immediate solution.
“It’s going to require time,” Monahan stated regarding any agreement with the Saudis and any resolution to the divided landscape in golf.
The Players begins on Thursday, and if nothing else, it’s a time to refocus on the action inside the ropes, at least for four days.
Xander Schauffele is not a supporter of Monahan, stating the commissioner has “a long way to go” to rebuild trust. Rory McIlroy expressed support for Monahan on Wednesday morning, saying he was the right person for the job and the tour was in a stronger position with new funds from a group of private investors.
And then there was Scheffler, suggesting any responsibility for the divide should be on the players who are not at Sawgrass this week because of LIV.
“If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left,” he said. “We had a tour, we were all together, and the people that left are no longer here. Ultimately, that’s where the division comes from.”
Schauffele perhaps summarized it best.
“I think you would like to have those players playing in an ideal world, but I feel like we’re sort of rehashing the same topic in this media room a little bit,” he said.
