Bubba Watson is the clubhouse co-leader in The Players Championship.
Stranger things have already happened this week. Stranger things may still be in store.
Watson, the powerful, talented left-hander who plays the game to a different beat than almost anyone else, will tell you he might be the most surprised person in the joint after he shot a bogey-free 68 on Saturday to tie defending champion Justin Thomas at 3-under 141 and share the lead among the 48 players who were able to complete their second rounds at a windswept and increasingly chilly Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
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Watson and Thomas are one shot ahead of Russell Henley (73), Kevin Kisner (74), Daniel Berger (75) and Dustin Johnson (73). Kisner was tied for the overall lead at one point but played his last six holes at 4-over.
With two more difficult days in store because of the weather systems that plagued the tournament on Thursday and Friday, patience, not always one of Watson’s virtues, will be paramount for the field as they chase a record purse of $20 million.
Weather has plagued tournament
The second round will resume on Sunday at 8:15 a.m. in temperatures that are forecast to be in the high-30s (tournament officials aren’t discounting a brief frost delay), and the cut is expected to be made around 2 p.m. and the third round to begin shortly after.
The second round was suspended due to darkness at 6:29 p.m. When play resumes 94 players will have to finish their second round.
A portion of the third round and the final round will be completed on Monday. It’s the first Monday finish in The Players since 2005.
“We’ve gotten all four seasons this week,” said TPC Sawgrass director of agronomy Jeff Plotts, referring to temperatures ranging from the mid-80s during practice rounds, to the expected frigid conditions that will await the early starters on Sunday.
Plotts and a crew of around 180 workers — 90 from his staff and 90 volunteers — worked from around 5 a.m. until noon to get the course ready after a swift storm front blasted through the area. Temperatures dropped and the wind increased in its wake and the combination tortured the best professionals in the world, especially at the 17th hole Island Green, where 29 balls found the water — after only four were rinsed on Thursday and Friday.
The first four players to reach the 17th tee, Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, then the first player with honors in the next group, Collin Morikawa, matched that with four swings. They were in the process of completing their first round, and when they returned later in the afternoon, Koepka and Scheffler found the water again.
All Koepka could do was laugh after a huge wind gust carried his ball away from dry land.
“There’s nothing you can do,” Koepka said.
Watson, Thomas playing steady golf
But Watson and Thomas had no such difficulties. They are playing the 17th at a combined 1-under, and both parred the hole on Saturday.
Watson and Thomas (69) are the only two players who finished nine or more holes in the second round to play bogey-free golf and Watson had the low score among those players.
They were the second bogey-free cards at The Players for both, Watson in 44 career rounds and Thomas in 25.
Thomas, who was playing No. 16 on the re-start, finished his first round with a double bogey at No. 18 after hitting his second shot in the water, but didn’t take long to recover as he’s made good progress toward an unmatched feat: successfully defending a Players title.
However, that wouldn’t be near as much a surprise as Watson winning a Players. He has all the shots but it’s a matter of finding a comfort zone, and so far in his career, Watson has been as comfortable on the Stadium Course as a distance runner with a pebble in his shoe.
“For me, it’s all about vision,” said the two-time Masters champion, who has never finished higher than a tie for 37th in The Players and has missed five cuts in 13 starts. “Blind shots are very difficult for me and this golf course … the designer [Pete Dye] knew what [he] was trying to do. I’m the perfect person that fell into the trap on every hole.”
Watson matched his third-best score on the Stadium Course. His best, a 66, happened in 2011, the year between his two Masters titles.
While he’s completely comfortable at Augusta National, which matches up well to his uncanny feel and instincts, Dye’s design gives him fits.
When asked what he’s learned about the course since his first start in 2007, he replied, “Oh, my gosh … not much.”
He even admitted to a bit of a defeatist attitude. When he faced a birdie putt attempt at No. 16, he told caddie Gabe Sauer that he needed to make the putt to get to 5-under, so he would have enough cushion to absorb double-bogeys at Nos. 17 and 18 and still make the projected even-par cut.
But then Watson said Thomas gave him some motivation.
“I looked up at the board and I saw Justin went bogey-free for 3-under, so I was trying to go bogey-free for 4-under just to one-up him,” he said.
Putting the key for Watson
Watson said it all came down to putting. Not only did he knock in four birdie putts between 8 and 17 feet at Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 12, he sank one testy par putt after another, five of 6 feet or longer, ending with a 12-footer for par at No. 18.
“The key for me is making putts,” he said. “When I can start making some putts, which I did today, that’s really the key to any round for me. I hit some wayward shots but I made the putts, and that’s really what kept the whole round going all the time.”
Thomas also had a testy final hole to preserve his clean card, getting up and down from in front of the ninth green.
Thomas had routine birdies at Nos. 2 and 16 and dropped a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 5.
“I’m thrilled with how I played and how I competed today,” he said. “It was a very, very tough day, and I just stayed very patient and executed well.”
Fleetwood plays just three holes
Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge ended the first round as the co-leaders when it was completed at 2 p.m. Both shot 6-under 66 in the first round on Thursday, with Joquin Niemann, Keith Mitchell, Kramer Hickok, Anirbarn Lahiri, Daniel Berger and Brice Garnett tying at 5-under.
Fleetwood was able to get on the course on Saturday and was even through three holes. Hoge never got a chance to tee off.
Among the players getting on the first page of the leaderboard are Doug Ghim (4-under through 14 holes), Harold Varner III (4-under through three), and Will Zalatoris (4-under through three).
Cameron Smith of Ponte Vedra Beach, who had a 69 in the first round, birdied his first hole and is 4-under.
Weather: Partly cloudy and windy. High of 61. Wind NNW 20-30 mph, with gusts to 43 mph. Due to dangerous weather in the morning Saturday, the second round did not start until noon ET. Due to darkness, the second round was suspended due to darkness at 6:29 p.m. 48 of 71 players in the first wave completed the second round Saturday. 45 of 72 players in the second wave began the second round Saturday (none completed).
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 2022 Players Championship leaderboard: Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas
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