THE PLAYERS: Tuesday
PGATOUR.COM's Brian Wacker was on the course at TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course as the field prepares for THE PLAYERS Championship:
TRACKING TIGER (6:00 p.m.): The first true full day of practice is wrapping up here at TPC Sawgrass, where Tiger Woods was among one of the first people out this morning. He'll be back again for another dawn patrol practice round tomorrow morning to play the back nine here, and we'll be following him in tomorrow's live report, beginning around 7 a.m. Today, Woods hit all of one loose shot and looked comfortable and relaxed. We'll see what he does tomorrow, especially on holes 17 and 18. -- Brian Wacker
FORMER NFL STAR GIVES BACK (5:20 p.m.): Thanks to its involvement with THE PLAYERS Championship, The Boselli Foundation will soon open its third Youth Life Learning Center, an after-school learning environment for underprivileged youth.
Like the other two Youth Life Learning Centers, the third one will be located in Jacksonville, Fla., where Tony Boselli starred as an offensive tackle for the NFL's Jaguars.
"For the last 12 months, we've talked about a partnership and this year we were awarded a grant," Boselli said Tuesday. "THE PLAYERS has been great. This will make a large impact in a number of people's lives."
Boselli said the goal of the Learning Centers is "to provide a safe place for young people and make an impact on their education and development." He's hoping that third Learning Center will open in time this fall for the 2009-2010 school year. -- Mike McAllister
NO DUFFER (4:30 p.m.): Jason Dufner is only in the field this week because Brandt Snedeker pulled out with a rib injury. Dufner was in his position as an alternate, however, because of three top 10s this season, including in each of the last two weeks.
But Dufner's success goes a lot deeper than the fact he hits a lot of greens and fairways -- something that will certainly play well here. Over the last few year's Dufner has made an enormous committment to fitness, shedding more than 25 pounds and in the process adding length, stability an swing changes that have led to more consistent play.
He's also been befriended by Vijay Singh, who, like Dufner, is a bit of introvert but also a fitness fanatic. While this will be Dufner's first PLAYERS Championship, with the way he's playing it might not be his last. -- Brian Wacker
PAIRINGS PARTY (3:35 p.m.): There are loads of interesting first- and second-round pairings at THE PLAYERS this week. Here are just a few on Thursday:
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NO. 1 UP FOR GRABS (3:00 p.m.): We could have a change at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking this week -- depending on what happens at TPC Sawgrass.
If Phil Mickelson wins his second PLAYERS Championship on Sunday and Tiger Woods finishes lower than fourth, the two would switch places.
Should Mickelson ascend to the No. 1 spot, that would be a first for his career. While he says its not at the top of his mind right now, Mickelson certainly lists it as a goal.
"It's something that I feel that if I play well and win tournaments and stuff like that will come," he said. "But I think looking back on my career, I think that it would mean a lot to me to be able to say at one point I was No. 1, even if it was for a week, a month, what have you, whatever the time period was, to say I climbed to the top. The goal of all of us would be to say that would be pretty cool, and what I'm striving to accomplish." -- Helen Ross
PLAYERS OF THE MONTH (2:35 p.m.): The April Players of the Month have been announced for the three tours. Here's your winners:
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GIVING BACK (2:05 p.m.): One of the more overlooked aspects of tournaments on the PGA TOUR -- especially at THE PLAYERS Championship -- is just how much the tournaments and players give back to various communities and charities, especially in the tough economic times everyone is facing right now.
And don't think the players themselves, many of whom are millionaires multiple times over, aren't thinking about it, too. Whether it's Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or Padraig Harrington, they've all addressed economic issues in recent months. Harrington was especially insightful and poignant in his speech when accepting the male player of the year award from the Golf Writers Association of America earlier this year at Augusta, for example.
"Last year I think $3 million was raised for the community here," Mickelson said. "I think word needs to get because we've been getting an unfair rap, if you will, in Congress about some of the dollars being spent for entertainment, sponsorship of these events and yet we're doing more than entertaining clients here."
And even though Mickelson believes it's important the TOUR message gets out, it goes a lot deeper than that. Mickelson often gives millions of dollars unbeknownst, Woods gives back through his foundation and Harrington realizes the importance of sponsors and the impact they have on the game and the community.
"There's always something that touches each one of us," Mickelson said. "What's cool is we're all in a position to do something about it." -- Brian Wacker
FASHIONISTAS ON THE COURSE (1:47 p.m.): Golf Digest's resident fashion expert Marty Hackel won't be the only person sizing up the threads on TOUR this week at TPC Sawgrass. Golfweek has teamed up with a fashionable pair -- Ashley Davis and Ashleigh Korzack from GOLF CHANNEL's 2008 reality show Highway 18.
The life-long best friends from Toronto, Ontario, made it to the final round of the show's elimination-themed golf challenges and were battling brother-sister team Rob and Charlotte Campbell for the grand prize of $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in travel from orbitz.com before Davis succumbed to heat exhaustion in the final challenge.
The girls made a splash all season for their usually matching and highly chic golf outfits and were able to play their way into the final round under the radar while everyone else thought they were just about the look.
This season on TOUR, the Orlando-based pair will be analyzing golf fashion trends for Golf Week, and what better way to get started that here at TPC Sawgrass?
"We might have to change," Davis said of their outfits today. Seems like they really do have some fashion wisdom, as Davis explained that she and Hackel are wearing the same shirt today -- just in different colors. -- Ceri Mobley
STEAMY SAWGRASS (1:05 p.m.): Phil Mickelson should be making his way in for his Q&A with the media shortly. In the meantime, the driving range and practice green are abuzz with action. Lots of players have their teaching gear out, from swing sticks to towels and various putting devices. The temperature is also climbing, right along with the humidity. -- Brian Wacker
PADRAIG THE IMPATIENT (12:10 p.m.): Padraig Harrington isn't trying to play the golf that won him two major championships last year. He's trying to play better than that. The first part of that might sound strange, but Harrington is the type of player who's admittedly impatient with his game.
"When you have success, I see that as a reason to stop and start, changing things to get better," Harrington said Tuesday morning. "Sometimes to get better, you work on your weaknesses, sometimes your strengths get a little weak and that's what happened to me. My good strengths have not been as good."
This season got off to a particularly slow start with Harrington missing two of his first three cuts on the PGA TOUR and since then he's had just one top-15 finish.
"I've been getting very bogged down in the technique," Harrington said. "When you're doing that you lose the art of scoring a bit."
While Harrington hopes to get his game in shape for the U.S. Open, he's also hoping a firmer, faster course will also result in a better result here. Harrington hasn't finished in the top 50 in any of the previous four years -- after finishing second in 2003 and '04 -- and has twice missed the cut. -- Brian Wacker
FAST AND FIRM (11:30 a.m.): Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods have largely different games, but one thing they share is a love for firm and fast golf courses and that's how TPC Sawgrass should be paying this year with shorter rough -- by about a quarter-inch -- and the greens running at about a 12 on the Stimp meter.
"The golf course that is here now suits more my style of play," Harrington said.
"The faster the better," Woods said. "It brings back creativity, especially when the greens get hard and fast. It's not quite as fast [as the 1994 U.S. Amateur], but it's close." -- Brian Wacker
TIGER INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS (10:30 a.m.): Tiger Woods just wrapped up his post-practice round interview session with the media and the topics ranged from his testing a bunch of different drivers the last couple of weeks to his recent visit to the White House.
We'll start with the driver, which has been probably the most significant of problems he's had this year. You'll never find Woods' name near the top of the driving accuracy statistic, but he's been particularly wild, and unusually shorter with the club than in the past. Part of that is trying to get his speed and body back to where it was before his knee surgery, part of it is what's clearly been some uncomfortableness with the driver.
Woods switched driver shafts a couple of times last week, but ultimately went back to his old driver for the weekend at Quail Hollow. The same thing happened this morning on the driving range, where he hit three different length drivers, but settled on his old one.
"I'm trying to get a little better flight to the golf ball," Woods said.
"My best ballstriking week so far has been Doral. I hit it great the entire week there, didn't putt. And I didn't hit it well at Bay Hill, but I putted, I haven't put all the pieces together yet."
Some other snippets:
When did you notice that you weren't full strength? ... "The first tournament back I just didn't have the pop in my body. It takes time to get back. That's the surprising thing is how long it takes to get back. "
How much longer will it take? ... "I don't know."
On playing back-to-back weeks for the first time this year ... "That's the unknown. I haven't had any setbacks so far. You would think it's no big deal, but to me it is. I haven't played back-to-back events in a long time."
On the White House and getting to see the Oval Office ... "It's a little bit smaller than you think. You see it in the movies, but it's different to see it in person."
-- Brian Wacker
TIGER DONE AFTER NINE HOLES (9:20 a.m.) -- Tiger just finished the ninth and final hole of his practice round and it's clear his swing looks a bit better this week than last week. He's kept his ball in the fairway and hit some nice putts. Up next for Woods: his Tuesday morning press conference in the media center at 10 a.m. To view all the press conferences this week at TPC Sawgrass, click here.
NEARING THE TURN (9:05 a.m.) -- The crowd following Tiger and Nick Watney has grown to a few hundred as they play the eighth hole. The breeze has also picked up, cooling things down a bit. Woods and Watney have been hitting a lot of practice putts, which is typical, and so far both look solid in their putting -- something that's been plaguing him of late.
LOCAL CONNECTION (8:40 a.m.) -- Among those following Tiger this morning are Jacksonville Jaguars Rashean Mathis and Scott Starks. Mathis and Starks finished up mini camp last weekend and decided to come out and see Woods play.
"It's amazing to see someone like him perform at the highest level of their game," said Mathis, who was seeing Woods play in person for the first time.
Mathis is no slouch himself. He took up golf just four years ago, but is already a 10 handicap, playing most of his golf at TPC Sawgrass.
EAGLE FOR TIGER (8:05 a.m.) -- Tiger hit his tee shot at the par-3 third to about 15 feet, setting up what would most certainly be a birdie. He then threw down a few balls and started putting to what will be some of the various hole locations here throughout the week.
On the fourth hole, he split the fairway with a 3-wood then gave the growing number of fans something to cheer about when he holed out from the fairway.
TIGER ON NO. 2 (7:45 a.m.) -- The driver came out for Tiger Woods on the second hole, where he hit two balls off the tee after he hit his first shot too far right. Woods, who won here in 2001 but hasn't finished in the top 10 since, lasered his second shot to within 20 feet and then hit a practice pitch from the rough just short of the green and almost holed it.
Playing behind Woods is good friend Bubba Watson, who is playing with Aaron Baddeley.
TIGER TEES OFF (7:24 a.m.) -- Tiger Woods just teed off with 3-wood on the opening hole of TPC Sawgrass, hitting it into the right fairway bunker. Woods is playing his practice round with Nick Watney among a smattering of fans and only a few media -- certainly nothing like what we saw when he returned earlier this year in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.
DRIVERS WANTED (7:07 a.m.) -- By the time Tiger Woods started hitting balls at the range, the sun had already appeared over the horizon. Woods chatted up Nick Watney and seemed to be in a good mood as he joked with caddie Steve Williams.
If he was upset about his hometown Lakers' loss to the Rockets in the first game of their NBA Playoff series, you wouldn't know it. Interestingly, Woods was testing a few different drivers -- all the same Nike model but with shaft variances in them.
Woods has been struggling with accuracy off the tee more than usual this season and will need to hit much straighter this week at TPC Sawgrass, where there is a premium on accuracy.
BEAT THE HEAT (6:51 a.m.) -- Dawn patrol with Tiger Woods means getting to the golf course while it's still dark. Woods is a notorious early riser, but he was hardly the only golfer getting an early start Tuesday morning as daylight and humidity rose at TPC Sawgrass.
Nick Watney arrived at the clubhouse just before 6:30 a.m. and Camilo Villegas teed off by himself on the first hole, followed by Stuart Appleby, not long after as Woods and made his way down to the range, where caddie Steve Williams was already waiting.
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