The Players Championship is quite possibly one of the most exciting golf tournaments to watch the entire year. Dubbed by some as the “5th” Major, it seems to live up to the hype every May, and if you happened to take a look at the leaderboard after the tournament finished this weekend you’d think it was just another routine 2-shot victory for Tiger Woods, but in reality it was so much more.
A Rivalry Renewed
Fifteen years ago Sergio Garcia was a rival of Tiger Woods, and though he’s been a rather disappointment in terms of how we expected his career to unfold, if it wasn’t for Woods, Sergio probably would have three or four majors under his belt.
They’ve met head to head a few times over the past five years but after trading verbal jabs on Saturday it’s clear that these two aren’t the best of friends.
The feud boiled over into Sunday where they were locked in at 13-under coming down the final stretch of holes. With the possibility of a playoff looming, Sergio dropped two in the water at TPC Sawgrass’s par-3 17th, ending his hopes of a victory. Meanwhile Tiger finished Par, Par to close out the win.
Woods certainly has got the better of Sergio over his career but with Garcia playing much better as of late and tempers flaring on such an enormous stage, it will be interesting to see if these two meet again in the near future.
Near Meltdown
We’re all so used to seeing Tiger come down the stretch with near perfect shots and to watch his tee shot at the par-4 14th hook into the water was nothing short of shocking.
With nightmares of Augusta still looming in Tiger’s mind he had to take a drop and ended up watching his lead disintegrate as he made a double-bogey six. He then hit a poor iron shot which left him with a tough up and down. He eventually buried his 7-foot putt into the heart of the hole for par but Tiger’s tournament easily could have taken a turn for the worst had it played out any differently.
Long Shots
49 year old Jeff Maggert, an old face on tour who hasn’t won since the Bush administration and 25 year old David Lingmerth, a virtual no name who has missed all but one cut on tour this year, both had chances to win coming down the stretch.
Much like Garcia, Maggert’s tournament hopes ended when he sent his ball swimming on No. 17. Lingmerth on the other hand had a putt on the final hole to force a playoff and though it raced by the hole, he’s still going home with a check worth over $700,000.
All in all, The Players Championship certainly had its fill of attention grabbing story lines this year and if it’s any indication of how the rest of this golf season will unfold, it won’t be one you’ll want to miss.