PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Sometimes, you have to get lucky.
Other times sitting around doing nothing is time well spent.
Many of those in contention at the weather–plagued and bogged-down Players Championship experienced plenty of good fortune and down time to position themselves to win the PGA Tour’s showcase event.
When the play concluded around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, eight of the top 10 players were those who finished their opening rounds Thursday, hunkered down for two days and returned fresh for a 54-hole two-day marathon set to conclude Monday.
India’s Anirban Lahiri — the disjointed tournament’s leader at 9-under-par through 11 holes of his third round — spent two days watching his national game.
“I love cricket. I miss home,” he said. “I grew up watching cricket. It’s better than the alternative, which has been watching something else ... I enjoyed myself.”
Wearing four layers of clothes, an energized Lahiri carded a 5-under 31 on his Sunday front nine during chilly, challenging conditions. Temperatures were in the 30s as many golfers prepared for their rounds and the weather never exceeded the mid-50s while wind gusts reached the upper teens.
Yet players realized conditions could have been much worse on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
While Lahiri connected with his childhood, most of the golfers on his side of the draw tuned in Saturday to watch fellow competitors attempt to navigate a punishing, blustery golf course yielding a scoring average above 75. The third-round scoring average is 71.04 with the 71 golfers who made the cut into various stages of their rounds.
“I just felt bad for the guys that had to play,” 36-hole co-leader Sam Burns said. “You never wish that upon your opponents. Over your career, you have good waves and bad waves, but still it just sucks.”
By Sunday’s sunset, first-round co-leader Tom Hoge and Harold Varner III were a shot back at 8-under. Burns led a trio of players at 7-under powered by a 75-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th hole to highlight his second round.
Burns was among those who capitalized on the luck of the draw.
More than three inches of rainfall Thursday and Friday left golfers set to tee off late Thursday or early Friday needing three days to complete their first round before playing another 18 holes in 35-40-mph gusts and chilly Saturday temperatures.
“It was carnage,” Mexico’s Abraham Ancer said. “Can’t do anything about it. Might as well take advantage.”
Paul Casey, who turned professional in 2000, could not recall a two-day break between rounds but had a clear conscience. In pursuit of the biggest title of a career featuring 21 worldwide wins. The 44-year-old Englishman, at 7-under entering Monday, was candid that he’d benefitted from the plight of his competitors.
Several of the game’s top players could not handle the brutal test at TPC Sawgrass and missed the 2-under-par cut, among them world No. 2 Collin Morikawa, No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, No. 4 Xander Schauffele, four-time major champion Brooks Koepka and three-time major winner Jordan Spieth.
“I’ve got lucky that a few guys have been spat out just because of the draw, and that makes it a little easier to look at in terms of people I’ve got to beat,” Casey said. “We’ll see.”
Aiming to become the event’s first repeat winner, Justin Thomas continued to build on a brilliant 3-under 69 — one of two bogey-free rounds Saturday — and sat 5-under until a double-bogey at the par-4 7th followed by a bogey. At 4-under, the 14-time PGA Tour winner is among 31 players — and one of five major champions — sitting 5 shots behind Lahiri.
Northern Ireland’s Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open Championship winner and a terrific wind player, got in the mix with a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th hole to sit 5-under. At 6-under sits 2018 Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari of Italy, one of 13 countries represented among the top 31.
The 34-year-old Lahiri might be the most unlikely player in the mix. Ranked 322nd in the world, Lahiri slipped into the field by virtue of finishing in the top 125 (at 118) of the 2021 FedEx Cup points race.
Lahiri realizes a lot will happen Monday as players all face at least 18 holes in their pursuit of the $3.6 million winner’s check — golf’s richest purse.
By late Sunday the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass had lost much its bite and at 7,088 yards played shorter than it had all week. Designer Pete Dye’s tricky and demanding layout is sure to be gettable with temperatures in the upper 60s and lighter winds at 10-15 mph.
“The nature of what we do ... it’s unpredictable,” Lahiri said. “You just don’t know. You grind away. You keep chipping away. You keep working on your game, and when it clicks, it clicks. It could be this week; it could be next week.
“I’m just happy that I’m playing well.”
