Players Pre-Mortem

The prior post might have tipped you off to my lack of enthusiasm for this week's event, The Players Championship, better known as the Fifth of Four Majors™.  Don't get me wrong, it's a fine event as compared to your run-of-the-mill Tour events, but I can't resist tweaking Commissioner Ratched trying to turn it into something it's not.

It's a fun golf course, and there's no question that the finishing stretch can be entertaining.  I like the Par-5's on the course most of all, and a couple of really good shorter Par 4's (No. 4 especially).  I'm not the biggest fan of No. 17, as there's a tremendous amount of luck involved in correctly judging the wind.  But there's no doubt that Pete Dye and the Commish created something of interest, though I actually thought the March date worked better.

We brought you new last week of the distressing condition of the greens.  Now comes this update from the Florida Times-Union:

In a text message sent by the PGA Tour to players Sunday night that was obtained by the Times-Union, the fourth, 11th and 12th greens will not be available for players during practice rounds that begin Monday. Players were not allowed early practice rounds on Saturday and Sunday, as has been the past custom for those who did not compete in the previous event or had missed the cut. 

The three greens are the slowest to recover from a winter of wet, cold weather and a chemical application program that the PGA Tour said was "too aggressive." Other troublesome greens were the ninth and 14th. Those and all other greens are available to the players.

"The fourth, 11th and 12th greens will remain closed to all practice," the message said. "... Please do not hit shots to these greens. Players and caddies should not walk on these greens until further notice. Thanks for your cooperation." 

TPC Sawgrass director of agronomy Tom Vlach did not return a voice-mail message asking for comment.

I'll bet he didn't.  

Rex Hoggard, who initially broke the story of the condition of the greens, follows up with this update:

The circuit also removed a “significant” amount of trees to help speed the recovery and announced last week that following the 2015 championship the Stadium Course’s greens will be resurfaced with a hardier variety of Bermuda grass and expanded to reduce the impact of foot traffic.

There's also been speculation that the changes might be even more expansive, seeking to return the course to the wilder look t had in its early incarnation.