Thursday Thoughts

While I have never met Pete Dye, I know him well. He is 500 years old and has absorbed the wisdom of the ages. He has a pointed hat and a flowing robe embroidered with occult symbols. When he speaks, he becomes extremely animated, and gesticulates a lot with flashes of blue static crackling from his long fingernails.  PETER DOBEREINER

If Pete's such an evil genius, how did Martin Kaymer shoot 63?  Give these guys soft conditions, light

breezes and the relatively pressure-free atmosphere of a Thursday, and they pretty much shoot at every pin.  Kaymer shot a mind-blowing 29 on the difficult first nine (his second nine of the day), and Doug Ferguson fills us in on the rest of the pyrotechnics:

Kaymer missed only two fairways. He putted for birdie on all but one hole and finished with four straight birdies to become only the fourth player to shoot a 63 on the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass. 

There were 28 rounds in the 60s, which made the score by Adam Scott look even worse. With another chance - his best one yet - to get to No. 1 in the world for the first time, Scott finished with a pair of double bogeys from shots in the water and signed for a 77. It was his highest opening round at The Players since his first trip in 2002.

That last will ruin the day of Joe Passov, but as Johnny said on the broadcast, even his bad swings look good.  And we had no shortage of opportunities to see those yesterday...

But it's a fine leaderboard, and I particularly like the mix of guys who came in with 65, everything from grizzled vets like Sergio and Rose (my pre-tourney pick), guys like Scott Stallings and Gary Woodland that have no business contending on this track, and of course the obligatory appearance by Jordan Spieth.  The course will no doubt continue to firm up, and scoring will likely moderate.

Shackelford posts at The Loop that Pete Dye is getting in the players' heads, odd when they seem to be torching the place:

Look past the torrid Players opening round scoring and notice a new theme developing in player observations: the TPC Sawgrass tees are intentionally misaligned.

Not the actual tee markers, which are placed to precision by the tour staff each morning using things like paint cans and T-squares. No, the player and caddie buzz has turned to the actual tee "boxes" and the way they set up tee shots.

Really?  Gee guys, maybe you could have your caddies stand behind you and check your alignment?  Continue, Geoff:

Lee Westwood on the 5th tee yesterday.

“You got tee boxes lining you up in wrong directions and you're having to hit across a lot of fairways,” Rory McIlroy said after his opening round 70. “The depth perception is hard with the way the trees are. It's just, visually, it's a typical Pete Dye golf course, it's just visually very awkward.”

Awkward would be music to Pete Dye’s ears. The man loves to make great players work for their living. But crediting him for misaligning tees is giving more credit than he deserves. Renovated many times over the years with mowing patterns that shift subtly over time, there is no question that some tees appear to point a little right of center on select holes (check out the 5th and 13th during this week's telecast).

“The tee boxes here all aim right,” said Ernie Els after a 68. "I've always felt very uncomfortable on the tees here. Today again, because I got to get myself a little spot in front of me, I can't just aim down the tee, because I'm aiming 20 yards right.

Els added, “Pete Dye's a genius, but he's a sinister man."

Cue the world's smallest violin.   

We credited Phil yesterday for a smart move for checking with putting guru Dave Stockton earlier in the week.  His disappointing day (75 good for T111) started with a missed three-footer for par on his first hole, and a -2.3 strokes gained putting.  His struggle to make the cut will no doubt get some airtime this afternoon, but he's almost unwatchable at this point.  

I had two favorite moments from the broadcast yesterday.  First, on one of my visits to TPC I hit a no-good,

awful tee shot on No. 4, one that went right-of-right.  The 4th is a great short Par 4, with water down the right off the tee as you can see from the thumbnail.  Fortunately that area to the right of the water is not OB, though it is home to their turf farm.  It's obviously quite the horrid shot that lands you there, and I mention it because I saw Rickie Fowler there yesterday.  He made the same five I did, which is about all that can be reasonably accomplished from there.  They said his drive hit a tree, which isn't easy to do off that tee, especially when all you're trying to do is put it on the short stuff.

My other favorite moment was Bubba hitting pink driver off the deck on No. 9.  Bubba has famously not played well at TPC, and says the course doesn't fit his eye.  Hitting driver into that microscopic green is great theater, I'd not have missed it for the world, and I'll even acknowledge that it kind of worked out for him, as he made birdie.  But to me it indicates that Bubba's problem with the course is located slightly behind his eyes.

Enjoy Round 2.