Although we saw bad weather bring the second round of The Players Championship to an end prematurely, we were set for yet another Saturday cut, with the pace of play becoming another big talking point.
In commentary, it was reported that the two ball of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, (Jon Rahm had to withdraw to illness), took over an hour to play three holes. Apparently, at one point, there were four groups playing the par 5 11th, as the backlog led to 5+ hour rounds.
The first round of THE PLAYERS Championship was suspended due to darkness at 6:28 p.m. ET.Round one will resume at 7:40 a.m. Friday morning.The second round will begin as scheduled.March 9, 2023
What’s more, play was suspended on Thursday due to darkness, with groups having to return on Friday to complete their rounds, even though there were no delays because of the weather or other circumstances.
It’s not the first time this has happened though but, after day two at TPC Sawgrass was suspended due to weather, PGA Tour chief referee, Gary Young, claimed that there hasn’t been an issue with pace of play, with the official stating that “the pace of play has been just what we’ve expected.”
Speaking in Florida, Young stated that: “This golf course is just one; there are so many situations that happen out there. We have seen some big numbers, and there seems to just be holes that can come up and bite a player at any time and result in a high score.
“The pace of play has been just what we’ve expected. It plays anywhere from four hours and 55 minutes for the first groups and, looking at the results of yesterday’s, it got as high as five and a half hours. But that is just the result of the challenge of this golf course that it provides, design-wise, and also the size of the field that we’re playing. It is a challenge, but we feel very confident that we’re playing at the pace that we anticipated.”
McIlroy and Scheffler wait on the tee during the second of The Players Championship
(Image credit: Getty Images)
According to a reporter who asked Young about ‘the time to par’, a metric the PGA Tour uses to enforce pace of play relative to the historical tournament average, only one group actually met their time in the first round. However, Young responded to the question by stating: “If you think about the time par that we’ve established, that’s based on historical data that we have accumulated over years. So the time par is very comfortable.”
He added: “we hold the lead group on both nines — you…
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