The Players Championship R1

Players Championship 2021 R1
March 11-14
TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
$15,000,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

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Sergio Garcia started his round on the back nine and made the turn at 3-under thanks to an eagle on the par-5 16th. He bogeyed the 1st but recovered with a birdie and closed his round birdie-birdie-eagle to take a two-shot lead in The Players Championship with a 7-under 65.

“I just love it,” he said of TPC Sawgrass. “I’ve always said it, Valderrama and this course are some of my top favorite ones and for some reason they just, it just kind of fits my eye.

“I see what I want to do pretty much every hole and then it’s a matter of doing it, but it definitely I feel more comfortable and I’ve done well. So all those things help.”

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Brian Harman fired three bogeys and three birdies to make the turn at even par then made five birdies in the next seven holes for a 5-under 67 to take solo second place.

“You know you’re going to have a stretch like that at some point to where the ball bounces into the wrong spot, you miss a putt, you just barely miss a fairway. That’s just part of the rub of this place. So I knew I was playing well. I prepared really well, I played really great in the practice round, so I figured if I could just stay patient.”

Matthew Fitzpatrick, Corey Conners and Shane Lowry are tied in third place at 4-under.

Last week’s winner, Bryson DeChambeau, made six birdies and three bogeys for a 69 to tie in sixth place alongside runner-up Lee Westwood and four others.

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Rory McIlroy, whose title defence ground to a halt after one round last year due to Covid-19, started his round on the back nine with a double-bogey at the par-4 10th, bogeyed the par-3 13th and quadruple-bogeyed the par-4 18th to make the turn at 43.

He recovered a little with back-to-back birdies on the 1st and 2nd but bogeyed the next two holes, birdied the 5th and made another bogey at the 9th to close with a 7-over 79, his worst score since his opening round at the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush.

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“The big number on 18 didn’t help and then doubling the first wasn’t helpful, either,” said McIlroy. “It’s hard to recover when you just haven’t played good. If you take that 18th hole out, it still wasn’t a very good day.”

McIlroy wasn’t the only one struggling. By the time play was called due to darkness with twenty one players still on the course, thirteen had scores of 80 or higher.

Henrik Stenson had the worst round of the day, his 85 was his highest score ever on the PGA Tour.

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Pos.	Player	To Par	Thru	R1
1	Sergio Garcia *	-7	F	65
2	Brian Harman	-5	F	67
T3	Shane Lowry	-4	F	68
T3	Matthew Fitzpatrick	-4	F	68
T3	Corey Conners *	-4	F	68
T6	Lee Westwood	-3	F	69
T6	Tom Hoge *	-3	F	69
T6	Bryson DeChambeau	-3	F	69
T6	Rory Sabbatini	-3	F	69
T6	Will Zalatoris	-3	17
T6	Denny McCarthy	-3	F	69
T12	Patrick Reed	-2	F	70
T12	Jordan Spieth	-2	F	70
T12	Charley Hoffman	-2	F	70
T12	Jason Kokrak	-2	F	70
T12	Jason Day	-2	F	70
T12	Patton Kizzire *	-2	F	70
T12	Ryan Palmer *	-2	F	70
T12	Gary Woodland *	-2	F	70
T12	Keegan Bradley	-2	F	70
T12	Nick Taylor	-2	F	70
T12	Adam Long *	-2	F	70
T12	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	-2	F	70
T12	Scott Harrington *	-2	15
T12	Steve Stricker *	-2	F	70
T26	Harold Varner III *	-1	17
T26	Harry Higgs *	-1	F	71
T26	Cameron Smith	-1	F	71
T26	Dylan Frittelli	-1	F	71
T26	Russell Knox	-1	F	71
T26	Billy Horschel *	-1	F	71
T26	Webb Simpson *	-1	F	71
T26	Michael Thompson	-1	F	71
T26	Sebastián Muñoz	-1	F	71
T26	Justin Thomas *	-1	F	71
T26	Phil Mickelson	-1	F	71
T26	Doug Ghim	-1	F	71
T26	Collin Morikawa	-1	F	71
T26	Marc Leishman *	-1	F	71
T26	Scott Brown	-1	F	71
T26	Emiliano Grillo *	-1	F	71
T42	Abraham Ancer *	E	F	72
T42	Kyoung-Hoon Lee *	E	F	72
T42	Sam Ryder	E	F	72
T42	Adam Schenk *	E	F	72
T42	Jon Rahm	E	F	72
T42	Andrew Landry	E	F	72
T42	Adam Hadwin *	E	15
T42	Adam Scott	E	F	72
T42	Brendan Steele	E	F	72
T42	Tyler McCumber *	E	F	72
T42	Viktor Hovland *	E	F	72
T42	Sungjae Im	E	F	72
T42	Si Woo Kim *	E	F	72
T42	Joel Dahmen	E	F	72
T42	Matt Jones	E	17
T42	Chris Kirk	E	15
T42	Brian Stuard	E	14
T42	Jhonattan Vegas *	E	14
T60	Talor Gooch *	1	14
T60	Tom Lewis *	1	14
T60	Danny Lee	1	15
T60	Bo Hoag	1	15
T60	Sepp Straka *	1	15
T60	Doc Redman *	1	F	73
T60	Jerry Kelly	1	F	73
T60	Carlos Ortiz	1	F	73
T60	Lanto Griffin *	1	F	73
T60	Paul Casey *	1	F	73
T60	Max Homa	1	F	73
T60	Louis Oosthuizen	1	F	73
T60	Charles Howell III	1	F	73
T60	Graeme McDowell *	1	F	73
T60	Chez Reavie *	1	F	73
T60	Dustin Johnson	1	F	73
T60	Jason Dufner *	1	F	73
T60	Aaron Wise	1	F	73
T60	Kevin Streelman	1	F	73
T60	Scott Piercy *	1	F	73
T60	Joaquin Niemann	1	F	73
T60	Martin Laird	1	F	73
T60	Cameron Tringale	1	F	73
T60	Victor Perez *	1	F	73
T60	Cameron Percy	1	F	73
T85	Branden Grace *	2	F	74
T85	Brandt Snedeker *	2	F	74
T85	Kramer Hickok *	2	F	74
T85	Patrick Rodgers *	2	15
T85	Nate Lashley *	2	F	74
T85	Ryan Armour *	2	F	74
T85	Daniel Berger	2	F	74
T85	Scottie Scheffler *	2	F	74
T85	Robert MacIntyre	2	F	74
T85	Troy Merritt	2	F	74
T85	Brice Garnett	2	F	74
T85	Patrick Cantlay *	2	F	74
T85	Andrew Putnam *	2	F	74
T85	Brendon Todd *	2	F	74
T85	Tommy Fleetwood *	2	17
T85	Beau Hossler	2	14
T85	Kristoffer Ventura *	2	F	74
T102	Luke List	3	15
T102	Lucas Glover *	3	F	75
T102	Kevin Kisner	3	F	75
T102	Russell Henley *	3	F	75
T102	Mackenzie Hughes *	3	F	75
T102	Zach Johnson *	3	F	75
T102	James Hahn *	3	17
T102	Cameron Champ	3	F	75
T102	Bernd Wiesberger	3	F	75
T102	Robby Shelton *	3	F	75
T112	Scott Stallings *	4	F	76
T112	Sung Kang *	4	F	76
T112	Peter Malnati *	4	F	76
T112	Francesco Molinari	4	F	76
T112	Cameron Davis	4	F	76
T112	Robert Streb *	4	F	76
T112	Bubba Watson *	4	F	76
T112	Xinjun Zhang	4	F	76
T112	Matt Kuchar *	4	F	76
T112	Keith Mitchell	4	F	76
T112	Stewart Cink	4	F	76
T112	Vaughn Taylor	4	F	76
T112	J.T. Poston	4	F	76
T112	Xander Schauffele *	4	F	76
T112	Hideki Matsuyama *	4	F	76
T112	Tyrrell Hatton *	4	F	76
T112	Ryan Moore *	4	15
T129	Rickie Fowler *	5	F	77
T129	Charl Schwartzel *	5	F	77
T129	Austin Cook	5	F	77
T129	Ian Poulter *	5	F	77
T129	Pat Perez *	5	F	77
T134	Mark Hubbard *	6	15
T134	Anirban Lahiri *	6	F	78
T134	Tony Finau	6	F	78
T134	Cheng Tsung Pan *	6	F	78
T134	Alex Noren	6	F	78
T139	Rory McIlroy *	7	F	79
T139	Wyndham Clark *	7	F	79
T141	Richy Werenski	8	F	80
T141	Tyler Duncan	8	F	80
T141	Brian Gay	8	F	80
T141	Henrik Norlander	8	F	80
T141	Maverick McNealy	8	17
T146	Sam Burns *	9	F	81
T146	Jim Herman *	9	F	81
T146	Matthew NeSmith	9	F	81
149	Hudson Swafford *	10	F	82
T150	Jimmy Walker *	11	F	83
T150	Byeong Hun An	11	F	83
T150	Kyle Stanley *	11	F	83
153	Henrik Stenson	13	F	85
WD	Kevin Na	E
* Player started on the back nine