– Scottie Scheffler signed a 69 yesterday in the first round of THE PLAYERS. It is his ninth consecutive competitive round under seventy strokes at the Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass. Last year he broke the record, which was five, and set it at eight. Today, for now, he is already at nine. Let’s see where it ends, but it is becoming possible, and even likely, that the player who manages to surpass this record has not yet been born… It took more than forty years for someone to come along and string together six rounds under seventy, so let’s see who is brave enough to string together ten, eleven, twelve or however many, depending on where the Texan sets the bar. The evolution of equipment, of course, and the increasingly fine training of excellent players may shorten the time, but no one is going to dissuade us: it is possible, and even likely, that the brave one who takes this record from Scheffler has not yet been born. A record that, moreover, is still ongoing…
– Well, such an achievement hasn’t left the World Number One very satisfied. Yesterday he seemed rather curt and uncomfortable in media attention. A 69 can never be bad in this tournament and on this course, but he surely felt he had a 67 or 66 within reach. Nothing bothers Scheffler more than carrying a bogey when he makes a mistake. But that wasn’t the case yesterday: it’s true he made some mistakes, but he was solid in recoveries (4/5) and only signed one bogey. It must be that he missed two rather short birdie putts, from about two metres, and a total of six putts from less than five metres. It must be that and that he is starting to get tired of starting each week outside the top 5 and even the top ten of the tournament.
– Camilo Villegas (-6) is one of the three co-leaders, along with Lucas Glover and J. J. Spaun. The Colombian hit the ball poorly on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday he had a two-hour chat with his coach, the Argentine José Campra and, through videos, they found a slight flaw in the downswing. This chat took place at nine in the morning on Wednesday in Florida, which was nine at night in Singapore, where Campra is, along with Sebastián Muñoz, at the LIV tournament. One, Villegas, hung up at eleven in the morning and went straight to the practice range; the other, Campra, hung up, brushed his teeth and went to bed. “We worked for a couple of hours. He is very hardworking. Very few give more golf lessons than José Campra, and he is always available for me, so it’s great,” a grateful Villegas said yesterday.
Player and coach have known each other for a long time, but it wasn’t until 2023 that they started working together. And it wasn’t just any work: Villegas was very lost and they got into very deep technical changes that could be summed up in a somewhat crude, but understandable way, as follows: it was about changing that lower ball of Camilo for a higher ball. Let’s leave it at that for understanding. The Colombian suffered greatly during the first months of work, but persisted in the attempt and finally the victories came again.
– With the calculator in hand, there are surely many ways to sign a four under par record in a round where you’ve made three bogeys and a triple bogey. Well, Chandler Philips (-4) chose one never seen before at TPC Sawgrass: to all those blots he added the whopping three eagles and four birdies. Three eagles, indeed, never seen before, smashing the par 5s of the course: he started the round on hole 10 and holed a putt of eleven metres on 16. Then he holed it from outside on 2 with a delicate chip; and finally hit the shot of the day on 9, the last hole of his round, to leave himself an eagle chance of just a metre, which he naturally converted. He also came from making a triple bogey on 8. (On the remaining par 5, hole 11, he also made birdie: seven under on the long holes of the course: surely the player who can surpass this hasn’t been born yet either).
Alongside Philips, by the way, was one of the three co-leaders, J. J. Spaun (-6), who closed the round with six birdies and not a single mistake. This is what high-level golfers refer to when they say they are trying to play ‘more boring’ golf…
