How to Watch: Bryson DeChambeau on Thursday at Professional Long Drive Association competition

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Two first-time contestants have prevailed in the nearly three decades of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Hal Sutton did it in 1983, the tournament's second year at the Stadium Course, and Craig Perks won in 2002. The Stadium is intimidating, but also subtle. Mark McCumber, 1988 PLAYERS champion and father of 2021 first-timer Tyler McCumber, spoke for many when he said in a recent Florida Times-Union story, "It took me a while to get comfortable in this tournament." And yet these might be the best odds for a first-timer to raise the trophy since Jack Nicklaus won the first PLAYERS in '74. With the 15 rookies in 2020 who made it back this week - second-time first-timers, if you will, after playing just one competitive round - and this year's 16 players who haven't played at all, there are 31 PLAYERS first-timers. And some are among the game's elite. "I feel like it'll be my second time," said world No. 4 Collin Morikawa, who won in his last start at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession. "I realize I only got one round in, but it doesn't mean I didn't do any prep." Although the Masters Tournament gets the most attention as being the one that's hardest for the uninitiated to win, THE PLAYERS isn't far behind. If it's behind at all. Rory McIlroy, who will be this week's defending champion of sorts since he won the last time the tournament got in all four rounds, in 2019, has said he didn't really like TPC Sawgrass for the first few years he played it. He didn't even really like any Pete Dye courses. Now, though, after winning the PGA Championship at Kiawah, the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick, and THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, he has learned to like them very much. "They’re like beer when you’re younger," McIlroy said last year. "You sort of don’t like it, but then you think it’s cool to drink it and then you sort of acquire a taste for it." Justin Thomas said this week that it took him a long time to learn the course and how it played in May, which was the tournament date when he registered his best finish, T3, in 2016. Since 2019, he added with a laugh, he's had to learn how it plays in March. "If you drive it well," he said, "being in March, it’s always going to be softer, the fairways and the greens, and you can make so many birdies out here. You have four par-5s, a lot of short scoring clubs into holes. But if you get it out of play, you’re missing the fairways, you get it out of play on the par-5s, it’s tough to shoot under par out here." Webb Simpson missed the cut in four of his first six PLAYERS starts but won in 2018. "I just learned that you have to respect the golf course," he said. "There’s trouble on every hole." This year's true rookies include but are not limited to Cameron Percy, 46, the oldest first-timer not to get in via a win at the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS. Scott Harrington isn't too far behind at 40. Maverick McNealy co-owns the career wins record at Stanford (11). Lefty Robert MacIntyre comes from Oban, Scotland. Tyler McCumber has Sawgrass in his blood. Will Zalatoris, 24, is the most highly regarded true newbie. He's climbing up the world ranking (47th) and coming off a T10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The second-time first-timers, though, are truly dangerous. Last August, Morikawa won the PGA Championship, becoming the ninth player to win the PGA in his debut. He shot a 4-under 68 in the first round of THE PLAYERS last year and is riding high after capturing the WGC-Workday Championship with his new "saw" putting grip. As for the notion that he'll have to pay his dues at the Stadium, don't be so sure. "I did my normal prep Monday through Wednesday," he said of 2020, "and was able to play Junior PLAYERS, even though I was never in contention. It's not like I'm showing up having played just one tournament round. I've seen it quite a bit now. For me, every week I see the same guys, and that's what helps me no matter what the tournament is called." Norway's Viktor Hovland looks ready to win, too. Top-five finishes in four of his last six starts, including a win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, have him up to No. 3 in the FedExCup. What's more, he also shot 68 in his one and only competitive round here. "I haven't thought much about that," he said, when asked whether he feels more like a first- or second-timer. "I guess it will be my first because I only got one round in. It was a good round. "I have good memories of that day," he continued, "I'll try to build on it. I haven't played there much. I played Junior PLAYERS. It's a fun track; I'm looking forward to playing it again." Scottie Scheffler also got his first look at Sawgrass at the Junior PLAYERS. He, too, shot an opening 68 last year. "I feel like I know the course pretty well," he said. So does South Africa's Christian Bezuidenhout, who scorched Sawgrass with a 65 last year. That round notwithstanding, he said, he still feels like a newcomer this week. "THE PLAYERS is the one everyone wants," he said. "It's the biggest PGA TOUR event apart from the majors. I'd like to play that course four rounds and finish off on Sunday." As would they all - and this year they will. We're about to see what happens when one of history's most extravagantly talented rookie classes takes the biggest stage on TOUR.

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Every time the Ryder Cup is held outside the U.S., the Americans fold. It’s been 25 years since Team USA has had a road win, and it looks it’s headed toward 27.

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When Georgia coach Chris Haack goes to check on his guys at The RSM Classic he’ll have his work cut out for him. In total, 11 of Haack’s former players make their livings on the PGA TOUR, with Bubba Watson the only former Bulldog not in the field for this week’s RSM. There are no slouches in this bunch, either, with 10 making the FedExCup Playoffs last summer. Nine have won, with Watson (12), Harris English (4), Kevin Kisner (4), Chris Kirk (4), Russell Henley (3), Brendon Todd (3), Brian Harman (2), Hudson Swafford (2) and Keith Mitchell (1) combining for 35 TOUR titles. The next in line? None other than Haack’s future son-in-law Greyson Sigg. The 26-year-old Augusta, Georgia native is a rookie on TOUR after winning twice on the Korn Ferry Tour last season. He says it’s not hard to figure out why the Georgia contingent continues to grow and thrive: At Georgia, unless a player finished in the top 10 in the event prior, they’re in the qualifying mix for the next event. “We had to earn it when we were in school,” Sigg said, “and you got to earn it today. Nothing’s given to you in this game, and that’s how Haacker treated us in school. Some coaches don’t like it, but I think it’s genius. You learn to find yourself and what you like to do at a young age, so when you come out of college, you’re ready to go do a Monday qualifier and (used to) having to shoot 8 under to get through. “I think that’s a big deal,” he continued. “There’s a reason why there’s that many Georgia guys on TOUR.” Beyond that, Haack sees one similarity between a lot of his players – the consistency in their demeanors. They shake off the bad shots quickly, one of the things Haack stresses at Georgia. Sigg listened well. “They don’t get too high and low,” Haack said. “And that’s something we’ve always preached and tried to get them to do, but he was already pretty good at it.” Sigg’s fiancée Katie Haack said what you see is what you get with the affable and laid back Sigg, whom fellow Georgia product Sepp Straka describes as one of the funniest people he knows. Not that he’s totally immune from nerves. “The only time I’ve ever seen him rattled was when he proposed,” Katie said with a laugh. In fact, there were two other times, said Georgia Associate Head Coach Jim Douglas. “The two times he was here that he got to a tournament and the ball was not drawing,” Douglas said. “Talk about freaking someone out; he’d never seen the ball go straight.” Douglas laughed. “He was literally freaked out. But he woke up the next day and it was back to his normal draw.” Keith Mitchell jokes that Sigg rolls out of bed “hitting a 5-yard draw” and that his “natural game is perfect.” Douglas disagrees. He said Sigg’s shot shape is more like a 2- or 3-yard draw. Either way, it was that consistency and ball-striking prowess that caught Haack’s eye. He said Sigg’s demeanor reminds him of other former UGA standouts, but the ball-striking and stature remind him most of Harman. Both are on the small side, but are nevertheless ball-striking machines with a beautiful natural draw. Both are plenty long, and routinely hit 16 or 17 greens in regulation per round. Both could sometimes get too aggressive with the flat stick when they were juniors and had to become better lag putters through college and into their professional careers. “One of the things I liked about him was he had a really good solid, repeatable swing,” Haack said of Sigg. “His swing never changed. It was always very compact. He wasn’t very tall, but he could really pound it out there pretty good, and he always hit the same shot. I remember thinking I liked that, but I also remember seeing him many times thinking that boy is going to have to learn how to putt to get to the next level.” Douglas says Sigg’s speed on the greens got better over the years. Putting contests on the Georgia practice green with his teammates Straka and Mookie Demoss paid dividends, and Sigg never tinkered with the short, compact motion that he developed at Augusta Country Club, right next door to Augusta National. Sigg’s dad, David, got him started in the game, taking him and his older brother, William, who went on to play at Presbyterian College, with him when he’d go play with their grandfather. Eventually Greyson graduated from playing in bunkers to hitting shots himself, and was as young as 5 when he began to wow spectators on the range. When he was 7, his dad asked Tommy Bradley, then the head pro at Augusta Country Club, if he should consider lengthening that action. But Sigg didn’t change much; his swing today is mostly unchanged. “I asked the head pro if Greyson should maybe try to take it a little bit further because it was almost Jon Rahm like short,” David said. “Tommy said, ‘Don’t touch it! Don’t do nothing! Leave him alone!’” Greyson was 10 when he started working with Augusta CC’s Gary Cressend, who still coaches him today. “His swing was always short,” David said, “but he could always pop it back then. He’s just always been an unbelievable ball striker for his age.” While his motion was honed at his home club, Sigg’s desire to play professionally was honed across the fence at Augusta National, where his mom, Karen, works as an executive assistant to the chairman. Every spring break week, his family would get Masters tickets, and Greyson and William watched the world’s best compete for a Green Jacket. Greyson liked Tiger best, but in 2004, with Phil Mickelson on his way to his first title, the lefty handed him a ball on back-to-back days, both times on the walk between the sixth green and seventh tee. Seventeen years later, Sigg would play with Mickelson in the final round of the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Now a PGA TOUR member, he is hoping to join his future father-in-law’s pack of Georgia alums with a TOUR win and earn a spot in his big hometown event. It’s part of the reason the hyper-competitive rookie doesn’t get too caught up in the texts congratulating him on his fine play. (He’s made four of six cuts and is 86th in the FedExCup.) The stage is bigger, but his goal is the same as it was on the Korn Ferry Tour: Win. “This is what I want to do,” Sigg said, “and so happy to finally be here on TOUR and look forward to staying here for many years, but I haven’t been playing great. Making a lot of cuts and everyone keeps texting me great playing when I finish 30th, but I’m not exactly pleased with it and know what I need to do to get better. I’m looking to finish off the fall with a bang and get a nice finish here.”

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