How to watch THE PLAYERS Championship, Sunday: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV times

Wake up. Step out of your room. Hop onto a boat. Arrive at the first tee. Theoretically, that’s how you could start the day at Mayakoba, the resort course hosting this week’s event. Of course, players will need to warm up on the range first, but it’s easy to get distracted at the Riviera Maya, with all the fresh-water canals, emerald jungles and wildlife in the area. And yes, those are spider monkeys roaming the fairways. THE FLYOVER The 532-yard par-5 13th is the easiest hole at El Camaleon. A year ago, it played to a stroke average of 4.475, which made it the 31st easiest par 5 of the 163 played on the PGA TOUR last season. A prevailing left-to-right wind will impact a player’s strategy, but those who fail to make at least a birdie are giving up significant strokes to the field. Here’s a look at an Aaron Wise chip-in for eagle at the 2016 Mayakoba. LANDING ZONE Of the 918 holes played on the PGA TOUR last season, the 452-yard par-4 14th at El Camaleon was the 11th toughest, playing to a stroke average of 4.373. Just one eagle and 19 birdies were made, compared to 113 bogeys and 29 doubles or others. The fairway offers a fairly generous landing zone, but a headwind and dense mangroves surrounding the hole turn par into a difficult task. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Stewart Williams: “High pressure will keep the tranquil weather pattern going through Friday. Can’t rule out an isolated shower or thunderstorm on any given day, but the bulk of the area will likely remain dry. Just enough increase in moisture may increase our chances for seeing scattered showers and thunderstorms on Saturday. Showers may linger into Sunday morning with dry conditions returning for the afternoon. A cold front will drop south and bring a good chance for t-storms by Tuesday.â€� For the latest weather news from Playa del Carmen, Mexico, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK Brought a smile to my face really just stepping on this property.This is an extremely relaxing week, which I’ll take advantage of that. Definitely a couple spa days. BY THE NUMBERS 68.65 – Scoring average by Charles Howell III in his nine appearances at Mayakoba. He has three top-10s in his last five starts in this event. 70 – Number of birdies made individually this season by Beau Hossler, Emiliano Grillo, Si Woo Kim, Chez Reavie and Gary Woodland, each of whom is in the field this week. That’s one birdie shy of the current birdie leader Kevin Tway (71). 1 – Number of players who have competed every year of the Mayakoba. That distinction belongs to Chris Stroud, who has three top-5 finishes in those 11 starts. 2 – Number of Mexico natives who have won PGA TOUR events. Cesar Sanudo won the 1970 Azalea Open Invitational, while Victor Regalado won twice, in 1974 (Pleasant Valley Classic) and 1978 (the tournament now known as the John Deere Classic). SCATTERSHOTS  A record four players from Mexico – Carlos Ortiz, Roberto Diaz, Jose de Jesus Rodriguez and Abraham Ancer — have their PGA TOUR cards this season, and all four are in the field this week. They’ve each played and made the cut at Mayakoba in previous starts. “Having four Mexicans playing with a full card this year, it’s incredible,â€� Ancer said. Added defending champion Patton Kizzire: “They didn’t just get here by chance; those guys are really good golfers.â€� U.S. Amateur champ Viktor Hovland of Norway is making his PGA TOUR debut this week. Hovland, who played collegiately at Oklahoma State, is playing on a sponsor exemption. So is Adria Arnaus, who also is making his TOUR debut. Arnaus, who played collegiately at Texas A&M, is from Spain. Green speeds this week will be between 10.5 to 11 feet due to the contours of the green and the sea breeze. The latter is most noticeable on the ocean holes No. 4 and 15.

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In the storied career of Tiger Woods, the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard is a statistical oddity. Of Tiger’s 79 stroke-play victories on the PGA TOUR (82 wins overall, tying Sam Snead’s record), that 2009 tournament is his only win in which he failed to play the par 5s under par for the entire week. He suffered a double bogey at Bay Hill’s par-5 sixth in his opening round and eventually played holes 6 and 12 at even par in winning by one stroke over Sean O’Hair (the course played as a par-70 that week, with two of the traditional par 5s converted to par 4s). Woods’ World Golf Hall of Fame career has been fueled in large part by his dominance on the par 5s, his power advantage providing him more scoring chances than his competitors. As Mark O’Meara once said about Woods and par 5s, “It’s been his trademark … That’s kind of what Tiger Woods is all about.” Twenty years ago at the RBC Canadian Open, Woods produced arguably his most memorable par-5 moment. Using a 6-iron from 218 yards out of the fairway bunker on his second shot, Woods carried the water and found the back fringe of the green to set up his winning birdie. Many consider it the most impressive single shot of his career. No surprise he was 13 under on Glen Abbey’s four par 5s that week. This week, Woods is back in action at The Match: Champions for Charity, in which he’ll team with amateur/NFL legend Peyton Manning against the team of Phil Mickelson-Tom Brady to raise money for COVID-19 relief. The match is at Medalist, Tiger’s home course in south Florida. Naturally, it has four par 5s. Thanks to the ShotLink team at PGA TOUR, here’s a deep dive into the numbers that help explain Tiger’s par-5 dominance in his career. Par-5 Scoring Average The best place to start an examination of Tiger’s par-5 dominance is to look at the most basic category — his scoring average on those holes. From his first full PGA TOUR season in 1997 until his second FedExCup championship in 2009, Tiger Woods led the TOUR in par-5 scoring 10 times in those 13 seasons. No one else led the category more than twice in that span. His best statistical season was 2000, the year he won three majors. Tiger’s par-5 scoring average of 4.37 was 0.13 better than the next player on that list, Vijay Singh — the widest gap that Tiger enjoyed during his time at No. 1. The TOUR average on par 5s that year was 4.72, meaning that Woods was gaining 0.35 strokes on the field every time he played a par 5. Considering Woods played 265 par 5s that year, he gained 93 strokes on the field. Since 1980, Tiger has the three lowest single-season par 5 scoring averages on TOUR — 4.37 in 2000, 4.38 in 2003 and 4.39 in 2001. Justin Thomas is fourth on the list at 4.42 last season. As for the three years Tiger didn’t rank first from 1997-2009? • 2004, when Vijay Singh led the category with a 4.47 scoring average (Tiger was 5th at 4.53) • 2007 when Phil Mickelson was No. 1 with a 4.45 average (Tiger was 2nd at 4.48) • 2008 when Tiger did not meet the minimum number of rounds after having knee surgery following his U.S. Open win at Torrey Pines. His average to that point was 4.46 — had he maintained that, he would’ve ranked No. 1. The next season, Woods averaged 4.43 to again rank No. 1 in par-5 scoring average. It’s the last time he led the TOUR in that category, as a combination of factors (health/other issues, lack of rounds, the rise of younger bombers, simply getting older, etc.) have made an impact in the last decade. Even so, his career scoring average on par 5s is still an impressive 4.49, which would rank inside the top 10 averages when stacked against each of the single-season par-5 scoring average leaders since 2010. Par-5 scoring leaders last 10 years vs. Tiger Woods career average Par 5 Birdies or Better Much like his par-5 stroke averages, Tiger’s par-5 birdie or better statistics show the huge advantage he had with the longest holes. He led the category 10 times between 1997-2009 … and again, no other player in the last 22 years has led it more than twice. Woods has the top five single-season birdie or better percentages since numbers were calculated in 1980. In consecutive seasons, he made birdie or eagle more than 61% of the time on par 5s (61.89% in 2000, 61.22% in 2001). Since 1980, no other player has a percentage higher than Justin Thomas’ 57.34% last season. And again, Woods’ career average of 53.8% in this category slots inside the top 10 compared to single-season percentage leaders last decade. Par-5 birdie or better leaders last 10 years vs. Tiger Woods career average Feasting on Par-72 Courses It’s a pretty easy theory to figure out — the more par 5 holes on a course, the better it is for Tiger. The numbers certainly support that theory. Of his 79 stroke-play wins, 49 have come on par-72 courses. Compare that to par 70s (19 wins), par 71s (10 wins) and the odd par 73 (one win — in 2000 at Kapalua, site of the annual Sentry Tournament of Champions). Percentage-wise, Tiger has converted 29% of his starts on par-72 courses into wins, well above his overall career success rate of 22.7% (82 wins in 361 TOUR starts). All the other percentages are below that career mark — 21% success rate on par-70 layouts, 13% success rate on par 71s and 17% success rate on the few par-73 courses he’s played. Of course, Tiger has racked up many of those par-72 wins at the same course: • 7 wins at Torrey Pines (both courses for the Farmers Insurance Open are par 72s, but his U.S. Open win in 2008 was a par 71 layout) • 6 wins at Bay Hill (two other wins there came when Bay Hill was a par 70) • 5 wins at Muirfield Village • 5 wins at Augusta National • 4 wins at Trump National Doral Interestingly, Woods has more wins on a par-70 course (eight times at Firestone) than any other par/course combination. But maybe having one more par 5 would’ve gotten him the trophy in his hometown event. Instead, he’s 0 for 13 at par-71 Riviera. Tiger’s Toughest Par 5s The raucous par-3 16th at TPC Scottsdale gets all the attention, and in Tiger’s career, it produced a memorable moment with his hole-in-one there in 1997. But the previous hole, the par-5 15th, also is significant for Tiger. It’s the only par 5 in his PGA TOUR career that he’s played at least 10 times with a scoring average over par. Woods has played a total of 89 par-5 holes at least 10 times. His scoring average is below par on 87 of those holes, and he’s even par for another one (No. 5 at Whistling Straits). But the 15th at TPC Scottsdale has been immune to Tiger’s talent, even though it hardly ranks among the toughest par 5s on TOUR. Of the 459 players who have 10 or more rounds at TPC Scottsdale, just 29 of those players (6.3%) have played the 15th over par. That includes Woods, who obviously is not used to being in the bottom 6% of any statistical list. The first time Woods played the 15th was in the first round of the 1997 Waste Management Phoenix Open. His tee shot found the gallery, and he was forced to lay up short of the water with his second shot. His sand wedge landed in the greenside bunker and he failed to get up and down. As the Tucson (Arizona) Citizen dutifully reported the next day, “Bogey six instead of the expected four.” The 15th also is one of five par 5s in Tiger’s career in which he recorded a triple-bogey 8. It came in the second round of the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open after he found the water with his tee shot. It was one of just two “others” recorded by the entire field at the 15th that week. The other triple-bogeys Tiger has suffered at par 5s in his TOUR career? 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, hole No. 2, final round; 2013 Masters at Augusta National, hole No. 15, second round; 1999 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Valderrama, hole No. 17, final round; and 1999 Masters at Augusta National, hole No. 8, first round. Woods, by the way, shot an 82 in that 2015 round at TPC Scottsdale, citing problems stemming from a transition to a new swing. It was also the first time he played the 15th at its increased yardage of 553 yards. In his first 12 looks at the 15th, it was listed at 501 yards on the scorecard. Overall, Woods has four birdies, seven pars, two bogeys and that triple bogey in his 14 trips through TPC Scottsdale’s 15th. He has not been back to the tournament since that triple bogey. Tiger’s Toughest Par 5s on TOUR (minimum 10 rounds) Tiger’s Easiest Par 5s Consider it the ultimate scale of justice. TPC Scottsdale not only is the site of Tiger’s toughest par 5, it also has offered the easiest par 5 in his career at the 13th hole. In fact, it’s the only hole in Tiger’s career — regardless of par — in which he’s averaged a full stroke under par. In other words, it’s the easiest hole he’s ever played on TOUR (minimum of 10 rounds). In his 14 trips through the 13th — the yardage has varied between 558 to 595 yards — Woods has recorded three eagles, eight birdies and three pars. He’s 14 under in his 14 rounds, giving him a stroke average of 4.00 at the 13th. The first time Woods played the hole in competition was the 1997 Waste Management Phoenix Open. He blasted a drive 346 yards, then a 2-iron from 231 yards that finished 12 feet from the pin. He then converted the eagle attempt. Although Woods has never recorded an albatross on TOUR, his closest call came at the 13th in the 2015 Waste Management. After a 329-yard drive, his second shot with 5-iron from 226 yards hit just in front of the green, then bounced toward the pin, stopping 7 inches from the pin for a tap-in eagle. Tiger’s Easiest Par 5s on TOUR (minimum 10 rounds) The 2,000 Club Since Tiger’s first full season in 1997, 3,900 golfers have played at least one par 5 hole on the PGA TOUR. Seven of those players are a career 2,000 under par or better on the par 5s. Woods is on the list, of course; however, he’s not at the top, as he’s played significantly fewer rounds than the six others above him. Players 2,000 or more under par on par 5s since 1997

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NORTON, Mass. – Those giant LED boards are all over the TPC Boston layout, the bright lights projecting everything from hometowns to the length of the putt a player is about to attempt. But Jonas Blixt doesn’t need to watch the FedExCup projections roll across the screen to know what he must do this week at the Dell Technologies Championship. The affable Swede came into the second Playoffs event ranked 84th with only the top 70 moving on to the BMW Championship in two weeks. So Blixt needs to play well to advance – and that’s exactly what he did in Friday’s first round. Blixt’s 3-under 68 left him in a tie for sixth and just two strokes off the lead held by Dustin Johnson. He likely needs to finish 24th or better to get to the BMW Championship for just the second time in his career. He currently projects to 49th. Solo second on Monday would probably get Blixt safely inside the top 30 so he could make his TOUR Championship debut. What about a win on Labor Day? “Then everything takes care of itself,� Blixt said. “But you’ve got to put yourself in that situation first. Coming down the stretch, you’ve got two things to play for. “You got the championship and (the FedExCup rank) and depending on where you are, you’ll play for one of them. The three-time PGA TOUR champ knows better than to get ahead of himself. “My back’s against the wall a little bit and I’m just trying to play good golf,� Blixt said. “I wouldn’t say push it a little bit but play aggressive and we’ll see what happens. “You never know. Golf is such a hard sport to predict.� Blixt, who teamed with Cameron Smith to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans earlier this year, had a solid round on Friday that included two birdies, one bogey and a 36-footer for eagle on the 18th hole. The round of 3 under was his lowest in relation to par since the second round of the Travelers Championship in June. Blixt, who has missed five straight cuts since that tournament in Hartford, brought his coach, Richard Lindberg, to Massachusetts this week. They’ve been working together at TPC Boston since last Saturday – it’s their second session in the last month. “We worked on a couple of things, small things, that could potentially help me a little bit,� Blixt said. “You never know. I had a good day today. It could be a worse day tomorrow. “But I’m swinging it well and a lot more confident today than I have been the last couple of weeks.� BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players who are projected to move inside and outside the top 70 that will advance to the third leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship. QUOTE OF THE DAY I’m not trying to think about it, but yeah, it is there. It’s always nice to make a hole-in-one. They don’t come very often. TOP 5 WATCH The Top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current top 5 fared Friday at the Dell Technologies Championship. 1. Dustin Johnson (66). Last week’s winner maintained his hot hand by grabbing the first-round lead. Projected to first. 2. Jordan Spieth (72). It wasn’t a great putting day, as Spieth missed four putts inside 10 feet. Projected to second. 3. Justin Thomas (71). Just one birdie and one bogey on a day that Thomas said he “fought for every stroke.� Projected to fourth. 4. Hideki Matsuyama (72). Had a double bogey early in his round and an eagle from 6 feet to finish it off. Projected to fifth. 5. Jon Rahm (67). Finished with a flourish – four birdies in his last five holes to move within one shot of Johnson. Projected to third. FEDEXCUP NOTES Ryan Moore and Kelly Kraft withdrew on Friday; Moore after his round and Kraft on his back nine after suffering a foot injury. Moore started the tournament ranked 61st and Kraft was 64th, so both are in jeopardy of falling outside the top 70. The projected total needed to make the BMW Championship is 723 points, and both players are below that number. But they will have to wait until the completion of play Monday for their fates to become official. For now, Moore is projected to stay inside the top 70 while Kraft is projected out. … Adam Scott fell outside the top 70 after not playing last week following the birth of his second child. His even-par 71 projects him back inside the top 70 after the first round. … This week’s bubble boy, Grayson Murray, started strong with a 3-under 68. But he’s downplaying the pressure of maintaining his position. “If my season ends right now, I’ve had a great year,� said Murray, who won the Barbasol Championship earlier this season. “I don’t put any pressure on me. But obviously the goal is to get to East Lake.� Murray currently projects to 44th.

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