Simpson throws charge into TPC Sawgrass

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – You could slice and dice Webb Simpson’s 63 a number of different ways. He tied the course record (63), tied the tournament record with six straight birdies, tied the 36-hole record, and takes a record five-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay (68), Charl Schwartzel (66) and Danny Lee (66) into the weekend at THE PLAYERS Championship. But now what? Is the tournament over? Or is it just beginning? “I think, more than ever, it’s easier to be a chaser on today’s PGA TOUR in general,â€� said Adam Scott (68, 7-under), who is eight shots back. “The line between birdie and bogey is becoming finer, and when the leader has that pressure and makes an error, bogey is so much easier to make these days.â€� “Sure, he has to feel pretty good about where he is,â€� Scott continued, “but I had a seven-shot lead at Bay Hill a couple of years ago, and then it was down to three. And then you lose. There’s as much golf to be played as we’ve already played, so certainly he can be caught.â€� Only three players have taken a lead of three or more strokes into the weekend, and all have won: Lanny Wadkins (1979, at Sawgrass Country Club, three-shot lead); Greg Norman (1994, three shots); and Jason Day (2016, four shots). And to be sure, Simpson’s round was freaky good. Playing partner Tyrell Hatton asked if he could touch Simpson’s putter, and asked his caddie, Paul Tesori, “You remember Chevy Chase from Caddyshack?â€� Jhonattan Vegas, the third member of the group, admitted he became a fan, rooting for Simpson to break the course record. (Simpson hit into the water and double-bogeyed 17, then failed to birdie 18.) Jordan Spieth monitored the round from afar and marveled at how anyone could be 11-under through 16 holes. What’s more, Simpson is not an untested rookie but a four-time PGA TOUR winner and two-time Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup player. He’s 32, and came into this week enjoying a career revival (36th in the FedExCup) after switching to the claw putting grip exactly a year ago. But still. It’s TPC Sawgrass. It’s golf. And Simpson is one for 10 at converting 36-hole leads/co-leads into victories on TOUR. “If I can shoot 9-under today, a guy can go out and shoot 7-, 8-, 9-under tomorrow, and shrink it pretty quickly,â€� he said. “I think it’s a beautiful golf course in the sense that I could go shoot a few under tomorrow, because there’s birdie holes out there, but if you’re off a little bit, you make bogeys or double bogeys as easy as you can make birdies. I don’t think any lead is safe.â€� Few expected the leader to be 15-under, which tied Day in 2016 for low first 36 holes. But there it was, right there in lights on the course’s electronic scoreboards. “The most entertaining golf in our group was watching Webb’s score,â€� said Justin Rose (72, 4-under), who called it “a miracle roundâ€� and added that he’ll need to shoot one himself on the weekend if he’s going to have any kind of chance. Simpson wasn’t betting against it. “There’s no defensiveness in my game tomorrow,â€� he said. “I want to go out and hit a good drive on 1 and just keep the same game plan. The only time you really get defensive, I think, is the last two or three holes of a golf tournament.â€� OBSERVATIONS SCHWARTZEL HIRES SWING COACH. Since he won the 2011 Masters, Charl Schwartzel has won the 2016 Valspar Championship, plus six other tournaments in Europe and Asia. He just hadn’t done much in the last few years, and so Schwartzel, who had always relied on his father to coach him, hired an outside coach in Justin Parsons last November. So far, so good at TPC Sawgrass, as Schwartzel fired a second-round 66 to get to 10-under. “My last two years, maybe even two and a half years, have been pretty frustrating,â€� Schwartzel said. “But that’s attributed to bad positions in the golf swing, and that’s made the game very difficult for me. I employed a coach pretty much for the first time in my life. My dad used to always look after me, and it’s just — I just didn’t see him enough so I employed a coach in November, and it’s really worked out well so far.â€� The results weren’t immediate, but Schwartzel saw encouraging signs with a third-place finish at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (with partner Louis Oosthuizen) and a T9 at the Wells Fargo Championship. He made six birdies and no bogeys Friday. CANTLAY MAKES FRIDAY A FIESTA. Patrick Cantlay’s shirt was festooned with tacos, sombreros, cacti, and whistles, and his clubs made plenty of noise, too. The UCLA product shot a second-round 68 to get to 10-under through two rounds, and would have gone bogey-free except for a bad break at the par-5 ninth hole. “I drove it left, which wasn’t a good shot,â€� said Cantlay, who is aiming for his second win of the year (Shriners Hospitals for Children Open). “But my shot coming out of the left trees, there was a stick right in front of my ball, and I couldn’t tell if I could [remove] it clean or not. “I made a really nice swing,â€� Cantlay added, “but I got all stick in front of the ball and it went in the water. I actually made — I actually felt like every swing I made except the tee shot was really good on that hole, and I got up-and-down for a 6.â€� FINAU ALL WET AT 17. Although there were plenty of birdies to be had, the course soaked an unlucky few, as always, none more so than Tony Finau (72, 2-under total). The long-hitting golfer from Utah was cruising along at 6-under when he came to the par-3 17th hole, where he hit two balls in the water and walked off with a quadruple-bogey 7. “I pulled the first one a little, and it landed right on the crest on that left side,â€� said Finau. “And it spun all the way into the water. I was on ground for eight seconds, you know? It was almost worse that way. It gives you so much hope. You’re like, It’s going to stop, it’s going to stop. “It even stopped on the board for a second,â€� Finau added. “So, that was kind of brutal. I went to the drop area and I pulled the next one, and it flew pin-high and one-hopped in the water. The pin was in the back, only four off the back. It can happen pretty fast like that.â€� Finau, who said the ankle he injured at the Masters is back to “probably 80 percent,â€� also made a double-bogey at the par-5 ninth hole after he couldn’t find his tee shot left of the fairway. He hit a provisional from the tee before being told that a kid had found the original ball, which had rolled into a hole next to the cart path. Finau’s topsy-turvy round also featured an eagle at the 16th hole NOTABLES JORDAN SPIETH – Bounced back with a 4-under 68 to get to 1-under for the tournament and make the cut. Spieth hadn’t made the cut here since a T4 in his first PLAYERS start in 2014, but now gets to play the weekend. “I’ll be going out early, so I don’t think I’ll get the teeth of the course,â€� he said. “It’s a good opportunity to maybe shoot a 6-, 7-under round, play fearlessly, attack par-5s … and then have a chance Sunday to back-door a top-10 or even a top-5 with a special weekend.â€� JUSTIN THOMAS – Shot a 2-under 70 to tie playing partner Spieth at 1-under through 36. RORY MCILROY – Double-bogeyed the 17th hole and shot 74 to finish 1-over, missing the cut for the first time since 2012. PATRICK REED – Masters champion made the cut with room to spare with a bogey-free, 4-under 68. Reed came to the PLAYERS on the heels of six consecutive top-10 finishes. TIGER WOODS – Faulted his lack of precision with the short irons, and didn’t putt particularly well, either. Still, he at least made the cut with a two-birdie, one-bogey 71 (1-under total), which was more than the other two guys in his group could say for themselves. PHIL MICKELSON – He made six birdies, a vast improvement over day one. Unfortunately, he also made five bogeys and a double-bogey for a 73 to finish 8-over and way outside the cut line. RICKIE FOWLER – He’d just birdied three of his last four holes when it all went wrong. First Fowler hit his tee shot into a tree and double-bogeyed the sixth hole, and then he pulled his tee shot into the water and double-bogeyed the seventh. Two pars to finish and the author of one of the most exciting PLAYERS victories ever in 2015 had shot 71 (+1 total) to miss the cut. QUOTABLES I was between a lot of things, but we’ll leave that discussion now. I think the end result was 8.Just trying to stabilize, because when you’re trying to hold it just with your hands, I mean, obviously they shake a little bit.I’ve got a man cold, and with that comes exaggerative symptoms. SUPERLATIVES Low round: Hmm, let’s see … er, Webb Simpson’s course-record tying 63. His putts-made distance of 142 feet, 8 inches didn’t include hole-outs of 18 feet and 27-1/2 feet from off the green. Longest drive: Patrick Rodgers’ 364-yard drive on the 14th hole. Despite the long drive, he still made bogey en route to a 4-over 76. Longest putt: Emiliano Grillo’s birdie putt from 50 feet, 5 inches on the island-green 17th. Grillo shot a 1-under 71 to finish at 4 under through 36 holes. Hardest hole: The par-4 18th, playing at 453 yards on Friday. It played to a stroke average of 4.266, with just 12 birdies made against 40 bogeys and five others. Easiest hole: The par-5 16th, playing at 515 yards on Friday. It played to a stroke average of 4.490, with nine eagles and 71 birdies against just 14 bogeys and one other. CALL OF THE DAY For play-by-play coverage of Round 3 of THE PLAYERS Championship, listen from 1 p.m. – 7 p.m. ET on PGATOUR.com. SHOT OF THE DAY

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