Will awkward finish push tour to change quicker?

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CROMWELL, Conn. — Rory McIlroy doesn’t consider his performance in Thursday’s opening round of the Travelers Championship much different than the one on display a week ago. The contrast in results, though, were fairly extreme. “A 16-shot difference,â€� McIlroy noted. Indeed, his opening 6-under 64 at TPC River Highlands was a welcomed sight after his 10-over 80 in the opening round of the U.S. Open. World No. 7 McIlroy wasn’t the only top-10 player who wiped away a nightmare result at Shinnecock Hills with a much more fruitful score a week later. No. 5 Jordan Spieth opened the defense of his Travelers title with a 7-under 63 in the afternoon that vaulted him into a share of the lead with morning finisher Zach Johnson. A week ago, Spieth opened with a 78 and, like McIlroy, ultimately missed the cut. Meanwhile, No. 9 Jason Day bounced back from his opening 79 at Shinnecock Hills with a solid 66 that left him in a 14-way tie for ninth. The 63 for Spieth is nothing new for him at TPC River Highlands — it’s the same score he shot in last year’s opening round en route to winning in his first Travelers start. It’s also his lowest score since a year ago, and a much-needed boost in a season of sputtering starts. Spieth’s first-round scoring average this season is 71.79, which ranks him tied for 155th on the PGA TOUR. “The first rounds have been kind of detrimental to me,â€� Spieth said, “so it’s nice to be in the thick of things.â€� Like he did in the playoff against Daniel Berger last year, Spieth holed out from a greenside bunker. This time, it was at the par-5 sixth for eagle, to go along with his six birdies. But more than the fireworks, Thursday’s round saw Spieth play as solid as he’s done all year. He called it his “third-bestâ€� round of the year after his first (66) and fourth (64) rounds at the Masters. Even more to the point, he was pleased with his management of the round. He didn’t try to force the issue on a course than can be very tempting to attack. “This golf course, I played it really smart today. It was probably the smartest round I’ve played this year, really the last couple years,â€� Spieth said. “I just didn’t feel great coming off the range. I’ve been working on some things on the swing, just decided to play toward the center of the greens and let the putter do the work because it’s starting to come around.â€� Indeed, he feels good about his entire game, talking about the need to simply trust the process of getting back to the kind of performances golf fans are used to seeing from Spieth. “My game’s in a good place, scores aren’t reflecting it,â€� Spieth said. “As long as I don’t beat myself up over that and just stick to the process, then — it’s certainly a testing year for me, and it’s a building year. It’s one where I can actually come out stronger. I’ve kind of looked at it that way the last couple months.â€� As for McIlroy, he said missing the cut at Shinnecock Hills allowed him to put in some very productive weekend week, and he carried that over to his practice sessions this week at the Travelers. The result was a bogey-free round for the first 17 holes. The only reason he doesn’t have a share of the lead is a closing bogey in which he failed to find the green with his approach. “I feel like the work that I did over the weekend sort of started to pay off already,â€� said McIlroy, who has a win, two other top-10s and three missed cuts in a rollercoaster last few months. “It was nice to see the shots I was playing right there. Being able to work the ball both ways was something I wasn’t quite as comfortable doing last week. “Obviously, you never want to miss a cut in a major, but it might have been a blessing in disguise for the rest of the year.â€� The blessing in disguise, perhaps, would be simply coming to a course that allows players to flex their scoring muscles.

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One of the resolute, perennial truths about THE PLAYERS Championship is its unpredictability. Since 2000, we've seen as many winners come from outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking as we have from the top five. Five of the last seven winners at TPC Sawgrass have ranked in the top 10 for the week in Strokes Gained: Approach, but Webb Simpson won in 2018 while ranked 62nd in that statistic. In 2019, Rory McIlroy won the championship while averaging 305 yards off the tee. Jim Furyk, the runner-up, was 34 yards behind him. All of which helps explain why nobody has ever won THE PLAYERS in consecutive years. Successfully defending any title on the PGA TOUR is fairly rare. In the 10 seasons from 2011 through 2020, there were 445 official events held on the TOUR. Only 13 times - or about one in every 34 tournaments - did a player go back-to-back at a particular event. THE PLAYERS was first held in 1974, and only two tournaments on the TOUR schedule have had longer droughts without a back-to-back winner. The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club has not had a player win in consecutive years since Ben Hogan in 1952 and 1953. And the Wyndham Championship, which has been held at three different venues, has not had a player successfully defend since Sam Snead in 1956. So why has no player ever gone back-to-back at TPC Sawgrass? It's a difficult question to answer, but 15th Club combed through more than 16,000 rounds of historical data in an attempt to find out. Gaining Strokes in Different Ways Pete Dye's design gives players of all different skill sets scoring opportunities and distinct challenges all over the golf course. A look at the last two winners of THE PLAYERS explains that point perfectly. In 2018, Webb Simpson won his first PLAYERS title despite losing strokes to the field on approach shots. A staggering 95% of his strokes gained for the week came on shots around the green and on putts. Contrast that to the winning formula McIlroy utilized the following year, when 85% of his strokes gained came in the form of tee shots and approaches. He gained less than 5% of his strokes on the field with his putter, the lowest percentage of any PLAYERS champion the last 15 years. Those jumpy trends persist throughout recent history when analyzing PLAYERS champions. In 2018, Si Woo Kim gained more than 35% of his strokes over the field on tee shots. In 2007, though, Phil Mickelson actually lost strokes on his tee shots, but managed to win thanks to spectacular iron play. The last 15 champions here are also all over the map with performance on the greens; they have gained anywhere from 5% to 63% of their strokes with the putter. Let's compare that to THE PLAYERS' neighbor on both the map and the schedule, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. While Bay Hill Club & Lodge provides a demanding test, the winning formula is more predictable. For example, eight of the last 10 winners, including Bryson DeChambeau last week, have ranked in the top 15 in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach. Eight of the last 10 have also gained at least one stroke per round on their approach shots. Gaining strokes off the tee is typically not where players gain an advantage at Bay Hill, as nine of the last 11 winners gained anywhere from just 2% to 17% of their strokes with driver. Trends like this are predictable at most TOUR venues, but not TPC Sawgrass. Not only has no player ever successfully defended his title at this event, it's been a while since one was even remotely close. The last defending champion to finish in the top 10 at THE PLAYERS was Adam Scott, 16 years ago. Since THE PLAYERS found its permanent home at TPC Sawgrass in 1982, more defending champs have missed the cut (seven) than finished in the top 10 (five). The statistics further explain the complicated genius behind the design of this golf course; TPC Sawgrass truly does not favor one specific type of player, but rather rewards the best overall performer in the field that particular week.

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