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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The Players Championship has felt like a series of Peloton sessions this week.
There’s been a lot of wheel-spinning, a lot of elevated heart rates and yet where this all ends, the destination, remains unknown.
As play was suspended in each of the past four days, there’s been a gray area as to who’s actually leading the golf tournament, because players have always been at different stages of their respective rounds.
After play was suspended due to darkness Sunday, Anirban Lahiri was leading the tournament at 9-under par through 11 holes of his third round, trailed by Tom Hoge and Harold Varner (8-under), both of whom are through nine holes of the third round.
There’s been no continuity to this tournament and it’s been frustrating for everyone — players, spectators and TV viewers alike.
After three days of running in place thanks to the series of unprecedented weather-related issues interrupting the proceedings at TPC Sawgrass, on Monday we may actually have an actual golf tournament break out.
Barring any more unforeseen issues, we’ll have a winner by dinnertime Monday.
And that’ll be a welcome sight considering how disjointed this tournament has been since its first rain suspension occurred on Thursday morning.
By late morning Monday, the tournament should finally be caught up with the completion of the third round, setting the stage for the final round, which was scheduled to have been played on Sunday.
Kevin Kisner got it somewhat correct on Saturday when he said: “We’ve got 36 more holes to figure out who’s playing the best.’’
By lunchtime Monday, it’ll be better than that: It’ll be down to 18 holes to figure that out and end this trying week.
“It’s pure luck and somewhat loss of integrity of the tournament in my opinion,’’ Kisner said of the tournament with its borderline unplayable conditions on Friday and Saturday.
“I’m one of those who believes that if this wasn’t The Players Championship, we would have not played [Saturday],’’ world No. 1 Jon Rahm said. “I don’t know if they should have.’’
The only thing professional golfers do better than hit amazing golf shots is bitch and moan about course conditions and the elements. Kisner was at the head of that line on Sunday, lamenting being among the players who got screwed by the bad luck of the draw as a result of the weather delays.
In fairness, other players disagreed.
“I don’t know about the integrity of the tournament,’’ Cam Smith said Sunday. “We have to do what we have to do. We have to get out there and play, and unfortunately for those guys, they lost on that side of the draw. You win some, you lose some. Typically, not in the U.S., maybe like a [British] Open or something like that, it kind of comes more into play. Yeah, it’s just unfortunate for those guys.’’
Tommy Fleetwood, the first-round leader, added: “Yeah, you get good draws, you get bad draws. I had my fair share of bad ones. Probably had my fair share of good ones but you never remember those, you just complain about the bad ones.
“Yeah, we’ve had it amazing for two days, we really, really have, and I consider myself very lucky. Great to have a good draw, great to make the most of it for two days, and tournament kind of starts again now and you just keep going.’’
Abraham Ancer understood Kisner’s gripes, but said, “There’s a lot of times when you’re in a bad wave, but it’s just part of it. It’s hardly ever the reason why you get guys that miss the cut here or end up winning. It just happened to be that kind of week.
“I feel like throughout your career it might just even out. I feel like I’ve been in a lot of bad waves, and there’s nothing really you can do about it. Got to put your blinders on and just focus on your next shot.’’
Paul Casey, who’s 7-under and two shots out of the lead entering Monday, was asked how he’d “characterize’’ the week.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had two full days off at a tournament,’’ Casey said, referring to playing Thursday but not on Friday or Saturday. “How would I characterize it? It’s been weird. It started with a triple bogey on Thursday to start my championship. I ground out 2-under, which I was immensely happy with, especially as I knew there was going to be a delay of some sort.
“I know I got the lucky side of the draw. I’m very aware of that. And it’s been interesting watching the guys battle on the other side. I mean, I believe in the golfing gods and karma.’’
Maybe, after all that’s occurred this week to derail one of the best tournaments in the sport, good karma will take over and deliver us a fantastic finish.
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