Ten On-Site Observations from the 2026 Players Championship

Fried Egg Golf has been on the scene this week at the 2026 Players Championship, and the staff got together to share some observations from the early week and first-round action at TPC Sawgrass:

1. Geoff Ogilvy once compared a great tournament performance to building a house. The early rounds are about pouring the foundation and framing the build. Scottie Scheffler looked awful out the gate, routinely hitting weak, high right tee shots into bad places. Eight holes in, I looked at his stats on the scoreboard: 1/6 fairways hit, 4/7 greens, and he was 1 under. A remarkable feat considering the places he put himself. After round one, Scottie sits at even par after an opening 72, a round that will likely get swept under the rug if he finds himself in the mix late on Sunday. What separates the greats is how they get around the course when the swing isn’t quite there. Thursday was Scottie Scheffler quietly pouring the foundation. —Andy Johnson

2. When No. 14 plays into the wind, as it did this morning, it is one of the most intimidating tee shots on the PGA Tour. Water down the left entices a bailout right, but players are in jail if they find the mounds right of the fairway. It’s just a brute, particularly with wind. The par 4 played to a 4.38 average today, the toughest scoring hole relative to par on Thursday. A great, demanding test. —Joseph LaMagna

3. Every time a player injures his back and has to withdraw, half the users on Golf Twitter turn into exercise science experts. Did Collin Morikawa get injured because he’s been chasing speed? Because of TGL? Because he’s soft? All kinds of theories took flight Thursday afternoon. When Ryan French of Monday Morning Q pointed out that TGL veterans Morikawa, Max Homa, Justin Thomas, Sahith Theegala, Rory McIlroy, and Billy Horschel have all been injured this year, he was greeted with an equal share of agreement and outrage. Horschel jumped in to defend himself, arguing that his injury had nothing to do with TGL and it likely wasn’t a factor for any of the others. “It's just frustrating, because I don't know what caused it,” Morikawa said. “Maybe something wasn't activated enough or what, but I went through all the warmups, felt fine. Just, yeah, it's awful. I feel terrible.”

What is clear is that you can’t quash the speculation. The need for speed has players swinging faster than at any point in golf history, and gambling has people as furious as ever when a player can’t tee it up for legit reasons. Watching it unfold made me understand even better why some players (like Homa) have abandoned social media entirely. —Kevin Van Valkenburg

4. After an underwhelming 2025, Sahith Theegala has rebounded gracefully in 2026. He’s posted three top 10s through six starts and currently shares the lead at the Players. He also leads the field in Strokes Gained: Approach (+5.3) by more than a full stroke, an encouraging early sign. —Joseph LaMagna

5. At the other end of the spectrum, Keegan Bradley opened the Players with a 5-over 77 that included a quadruple bogey. It’s been a rough last six months for Bradley, who hasn’t posted a top-25 finish since losing the Ryder Cup. We know he wasn’t a great captain. Is it time to start questioning if he’s still a great player? —Joseph LaMagna

6. TPC Sawgrass is in good hands under Davis Love III and Scot Sherman’s stewardship. Each has discussed planned upcoming work on the golf course on podcasts with Andy and Garrett, respectively. On Thursday, Love took questions from the media and spoke extensively about his vision for the future of TPC Sawgrass. A few highlights:

“I just want to see the old look and the intimidating look back in the golf course. I think Harbour Town did a better job of keeping the Pete Dye in the Pete Dye…but they both had the same thing happen, which is green speeds speed up, flatten the greens out a little bit because the greens got faster…I brought pictures into Jay Monahan's office, and I went, ‘What hole is this?’ And Jay Monahan and another guy that's not here anymore, I said, ‘What holes are these?’ And they go, ‘We have no idea.’ I go, ‘That's the problem.’”

“I think the quirky stuff is kind of gone.”

“We need to get some of the slope back in the green like back in the day.”

Whenever I walk TPC Sawgrass, I’m always dismayed at how boring the green complexes are. The Tour’s crown jewel is already an amazing golf course, but it will benefit significantly from injecting some severity back into these putting surfaces. —Joseph LaMagna

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7. Players who failed to take advantage of the benign Thursday afternoon conditions will be kicking themselves. A firm-ish golf course greeted players this morning, with some breeze and intermittent rain bucking its head throughout the day. The last few hours of play, as the rains parted and the clouds gave way to sunshine, likely offered the best scoring window players will see all week. The afternoon wave outperformed the morning wave by more than a stroke and a half, per Data Golf. Those who are near the cutline or lower on the board who played in the Thursday afternoon wave face an uphill battle to get into the mix. The Friday forecast calls for a healthy early morning breeze. —Joseph LaMagna

8. As a member of Golf’s Preeminent Gambling Podcast, I took in the sights and sounds of a betting roundtable with PGA Tour Vice President of Gaming Scott Warfield. Some highlights: injury reports aren’t coming anytime soon, the DraftKings Sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale was “a perfect storm,” and the 2026 WM Phoenix Open was the most wagered on PGA Tour event to date. The real takeaway? The Tour is looking to convert casual football bettors into golf bettors after the Super Bowl is wrapped up. “How can we get the football bettors exposed to this game?” Warfield asked. Good to know that professional golf is merely trying to fill a bookie’s ledger between February and Labor Day! —PJ Clark

9. After walking around today, I’m ready to launch a new rule change campaign: players and caddies shouldn’t be able to look into each other’s bags to see which club another golfer is hitting. The shamelessness with which guys walk around and peer into the bag is out of control. At this point, guys might as well start telling each other how far they started each putt outside the hole! —Joseph LaMagna

10. I concede that live television is difficult, and not an area of media where I have experience. But after watching hours and hours of coverage Thursday, I have come to find that one issue facing the Players is that the same narratives are rolled out every single year on the broadcast.

Is it a major? Is 17 a good hole? How many balls will go in the water in 17? Hey, have you seen this famous putt by Tiger? Can you believe this was once a swamp?

These storylines are interesting if you’ve never encountered them. If you were watching the Players for the first time, in fact, you’d be mesmerized by them. What’s odd is, leaning SO hard into them (particularly the Golf Channel broadcast) treats the audience like they’re always newbies, when on Thursday afternoon they’re almost certainly sickos like us. Print media and podcasting are certainly not immune to this, but it is shocking how many of these same horses are beaten to death each year during this tournament. —Kevin Van Valkenburg