PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Surprise package Austin Smotherman had to settle for a two-putt par and a five-way tie for the lead after the weather-delayed opening round of The Players Championship was finally completed Friday morning.
One of four players yet to complete the first round when play was suspended in fading light at 7:37 p.m. ET on Thursday, Smotherman faced a 15-foot birdie putt on his final hole – the par-5 ninth — when he resumed his round on a chilly, breezy but sunny morning at TPC Sawgrass.
The 31-year-old, a three-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour who was a runner-up at last month’s Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, missed his birdie attempt to the left of the cup before tapping in for par to complete a 5-under-par 67.
That put him level with fellow Americans Maverick McNealy, Lee Hodges and Sahith Theegala, and Austrian Sepp Straka, who had all completed their opening rounds on Thursday.
World No. 6 Russell Henley and fellow American Justin Thomas, who won this event in 2021 and is making his second PGA Tour start of the year after undergoing back surgery in November, were among a group of four players who opened with 68s on a tightly bunched leaderboard.
Smotherman, who withdrew from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational with a back injury before his third round, pointed to “a culmination of just trusting the process” as the reason behind his impressive PGA Tour form this season.
“And then a stretch of some good putting and some good habits there, short game kind of came around and I’ve trusted my ball striking,” said Smotherman, who birdied four of his last nine holes in the opening round. “But that belief kind of maybe elevated another level or two and then here we are back on Tour where it feels like I know everybody.
“Out there on the Korn Ferry I felt like the old guy at 31. And here we are kind of right in the thick of it … o just putting my good rounds in and fortunate enough to have them be enough early in this season to where it’s freed things up getting into a Signature Event and playing my way into the Players, getting access to all these extra points when you want them.”
Smotherman has posted three missed cuts and two top-10s in five PGA Tour starts this season, along with his withdrawal from the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“I think it was just a buildup of fatigue, after a long week at Cognizant,” Smotherman said about his back issues at Bay Hill. “Now I’m giving myself maybe the extra 30 minutes arrival at the course just to get that extra time to slow roll it, but I got a very quality bed this week.
“Who knows if the bed at the Airbnb last week was just soft enough to mess it up? I’m not one to be prone to have back issues. I mean, maybe the occasional back is sore and tight and you’re throwing kids around kind of thing.”
Smotherman is hunting his first PGA Tour win in his 84th start and aiming to become just the third player to make The Players Championship his first victory – after Craig Perks in 2002 and Tim Clark in 2010.
However, he will have to contend with the biggest names in the game over the next three days. World No. 3 Tommy Fleetwood is just two strokes off the pace after opening with a 69 while top-ranked Scottie Scheffler is a further three shots adrift.
Scheffler, bidding for a rare third victory at The Players Championship, produced a mixed bag on Thursday when he opened with an even-par 72. He birdied his final hole, the par-5 ninth, following consecutive bogeys.
“I did some good things, changing weather out there, but overall I felt like I gave away some shots,” said Scheffler, who clinched his 20th career victory on the PGA Tour at The American Express in January. “Hoping to clean it up a little bit the next few days.”
Although the opening round spilled over into Friday morning at TPC Sawgrass, the second round began as scheduled at 7:40 a.m. ET.
