Friday is one of those days you just hope the weathermen are wrong. Forecasts call for thunderstorms and heavy rain all day throughout northern Florida. If the first round can wrap up, that would be considered a success. Of course, we’re not so sure that will be the case.
(Scroll down for the latest updates)
The game’s stars like Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy and defending champion Justin Thomas in the afternoon wave—which became the evening wave—played three holes Thursday before their opening rounds were suspended due to darkness. Forecasts call for the storms to start around 9 a.m., so hopefully all the groups will play quick so we can at least finish Round 1 this morning, in case the rest of the day becomes a complete wash.
Players 2022 live updates:
10:17 a.m.: Here’s a look at your MVPs of Friday thus far. These dudes are putting in serious work:
10:00 a.m.: Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy can only match Morikawa’s par on the par-5 11th despite the fact that neither of them topped a shot. JT fails to get up and down from the greenside bunker and McIlroy three-putts after finding the green in two. Again, not a lot of guys making moves right now.
9:55 a.m.: Well, there’s something you don’t see every day. Collin Morikawa taking a crack at a par 5 in two and. . . topping it. We’re going to go ahead and blame that on the rain. I mean, we’re talking about Collin Morikawa here. Fortunately for the World No. 2, his ball stayed dry and he wound up saving par to remain at one under.
9:43 a.m.: These troopers are playing through driving rains now. The marquee groups have really slowed down, in particular on the par-5 11th where squeegeeing has not led to many birdies. Of those currently on the course, Brice Garnett and Andrew Putnam both have the best rounds going at four under. Jason Day and Michael Thompson have fallen back to three under after picking up their first bogeys of the day.
9:25 a.m.: OK, now we’re looking like we’re about to have a stoppage in play as there’s a backup on the 11th green for squeegees before Daniel Berger, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson attempt their putts. And they are going to squeegee different parts of the green at different times because they are putting from different spots. “I don’t care about the time, I care about the conditions,” Spieth could be overheard saying. When you’re playing for that much money, we don’t blame you.
9:13 a.m.: Despite ESPN+ telling us a weather delay was about to happen at 9, the players continue to play on at the PLAYERS. The rain has definitely picked up, and the birdies have slowed down a bit. Dustin Johnson made the turn at four under, but bogeyed No. 11 and no one in the McIlroy/Morikawa/Thomas group birdied the par-5 ninth. One former champ who is racking up birdies, however, is Jason Day, who birdied No. 11 to move to four under. An impressive performance, especially considering he’s playing with a heavy heart after his mom passed away last week.
9:00 a.m.: Michael Thompson is having himself a day. First, he was a (very) late add to the field when Tyler McCumber withdrew on Friday morning. And now he’s gotten off to a scorching start with four birdies on his first six holes. Talk about playing with house, er, stadium money.
8:49 a.m.: Kudos to Brooks Koepka for quickly bouncing back after making double bogey on No. 5. The four-time major champ answered with birdie on the next hole and added another birdie on No. 9 as he makes the turn at two under. Surprisingly, Koepka has no top 10s in five career starts at TPC Sawgrass.
8:21 a.m.: Justin Rose joins Dustin Johnson amongst the hottest rounds of the second wave with a fourth birdie on his card. The Englishman had just made a 53-footer on the fifth hole, and he just holed a 25-footer at No. 6. Rose is 4-under through 6, taking advantage of the conditions thus far.
Rose has over 98 feet of holed putts through six holes. What a hot start for the 2013 U.S. Open champ.
7:48 a.m.: The “morning” wave of golfers from Round 1 is officially complete. Now we’re hoping to get everyone who hadn’t teed off yet on the course. And hopefully the thunder and lightning will hold off until later in the morning, so we potentially get all of Round 1 in on Friday.
7:40 a.m.: Rory McIlroy continues his hot start with a third straight birdie, this one with putter from off the green at the fourth hole. That gets Rory back to 2-under for the tourney.
In the same group, Collin Morikawa was at 2-under but drops a shot after being in trouble off the tee, and missing a par putt of about 6 feet. Morikawa moves back to -1.
Young just holed out for birdie at the fourth hole to get to 3-under. Out of position with his tee shot, he hit his second shot 48 yards short of the green, before holing the shot:
7:15 a.m.: We are off as scheduled this morning! Players who were on the course are continuing their round. We still have some groups who hadn’t teed off yet, which included Tyler McCumber, who has WD this morning. He’s replaced in the fiedl by Michael Thompson. It pays to stick around!
Dustin Johnson continues his hot start with a birdie at the short par-4 fourth. He marked his ball overnight, ensuring he’d get some smooth greens in the a.m., and he takes advantage, burying his third birdie in four holes to start his first round to move to 3-under.
Of course there are also groups from the “morning wave” still on the course, like Taylor Pendrith, who was 4-under through 16 when he wrapped for the day Thursday.
We’d normally post the pin positions in this space, but all the hole locations are the same as yesterday. Instead, the weather forecast is probably a little more useful … and the PGA Tour has now included Tuesday on their updates, which is a sign we might be headed toward a Tuesday completion of play: