The Players Championship: Fleetwood still in with a shout after weather carnage at Sawgrass

Florida weather wreaks havoc at Sawgrass 

Carnage is the only word to describe the first two rounds of The Players Championship as the weather at TPC Sawgrass wreaked havoc and put us on course for a Monday finish. 

The Players will have its first Monday finish since 2005 as heavy rain and storms curtailed the action on the first two days, with added gusty force winds making Saturday a complete nightmare – especially on the 17th and 18th holes. 

29 balls found the water on the par-three 17th as the island green became almost impossible to find in the conditions, and those that had to finish off their first rounds and face that back nine twice on Saturday had a huge disadvantage. 

Hoge and Burns lead at halfway

Americans Tom Hoge and Sam Burns handled conditions the best as they share the halfway lead on seven-under par. 

Burns had the better third round and is the tournament favourite at 9 with Hoge just behind him at 12.5 – with world number one Jon Rahm stalking them at 13 as he sits four shots back on three-under. 

World number one Jon Rahm is four shots off the lead at the halfway stage

Fleetwood & Casey lead European challenge 

Tommy Fleetwood has finished T5 and T9 around here and although his second-round 73 was seven shots worse than his opening 66, that’s perfectly acceptable in the conditions. Fleetwood’s playing well and has a great chance as a 23 shot. 

Paul Casey joined Fleetwood on five-under after a fine 69 on Sunday in his second round, including a monster birdie on 17. He’s 18 to become the first Englishman to win The Players. 

Bubba Watson and Justin Thomas played the rounds of the tournament on Saturday as they battled the very worst of the conditions to shoot 68 and 69 respectively to both sit on three-under. 

Watson is still regarded as a big outsider at 75 but must be respected, while defending champion Thomas feels he’s playing really well and is among the favourites at 15.5.  

Louis Oosthuizen is also on three-under after a solid couple of rounds and at 55 he has to be on your shortlist as he’s always there or thereabouts in these big events and has one of the best all-round games on Tour. 

McIlroy almost frozen out 

Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas took 42 hours to complete their marathon first round across three days, before McIlroy then had a long wait until the very end of the round to find out he’d made the cut. 

“Bethpage '09 US Open is probably the closest I've experienced to something like this,” McIlroy said after his second-round 73. 

With so much time to kill, McIlroy revealed he spent most of it entertaining his new daughter Poppy, watching “A lot of ‘Frozen’. A lot of ‘Peppa Pig.’ A lot of ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.’” 

McIlroy finished on two-over which was one shot too many for most of the day, until Scott Piercy dumped two balls in the water at 17 right at the end of the second round to see McIlroy sneak in.  

McIlroy is nine shots off the lead and a huge 130 outsider, but he has won from the cut line before, at Quail Hollow, and won here just a couple of years ago. Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay both could have gone to world number one this week but both missed the cut. 

Winner could come from the pack 

As we’ve already seen, these finishing two holes can completely ruin your round, and tournament, so keep an eye on your in-play bets right until they’ve safely knocked the ball in on the last. 

So as we go into the final two rounds with just nine shots covering the entire field, anybody who can go low can put themselves into position to win from way back. 

One of those has to be Viktor Hovland, who is seven back on even-par after a nightmare finish to his second round saw him drop five shots over the closing five holes. 

He’s now a 100 outsider but more than capable to going out and firing a low number to get right back into the thick of it. 

Recommended bets 

Jon Rahm @ 13 

Louis Oosthuizen @ 55 

Viktor Hovland @ 100