While the Crystal Ball can’t believe this tournament has been moved up again, it loves it. The week of the tournament now starts March 6, which it adores, except with the early spring, that icky yellow pollen falls on it. Makes it sneeze.
Right now, it’s out looking at sunscreen because the weather has been mostly fabulous. Maybe I should tell it to look at bronzers instead and plan to stay inside. But you know how temperamental it can get. If it thinks someone doesn’t like its look, it sulks and then it won’t say anything whatsoever. It says stuff like, “OK then, use your ESP and see how far that gets you with picking a winner.” Well, not usually very far, so, I’ll tread carefully when it comes to the Crystal Ball. It got that ugly crack fixed since we last talked, and it looks 10 years younger, so it’s feeling fresh and acting like it.
If THE PLAYERS were held the week of this writing, Valentine’s week, it would be sunny and in the low 80s. Perfect. But you know how it is in March. Do you put summer plants out yet? Or is there a cataclysmic freeze hiding out there, waiting to strike.
The Crystal Ball is laughing at my plant dilemma and reminds me that it’s often lovely this time of year, and it’s often lovely the first two weeks of March.
Let me see if I can get it to give me some insight on who is a good choice as the next PLAYERS champ.
Ah, I can tell it’s thinking about Rickie Fowler’s resurgence in Phoenix because it’s glowing. The Ball loves Rickie. Sometimes it gives off sparks when his name is mentioned. Since he’s doing well in FedEx points right now, we should expect to see him at THE PLAYERS, at least according to what the TOUR Handbook says. Whether he can duplicate his great shots from the year he won, nobody knows, but the Crystal Ball is lighting up and hopeful. Rickie was in the PIP money last year, and the Ball is taking credit because it did a gazillion Rickie Fowler searches to make sure his name was up there in the standings. Even though his play was not up to his former standards in 2022, it’s getting better.
Of course, the Ball is fairly nuts about several players. It knows you can’t play golf without a ball, and it takes that as a personal compliment. It’s humming now, just thinking about it. It’s rolling over a picture of Rory McIlroy, another past winner. McIlroy, the Ball knows, seemed to have flipped a switch in the spring of last year and turned into almost SuperGolfer. (Not to be confused with Super Grover from “Sesame Street.”) McIlroy won three times starting in Canada and ending with the TOUR Championship. What a year. If it hadn’t been for Scottie Scheffler’s season, McIlroy would surely have taken the PGA TOUR Player of the Year title.
Speaking of Scheffler, the Ball is pleased that another seemingly nice guy won again in Phoenix after his amazing four victories last year. Maybe he’s a “winter” golfer. He won all four of his tournaments last year before mid-April. His second TOUR victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was played in wind that would blow your hair off if it wasn’t attached. So, TPC Sawgrass in crummy conditions shouldn’t bother him much. He showed tenacity at this year’s WM Phoenix Open. When his lead shrank to one or when he was tied, he found a way to stay even with his pursuers and then he pulled ahead at the very end. Scheffler got a little emotional when he was presented with his Jack Nicklaus trophy, which is what the Player of The Year receives, on College Game Day. The Ball found that endearing.
Of all the newcomers, the Ball confesses that Collin Morikawa’s restructured fade and straight ball hitting ability make him a likely choice to win THE PLAYERS. It’s been amazed to see the tournaments he’s won at such a young age. It likes his thoughtful answers to questions. Maybe he’s the next young stud to win THE PLAYERS if the greens don’t give him fits.
One player the Ball likes for the next winner is Pat Cantlay. Everybody on TV calls him Patrick, but he calls himself Pat and signs that way on his website. So, the Ball directed me to use Pat. Cantlay recently talked about how he looks at where the pin is on each green and figures out where in the fairway he needs to be to access it with an approach shot. He does that for each round. The Ball thinks he’s the strong silent type, like the old, old western movies with Gary Cooper who would say “Yup” a lot. That’s even before the Ball’s time, but it has seen them on TV. (The Ball went through a western movie phase last year.)
Cantlay is good pals with Olympic gold medal winner Xander Schauffele who had back problems late last year. Schauffele is fairly clutch. He won twice in his first season, including the TOUR Championship before the last reconfiguration of the Fed Ex points. He has already won seven times on the PGA TOUR, and that doesn’t include his gold medal. The Ball LOVES Xander’s gold medal and wishes it had one of its own. “Well, who doesn’t?” is all I can say about that. You have to be good at the right time to get one of those! Last season Schauffele and Cantlay won the Zurich at New Orleans, then he won on his own at Travelers and the Scottish Genesis Open, the one just before the British Open. If his back holds up, and he thinks he has that issue fixed, then he could threaten. Last year, he was third in strokes gained total, which is significant. Of course, gaining a stroke on TPC Sawgrass is like wrestling with a Kracken.
Jon Rahm has been on more than a run. He’s been on a convincing gallop. Already, he has two victories in 2023. He’s yearning to get into that No. 1 spot again, but this week, it belongs to Scheffler, who just took it from McIlroy. It’s been Musical Chairs No. 1 recently. The problem for Rahm is that the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) is a two-year rolling ranking that probably should be a one-year rolling ranking. Maybe a victory at THE PLAYERS would cement his place for a while. The Ball would like to see Rahm win, and it loves his nickname RahmBo. It’s moaning over that.
Adam Scott was just elected chairman of the PLAYERS Advisory Council. It seems like only yesterday he won THE PLAYERS, but that was all the way back in 2004. Twenty years! He beat Padraig Harrington, now on the PGA TOUR Champions, by one stroke. It was Scott’s second PGA TOUR victory and now he has 14. Scott has won at a variety of courses, including Augusta National. Yes, he won The Masters and with a long putter no less! Everyone, including the Ball, pretty much thinks Scott has matinee idol looks. The Ball just glowed and did a 360-degree roll with a half twist. The Ball might give the win to him without posting a score. It would definitely give it to Rickie. Scott will just have to do it the hard way: stare down the nightmare that is TPC Sawgrass. If he should win, he will become one of few who have won THE PLAYERS twice. I could swear the Ball hopped.
Now someone who has surprised the Ball in a good way, probably having to do with the color orange, is Viktor Hovland, who went to Oklahoma State like Rickie Fowler. Hovland was very good in bad conditions at THE PLAYERS last year. Not quite good enough for a victory, but still, he’s a potential threat because he, too, can hit the dreaded straight ball. A straight ball will not hurt anybody at TPC Sawgrass. It’s just that we seldom see it. The Ball sees it and loves orange. Plus, if the weather is cool, it’s important to remember that Hovland grew up in Norway. He’s not afraid of bad weather.
Will Zalatoris seemed to be on every leaderboard in golf every week last year, but we haven’t seen much of him since his recovery from back problems, which caused him to withdraw at the BMW Championship last summer. He spent several months rehabilitating and avoided surgery. But once a guy is out for months, it can take him months to return to winning form. He had one of those swings where he got into a bit of a pretzel with his back, and so he had to unpretzel himself and his swing to keep from having surgery. At any rate, it might keep him out of the winner’s circle for a while. That’s what the Ball heard over coffee.
A less-mentioned star who could win THE PLAYERS is Matthew Fitzpatrick who won the U.S. Open. He hit a couple of miraculous shots at the right time to do it, but that means he has miraculous shots he can call up when needed. Apparently, he gained some much-needed muscle in the last year or two, and that has given him more distance. The Ball is going to keep an eye on him, just in case he pops up. If he gets into contention, the Ball doesn’t see him folding. U.S. Open champs don’t fold. Just ask Justin Rose, a recent winner at Pebble Beach and also an Olympic champ. Rose may be too excited about notching his first victory in four years to be paying a lot of attention at THE PLAYERS, but he certainly has all the qualifications needed to win. The thing about Rose is there’s almost no condition he hasn’t seen and few places he hasn’t won. He’s been successful in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East with the Turkish Open, South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong and China.
Now, the Ball wants to be sure to mention two dark horses for THE PLAYERS: Max Homa and Jason Day. Homa is continuing his good play and improving his position, it seems. Jason Day, after having some personal issues, is rebounding. Day knows what it takes to win THE PLAYERS because he’s done it once. He was No. 1 in the world in the past, and knows what that takes, too. He may not have enough left in the tank to get back to No. 1, but a golfer doesn’t have to be top ranked to win THE PLAYERS. It may help, but it’s never a guarantee.
Now, there are a few other top players the Ball has not mentioned yet, so I’m going out on a limb to ask about Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. The Ball likes Thomas’ chances more than Spieth’s, but both are streaky players. They can get hot and they can cool down, sometimes in the same week, same month.
Spieth said at the TOUR Championship that there are some tournaments he’d like to win and one of them is THE PLAYERS. He likes the course and thinks he should be able to. THE BALL is spinning. It just doesn’t know. At first Spieth played well here, and then he started a patch of missing the cut. Thomas, at least, is a past winner, and he may have a second and even a third PLAYERS in him. For sure, he’s not afraid to give it a rip, and that’s always important. If the Ball had to pick between the two of them this minute, it would go with Thomas.
There are some unknowns, too. Sam Burns, Tony Finau and Cameron Young, for instance.
Hideki Matsuyama was leading in 2020 when the tournament was called for COVID, and he withdrew with a bad back last year.
We haven’t seen much of Sahith Theegala, last year’s new phenom. So there are plenty of golfers who could show up on the leaderboard that we already know.
What we do know is that, barring injury, all of those mentioned will be in the field. Plus another 115 to 120, many of whom the Ball recognizes.
The Ball is just spinning around thinking about it at this juncture. It knows I want the name of the winner, not a pirouette. Of course, a Crystal Ball doing a pirouette is not quite the same as someone from the American Ballet Company doing it. But The Ball can definitely last longer in a spin cycle.
You’ll notice that the Ball didn’t pick Tiger Woods. The Ball is not convinced that even though Woods could play on the last year of his exemption, that he will. No good reason. Just the Ball has a feeling. Perhaps it all depends on Woods’ performance at Riviera at his own tournament.
Wait. It’s stopping. It’s final. The Ball has taken a quick breath. It’s in pretty good shape, really. (But it knows it and is bordering on being a bit arrogant.) It’s going with Jon Rahm. If that doesn’t get him to No. 1, the Ball is not sure what will. RahmBo is the one for the Crystal Ball. Oh, now it’s rolling down toward that picture of Rickie again …
