Players battle through cold weather at TPC Sawgrass

Bob Weeks

TSN Senior Reporter

Follow| Archive

Growing up in Ontario, Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners played golf on a lot of frosty mornings which may explain why they fared so well on Sunday at the Players Championship when temperatures were barely above freezing when play began.

Both finished up Sunday inside the top 20 on the leaderboard.

“Four layers, toque, hand warmers. It was cold,” said Pendrith, describing his attire for the start of his second round, which came two days after he ended his first.

“Fortunately it wasn’t crazy windy out there so the bite wasn’t quite as bad,” stated Conners, who sported a grey toque for most of the morning.

The temperature was three degrees when play started, just the latest addition to a week of crazy weather that’s included driving rain, thunder and lightning, and high winds. It’s halted play numerous times throughout the week and a Monday finish is planned as the tournament tries to play catch-up. Officials managed to complete the second round and half the third round on Sunday and even with that, it will still be a race to the finish line on Monday.

The top of the leaderboard is a tangle of names, headed by Anirban Lahiri, an Indian golfer who is in the hunt for his first PGA Tour win. He was a shot up on Tom Hoge and Harold Varner III when play was suspended due to darkness just before 7:30 p.m.

“I think to be honest, going to bed last night I was a bit scared how cold it was going to be,” Lahiri admitted. “I'm not used to playing temperatures sub-40 (Fahrenheit), and I did struggle a little bit when I came out, but it was nice to just get back into a good process and a good rhythm.”

On Saturday, Lahiri gathered up the warm clothing he had, took it to the range and practised with different layers to see how much he could wear without affecting his swing. He seemed to find the right combination as he was five under through 11 holes of his third round.

The 34-year-old has struggled with his game this year with his best finish a tie for 40th. That’s led to frustration and he returned to India earlier this year to discuss his play with members of his team. Simply put, he wasn’t having fun playing golf.

“Enjoyment doesn't necessarily mean winning or coming top five or top 10,” he stated. “Enjoyment, to me, is to be able to hit the shot as I'm visualizing it or as I'm feeling it or seeing it. And I think that's where the challenge has been for me.”

As with just about anyone who has ever played the game, however, Lahiri remains optimistic.

“The beauty about what we do is that you're one week away from being a PGA Tour winner,” he said on Tuesday. “You're one week away from being at Augusta. You're one week away from having a two-, three-year exemption. You're one week away from you having a different kind of conversation with me.”

Now Lahiri has advanced that thinking to being just one day away from earning all those spoils, not to mention the first prize of $3.6 million.

Conners, Pendrith and Adam Hadwin, who finished his second round at even par, all survived the cut which came at two over. Mackenzie Hughes and Roger Sloan ended up on the wrong side of the number.

Pendrith, playing in his first Players Championship, had an up-and-down second round that included four birdies and four bogeys, including three consecutively.

“I think I had three three-putts in a row,” said Pendrith, who led the tournament for a brief moment on Sunday morning. “Missed a very short one, and just hit it to like 80 feet, I think, back-to-back holes and three-putted, which kind of stung a little bit. But hit a lot of really nice shots and made some birdies and hung in there.”

Pendrith’s round came after a long wait. He played two holes on Friday morning to finish up his first round and didn’t hit another shot until Sunday.

“It feels weird having two full days off,” he said, “but regardless of what happened today, I made it to my first weekend here, so that's pretty cool.”

Not only is the Players Championship one of the most competitive tournaments in golf, it has one of the richest purses at $20 million.

Conners, who finished tied for seventh a year ago, had a more consistent scorecard, posting four birdies against a single bogey in his second round. But it came through some good recoveries.

“I did a good job of scrambling today,” he said. “I hit a lot of really good shots when I was out of position.”

One of the most adventurous came on the 18th hole when his tee shot ended up in the trees on the right side of the hole. Rather than pitch it back to safety, Conners decided to take a risky line, hitting his ball from pine straw, over some branches on one tree, under some on another and onto the green.

“My escape game was really nice and that kind of kept me in it,” Conners stated.

The Listowel, Ont. product also got some help from his putter, not usually one of his strengths. He dropped just over 60 feet of putts including a 16-footer for birdie on the eighth hole.

As with Pendrith, Conners had almost two days off between his first and second round. That wasn’t the case for Hadwin, who had to battle the rain and heavy winds over the first three days. He had two holes to play on Sunday morning, the 17th and 18th, to complete his first round. It was no easy task as those two have been the two most difficult holes of the tournament so far. He made par on both and was off the course at 9 a.m.

When asked if this was the coldest day in which he’d played golf on the PGA Tour, Hadwin shivered.

“If it's not,” he said, “I can't remember when it's been colder."

All three golfers headed back out to muck their way through the third round in the late afternoon with Hadwin needing seven holes to finish, Pendrith eight and Conners a full nine. Pendrith and Conners were five off the lead while Hadwin was eight.

Conditions for Monday are expected to be sunny and warmer, meaning at the very least, ending the tournament on a good note weather-wise.