Players Championship 2016: Tee Times, Pairings and Predictions for Sunday
Things have changed in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. A course that offered some big-time low scores in the first two rounds became an unforgiving venue to break down Saturday.
The third round tightened up the field for the most part, with the exception of world No. 1 Jason Day, who holds a four-stroke lead at 14 under par for the tournament.
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With one more day for him to hold off the rest of the pack, let's take a look at Sunday's final-round tee times:
| 8:20 a.m. | Kevin Streelman | Patton Kizzire |
| 8:30 a.m. | Jamie Lovemark | Shawn Stefani |
| 8:40 a.m. | Fabian Gomez | Steve Wheatcroft |
| 8:50 a.m. | Branden Grace | Will Wilcox |
| 9 a.m. | Jon Curran | Camilo Villegas |
| 9:10 a.m. | Johnson Wagner | James Hahn |
| 9:20 a.m. | Morgan Hoffman | Marc Leishman |
| 9:30 a.m. | Dustin Johnson | Kyle Reifers |
| 9:40 a.m. | Ernie Els | Justin Rose |
| 9:50 a.m. | Jhonattan Vegas | Chad Campbell |
| 10 a.m. | Harold Varner III | Freddie Jacobson |
| 10:10 a.m. | Zach Johnson | Soren Kjeldsen |
| 10:20 a.m. | Jim Furyk | Jason Dufner |
| 10:30 a.m. | Martin Kaymer | Ian Poulter |
| 10:40 a.m. | Bernd Wiesberger | Paul Casey |
| 10:50 a.m. | Hudson Swafford | Brian Harman |
| 11 a.m. | Brendan Steele | Russell Knox |
| 11:10 a.m. | Bill Haas | Sergio Garcia |
| 11:20 a.m. | David Hearn | Keegan Bradley |
| 11:30 a.m. | K.J. Choi | Zac Blair |
| 11:40 a.m. | Bubba Watson | Brendon de Jonge |
| 11:50 a.m. | Boo Weekley | Adam Hadwin |
| Noon | William McGirt | Brooks Koepka |
| 12:10 p.m. | Scott Piercy | Sean O'Hair |
| 12:20 p.m. | Adam Scott | Justin Thomas |
| 12:30 p.m. | Billy Horschel | Vijay Singh |
| 12:40 p.m. | Louis Oosthuizen | J.J. Henry |
| 12:50 p.m. | Ryan Palmer | Jerry Kelly |
| 1 p.m. | Graeme McDowell | Shane Lowry |
| 1:10 p.m. | Rory McIlroy | Gary Woodland |
| 1:20 p.m. | Daniel Berger | Daniel Summerhays |
| 1:30 p.m. | Matt Kuchar | Bryce Molder |
| 1:40 p.m. | Si Woo Kim | Danny Lee |
| 1:50 p.m. | Cameron Tringale | Jonas Blixt |
| 2 p.m. | Retief Goosen | Colt Knost |
| 2:10 p.m. | Francesco Molinari | Kevin Chappell |
| 2:20 p.m. | Ken Duke | Alex Cejka |
| 2:30 p.m. | Jason Day | Hideki Matsuyama |
Prediction
Jason Day Will Win The Players Championship
Over the first two rounds of the tournament, Day was dominant, posting the lowest score through 36 holes in The Players Championship history at 15 under.
He had 15 birdies and no bogeys in his two rounds as he headlined a multitude of low scores through Thursday and Friday.
But his most impressive feats of the tournament might have come in the third round, where he posted a mediocre one-over to sink to 14 under.
The course was brutal Saturday, which saw the likes of world No. 3 Rory McIlroy go four over on the back nine and No. 7 Adam Scott go three over for the round. Day took everything TPC Sawgrass had and managed to keep his title outlook in a healthy state.
It looked bad at the start, though. In his first eight holes, Day recorded a bogey and a pair of double bogeys. But he came back strong with four birdies to limit the damage.
The PGA Tour showed his shot of the day:
With this kind of resiliency, I can't see Day relinquishing the lead with 18 holes to go. Hideki Matsuyama showed that a low round was possible on the tough course with a five-under Saturday, but it will be difficult for him to replicate that performance under pressure and make up four strokes Sunday.
Stats courtesy of PGATour.com
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