Winners and Losers from the 2016 Players Championship

Like last year's edition, the 2016 Players Championship featured an impressive winning performance. But unlike 2015, we saw vastly less drama.

If Rickie Fowler's triumph last year was the essence of edge-of-your seat PGA Tour theater, this year's determined march by Jason Day was a marvel of both efficiency and resilience. 

Through two days of uncharacteristically benign course conditions and record scoring, Day knocked down flags to the tune of a record-breaking 15-under performance. 

Amid vastly more difficult conditions Saturday and a bit of untidiness of his own early Sunday, Day was resilient en route to a wire-to-wire, four-stroke victory.  

He's the big winner—and pro golf's best since last year's U.S. Open, to be sure.  

Who joins JD? Click through for all the winners and losers from TPC Sawgrass. 

Winner: Jason Day

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Jason Day opened his Players Championship bid with a course-record-tying 63 that saw him pencil in nine birdies and no bogeys. He hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation for his Thursday effort, picking up nearly five strokes on the field from tee to green.

Twice a winner on the PGA Tour this season already, Day followed up his first-round brilliance with a six-under 66 Friday, again getting around TPC Sawgrass without a bogey.

Putting on greens faster than a skating rink, Day managed a third-round one-over 73, which saw the Australian pour in a number a clutch par saves.

Starting the final round with a four-stroke lead, Day was untidy with his play early, but he managed to right the ship with birdies at 10 and 12 en route to a comfortable victory.

Loser: Russell "Nine Stroke" Knox

Russell Knox carded the fourth-worst score in tournament history at Sawgrass' famous (or infamous) 17th hole. The Scotsman found the water three times in his turn at the Florida course's penultimate hole.

After his round, Knox described the horrid experience to the media (h/t ASAP Sports):

"

Until you're in that position, you don't understand what it feels like. I thought I hit a good first shot. I thought I'd stuffed it. And then after that...it just goes so quickly. It's hard to describe how you feel. ... Your blood is just pumping through your brain. ...

You've got thousands of people laughing at you. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. ...

It's such an easy shot when you have no nerves or adrenaline. A pro would never miss that. I mean, we should know what we're doing. But it's a different story once you've hit two in a row in the water. The green felt like it was the size of a quarter.

"

Check out the full carnage in the video above.

Knox can take solace in the fact that his nine was three strokes better than the worst score ever on the 17th. Bob Tway carded a 12 in 2005.

Winner: Ken Duke on Saturday

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

While players were shooting 75s, Ken Duke was somehow handling lightning-quick TPC Sawgrass. The 47-year-old journeyman fired a third-round 65, picking up nearly six strokes on the field with his putter.

"What course was Ken Duke playing today? Can anyone tell me? Was he playing across the road?" Jason Day asked following his third round, per Alex Myers of Golf Digest.

"[The] 10.59 strokes between Duke's score and the field average for the day is the biggest such differential in tournament history," Myers wrote. "The previous best was Davis Love III's 64 in the final round of the 2003 tournament when he beat the field average by 9.90 strokes."

Brilliant stuff amid the wreckage.

Losers: Three Big Names

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Teeing it up for the first time since his final-round falter at the Masters, Jordan Spieth fired rounds of 72 and 71 to miss the cut.

Rickie Fowler, the tournament's defending champion, also failed to make the cut, ensuring the streak of no repeat winners at the Players remained intact. A pair of double bogeys and a balky putter undid Fowler on Friday.

Among the pre-tournament favorites, Henrik Stenson looked poised for a good week. He tied for 17th last year, but he carded four bogeys and a double bogey in his first round for an opening-round 77 that put him behind the eight ball. A second-round 73 saw him miss the cut by eight strokes.

Disappointing work week for all.

Winner: Sawgrass on Saturday

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

After being trampled for two days, TPC Sawgrass, aided by Mother Nature, fought back during Saturday's third round.

"I want to say this was the toughest day I've ever had to play in my life," third-round leader Jason Day said to reporters (h/t Steve DiMeglio of USA Today) following his one-over 73.

The field scoring average Saturday was 75.59. For the first two days, which both saw record-tying scores, the field averaged 71.06 strokes.

In other words, the course went from being benign to playing more difficult than Chambers Bay at last year's U.S. Open.

Mark Russell, the tour's vice president of rules and competition, told Bob Harig of ESPN.com that the powers that be didn't do anything to deliberately toughen up the course:

"

We have done the same thing all week. We have been double-cutting these greens and double-rolling them and trying to get them firmed up.

And what happened today was just kind of a perfect storm with the weather. We weren't expecting a 20 mile-an-hour wind all day, and the humidity 30 percent, not a cloud in the sky. And they just, you know, sped up on us.

"

That they did. The field three-putted 149 times in the third round—which is, well, insane.

Loser: The Course Record

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

Colt Knost ought to have his name next to "TPC Sawgrass course record" in the PGA Tour's media guide.

Knost was 43 feet away from the cup on the 18th hole of his second round. He needed two putts to card a course-record 62. Instead, Knost three-putted for a 63, tying the course record.

Jason Day shot 63 as well, opening his Players Championship bid with a nine-under effort. That followed a second-round 81 in last year's Players.

"I'm playing a lot better golf than I was last year," Day told Rex Hoggard of GolfChannel.com following his opening round.

Rory McIlroy posted a second-round 64, nearly tying the record.

Winner: Will Wilcox

Will Wilcox made the first hole-in-one in 14 years at the famed par-three 17th on Friday.

That description, however, does little justice. A picture (or, in this case, a video) is worth a thousand words.

Check out the footage above.

"I've seen so many tour players make hole-in-ones and hole shots and they're just like, nothing," Wilcox said after the round, per Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press. "Like, 'What's wrong with you?' So especially in that situation, I get pumped up."

And rightfully so.

Loser: Sergio Garcia, Fifth Hole, Third Round

Perhaps nothing illustrates the difficulty of the course Saturday better than what happened to Sergio Garcia at the fifth hole.

After coming up just short of the green with his second shot, Garcia's nightmare commenced.

Yahoo Sports' Ryan Ballengee summed up the mess nicely:

"

He took putter from just off the green for his third shot, lagging up to eight-and-a-half feet for par. And that's when the carnage began. The Spaniard blew his par putt by about five feet. He blew the bogey putt by another five feet. He missed the next one for double bogey, going four feet past the hole. Garcia then missed the four footer for triple bogey. Garcia finally made a two-foot putt for quadruple-bogey 8.

"

Horrific stuff.

Stats courtesy of PGATour.com.