Players Championship 2017: Tee Times, TV and Live Stream Schedule for Thursday
The Players Championship—considered the unofficial fifth major in golfing—gets underway Thursday at TPC Sawgrass in Ponta Verde Beach, Florida.
Below, we'll take a look at the schedule information and tee times, as well as a preview of some of the top players in the field.
When: May 11-14
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Where: TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Total Purse: $10,500,000
FedEx Cup Points: 600
TV Schedule: 1-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Streaming: PGA Tour Live (7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET)
| 1 | 7:10 a.m. | Zac Blair, Tyrone Van Aswegen, Blayne Barber |
| 1 | 7:21 a.m. | Kevin Streelman, Lucas Glover, Louis Oosthuizen |
| 1 | 7:32 a.m. | Kyle Stanley, Jason Kokrak, Patrick Cantlay |
| 1 | 7:43 a.m. | Brian Harman, Russell Knox, Jhonattan Vegas |
| 1 | 7:54 a.m. | Hudson Swafford, Brendan Steele, J.B. Holmes |
| 1 | 8:05 a.m. | Cameron Smith, Vaughn Taylor, Keegan Bradley |
| 1 | 8:16 a.m. | Tony Finau, Troy Merritt, Gary Woodland |
| 1 | 8:27 a.m. | Greg Chalmers, Graeme McDowell, Emiliano Grillo |
| 1 | 8:38 a.m. | Pat Perez, Cody Gribble, William McGirt |
| 1 | 8:49 a.m. | Marc Leishman, James Hahn, Matt Every |
| 1 | 9:00 a.m. | Kyle Reifers, Harold Varner III, Bernd Wiesberger |
| 1 | 9:11 a.m. | Ben Crane, Graham DeLaet, Grayson Murray |
| 1 | 12:35 p.m. | Martin Laird, Chez Reavie, Shawn Stefani |
| 1 | 12:46 p.m. | Roberto Castro, Patrick Rodgers, Michael Kim |
| 1 | 12:57 p.m. | Scott Brown, Ross Fisher, Matthew Fitzpatrick |
| 1 | 1:08 p.m. | Danny Willett, Shane Lowry, Bill Haas |
| 1 | 1:19 p.m. | Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka |
| 1 | 1:30 p.m. | Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer |
| 1 | 1:41 p.m. | Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar |
| 1 | 1:52 p.m. | Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy |
| 1 | 2:03 p.m. | Mackenzie Hughes, Jim Herman, K.J. Choi |
| 1 | 2:14 p.m. | Charl Schwartzel, Smylie Kaufman, Ernie Els |
| 1 | 2:25 p.m. | John Huh, Jamie Lovemark, Rafa Cabrera Bello |
| 1 | 2:36 p.m. | Freddie Jacobson, Chad Campbell, Ricky Barnes |
| 10 | 7:10 a.m. | Jason Bohn, Daniel Summerhays, Francesco Molinari |
| 10 | 7:21 a.m. | Harris English, Bernhard Langer, Derek Fathauer |
| 10 | 7:32 a.m. | Bryce Molder, Kevin Na, Mark Hubbard |
| 10 | 7:43 a.m. | Aaron Baddeley, Fabian Gomez, David Lingmerth |
| 10 | 7:54 a.m. | Jim Furyk, Billy Horschel, Vijay Singh |
| 10 | 8:05 a.m. | Jimmy Walker, Zach Johnson, Paul Casey |
| 10 | 8:16 a.m. | Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson, Jason Day |
| 10 | 8:27 a.m. | Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Phil Mickelson |
| 10 | 8:38 a.m. | Adam Hadwin, Luke Donald, Alex Noren |
| 10 | 8:49 a.m. | Si Woo Kim, Daniel Berger, Branden Grace |
| 10 | 9:00 a.m. | Sean O’Hair, Ryan Palmer, Yuta Ikeda |
| 10 | 9:11 a.m. | Ian Poulter, Cameron Tringale, Tommy Fleetwood |
| 10 | 12:35 p.m. | Seung-Yul Noh, Sung Kang |
| 10 | 12:46 p.m. | Boo Weekley, Robert Garrigus, David Hearn |
| 10 | 12:57 p.m. | Lee Westwood, Patton Kizzire, Andrew Loupe |
| 10 | 1:08 p.m. | D.A. Points, Ryan Moore, Chris Kirk |
| 10 | 1:19 p.m. | Kevin Chappell, Billy Hurley III, Brian Stuard |
| 10 | 1:30 p.m. | Jonas Blixt, Brian Gay, Tyrrell Hatton |
| 10 | 1:41 p.m. | Danny Lee, Robert Streb, Ben Martin |
| 10 | 1:52 p.m. | Russell Henley, Rod Pampling, Kevin Kisner |
| 10 | 2:03 p.m. | Peter Malnati, Webb Simpson, Steve Stricker |
| 10 | 2:14 p.m. | Jason Dufner, Scott Piercy, Alex Cejka |
| 10 | 2:25 p.m. | Wesley Bryan, Charley Hoffman, David Toms |
| 10 | 2:36 p.m. | Johnson Wagner, Spencer Levin, Luke List |
| 10 | 2:47 p.m. | Jerry Kelly, Anirban Lahiri, Brett Stegmaier |
Jason Day is the defending champion at the Players, so he's obviously a huge threat this year. While day hasn't won a tournament since that title, he also admitted he was dealing with burnout and his mother's cancer treatment, per Iain Strachan of the Sporting News:
"For a moment there after I lost my number one world ranking, I kind of lost the desire to be there, and I think it was just because I was mentally burnt out from everything that had gone on. With what had happened earlier this year with some off-course stuff, my mind was kind of elsewhere, as you probably could imagine… [but] finally I can kind of take a breath and sit back and go, OK, I need to kind of start my trip back to up the mountain again. What I'm trying to focus on is getting back to that winning form, getting back to the workload that I was doing and the practice and the work ethic, and hopefully the results will come after that."
Of course, nobody is playing better golf than current world No. 1 and 2016 U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson. He took that distinction from Day, who took it from Spieth after his epic 2015 season, who in turn took it from Rory McIlroy after he was golf's top player in 2014.
So any conversation about the Players inevitably revolves around those four talents. The conversation in golf, generally speaking, revolves around them as well.
Johnson and McIlroy—along with Justin Thompson—will form the most star-studded group to start play at TPC Sawgrass. One thing is for sure: No matter what the moment is or who the opponent, don't expect Johnson's demeanor to change or his pulse to quicken.
"It's beating—not very fast," he said of that pulse, per the Associated Press (via USA Today). "Sometimes it gets going pretty good. It just depends if I'm walking up a steep hill or something."
Spieth, meanwhile, has an AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am win under his belt this year, but his performance at the Masters—he finished 11th overall—left a bit to be desired for the 2015 winner, who also finished tied for second in 2014 and 2016.
A strong performance from Spieth could get him back on the dominant track he showed during the 2015 season.
And then there's Sergio Garcia—this year's Masters winner—who should also have a say at the Players. And you can never discount players like Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler or Patrick Reed. Don't sleep on Jon Rahm, either.
But the safe money is probably on a player from the foursome of Johnson, Day, Spieth or McIlroy. They've been the four pillars of golf over the past three seasons, and it would hardly be surprising if one of them emerged victorious this weekend.
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