Jeff’s Hardcore Core-The Players Championship

Something has always fascinated me about TPC Sawgrass and The Players Championship.  It could be the major-like atmosphere with arguably the toughest field of any tournament all year.  Or it could be the unforgiving nature of the course that year in and year out is capable of bringing anybody in the world to their knees.  It could be the island green on the 17^th hole which I dream of someday taking a bucket of balls and seeing how many I can plop on the green.

In 2017 I had the opportunity to visit TPC Sawgrass and attend The Players Championship and it was everything that I had envisioned from a far.  Countless hazards, tight, strategic fairways, brutally fast greens, it was so much fun to be able to walk the course and see the ins and outs of every single hole.  As I always do when I attend golf tournaments, I like to sometimes find the less popular groups to avoid the massive crowds and be able to get up close to the players and actually get a feel of what it is like to walk 18 holes on the PGA Tour.  The first round of The Players I found myself following a group with Kevin Kisner and Russell Henley, which was basically me and their relatives.  It was cool overhearing their conversations with each other.  Before I started out in walking the course I found myself mingling around the driving range and putting greens and just observing.  I will never forget one thing that stood out to me that year and that was how well Webb Simpson was putting that day on the putting green.  Now, you might say, what was so strange about that, Webb Simpson is a great putter?  But for those of you who don’t remember, Webb was a good putter for a while earlier in his career, but then he became a horrendous putter.  Actually in 2015 and 2016 he was one of the worst putters on the entire PGA Tour.  He was one of those players affected by the anchored putter ban and then had to experiment with a variety of different methods.  That day at TPC Sawgrass however, I witnessed that he clearly was not struggling anymore. He might have drained every single putt from every single distance on the putting greens the entire time I watched him.  I thought to myself, wow with the way this guy strikes the ball, if he can start putting well, he could be a force on tour (at that time he was ranked outside the Top 40).  In following him for a while at TPC Sawgrass that day, it was evident to me how comfortable he felt on that course.  If I ever get a chance to meet Webb, I will be sure to ask if he remembers that year at TPC Sawgrass as being an important part of his comeback or if he felt it before then.  He ended up tying for 16^th place that year, but I had it in the back of my head that I want to be backing him in future years on this course.  Fast forward to 2018 and Webb Simpson had been playing well to start the year with several Top 10 finishes already under his belt.  His putting was much improved from the previous couple of years and I remembered how highly I thought of how he looked at TPC Sawgrass the year before.  Surprisingly, even playing as well as he was coming into the Players, Webb was going off at 80-1 throughout the sportbooks (only $7,300 on Draftkings).  Needless to say I liked the price quite a bit and loaded up on outrights and in DFS. For those of you that remember, Webb basically went wire to wire that year in capturing the title and I had one of the biggest winning weeks in my life  I know many of you reading this remember it as well as I do, because you had monster weeks along with me thanks to Webb.  I just think back at how it all played out from walking the course with him the year prior to having so much conviction about what I saw and putting a bunch of money on it, I will never forget it and it will remain one of the highlights of my time in this crazy industry and game.  I hope you didn’t mind walking down memory lane with me, it was basically a long way of saying, I really like this tournament, I really like this course, and I have a lot of fond memories, and I am really looking forward to this week.

Best of luck Team FGI!

Jeff’s Strategy & Core- The Players Championship

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