The state of the Stadium: With Players Championship week here what's the course condition?
The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is not going to have quite the firm and fast conditions that Director of Agronomy Jeff Plotts and his staff usually try to provide the best players in the world for this week's Players Championship.
He has many tools at his disposal. But Plotts can't fight Mother Nature and a wet winter and early spring — capped by a torrential downpour on Saturday night — will likely enable the players with accuracy off the tee to throw darts into receptive greens when the tournament begins on Thursday.
"These guys are so good that anything softer than concrete won't stop them," Plotts said about the putting surfaces. "We're doing everything we can to try to control the moisture."
The good news is that the amount of rain has resulted in the overseeded Rye rough being as thick as it's ever been since the tournament moved back to March in 2019. The fairways also won't be yielding a whole lot of roll, which might negate the advantage for big hitters such as three of the last four Players champions, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler.
But players who spend most of the tournament in the fairways will have a green light to the flagsticks.
Course will be a deep shade of green
The good news is that the Stadium Course will look its best both for the spectators on hand and the TV audience, with the overseed coming in thick and green.
Scoring may be low. But the Stadium has never looked better for the 50th Players.
Plotts said he and his staff are motivated regardless of what year it is.
“We strive to be at our very best,” he said. “Certainly we are proud of the fact that it’s the 50th Players and we want the course to look really good. But Mother Nature players such a huge role and something there are things beyond our control.”
Jeff Plotts said El Niño pattern has affected preparation
Plotts predicted the weather pattern months ago. And in addition to the rainfall in the area since the fall, there were so many cloudy days that not much of it evaporated.
“We’ve been in an El Niño pattern, which is a lot of grey days, a lot of wet conditions,” he said. “It seemed like we’d get some rain, then a few days of cloudy weather, and the moisture would just sit there. It’s very difficult to get to the kind of firmness we’re always trying to get.”
There are only a handful of nights where the temperature touched freezing and very few frosty mornings.
“Nothing of any significance,” he said. “Sunshine makes everything better. Makes me a little happier too.”
What's the current forecast for Players Championship week?
The extended forecast for the rest of the week calls for partly cloudy conditions for Tuesday through Friday, with temperatures increasing from a high of 72 degrees on Tuesday to 82 on Friday.
The weekend forecast has been dicey: The temperatures will remain warm but the chance of showers and thundershowers increases to about 50-50 on 2 p.m. Saturday and close to 60 percent during mid-afternoon on Sunday.
Wind will stay moderate, with a predicted peak of 12 mph on Saturday and Sunday.
Daylight Savings time offers a bit more time. The sun will set at 7:34 p.m. on March 16 and 7:35 p.m. on March 17.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Forecast for Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass: Green and soft
