Players in this week's PGA Tour Players Championship will "have all the motivation they need to prepare for the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass with a refurbished practice area that can help pros simulate virtually any shot on any hole," according to Garry Smits of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. The recent $50M renovation project includes "upgrades to both the resort and 'pros only' practice areas, located between the 18th green and the fourth tee of the stadium." PGA Tour Exec VP & Chief of Operations Andy Pazder said, "We listened. We went to the players, especially the local guys who are here more than anyone, and asked them what they needed to help them get ready." PGA Tour Academy Dir Todd Anderson said the former practice area was a "good facility,” but "this one is different." Anderson: "If it’s not the best practice facility in the world, then it deserves to be in the conversation.” Smits notes among the additions and changes are the "target greens on the main range and short-game greens on the pro-only side are being maintained to the same level as those on the course." A building on the back range, "formerly used for washing and sorting the range balls, is now a small lounge with a refrigerator and two TVs." Players can "bring their video cameras, smart phones or pads into the lounge, connect them to the TVs and watch their practice swings." Meanwhile the Academy building has "doubled to 7,700 square feet" and an "indoor putting lab and fitness center will be ready for a soft opening May 22." TPC Sawgrass Dir of Maintenance Jeff Plotts "admitted keeping 12 practice greens maintained in the same manner as the 18 tournament greens is difficult" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 5/8).
MAY DAY? Smits noted if The Players "moves back on the calendar to March -- and it could happen as early as ['19] -- the event would be, in a sense, going home." The tournament has been played in May 10 times, but proponents of going back to March are "especially adamant." David Duval, who won the '99 Players, last week said, "I don’t believe the golf course has quite lived up to how they have wanted it since the move to May, with the condition of it. It’s been a bit of a struggle. I hope it does go back.” Smits noted the PGA Tour "may force [the] Players’ hand" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 5/8). GOLF DIGEST's Jaime Diaz writes there is an "underlying consensus that the golf season is too long, too crowded, too much the same from event to event, and irregularly paced." The season's finale is an "anticlimactic blur that mostly feels like a quixotic battle against the behemoths of pro and college football." The ending "never felt more cluttered than last year, when golf in the Summer Olympics for the first time in 112 years forced a scheduling squeeze culminating in a Rio-to-Ryder Cup rush that, while at times thrilling, was clearly going to be unsustainable for the game's stars." A "proposed fix" seems "straightforward." Diaz: "Move the Players Championship from May back to March." It "won't be simple to agree on or execute, but if the change comes to pass," the professional game will be "condensed into a leaner and more logical product" (GOLF DIGEST, 5/8 issue).
