Contenders barely got their feet wet at The Players Championship

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This article was published 10/03/2022 (1669 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. The opening day of The Players Championship was marred by poor weather, but Canadian Corey Conners feels like he has a chance to climb the leaderboard when his next round begins — whenever that may be.

Play was stopped at TPC Sawgrass for four hours and 15 minutes on Thursday, with barely half the field finishing the opening round. It was the tournament’s first weather delay since 2016.

Conners, who finished tied for seventh last year, opened with a 2-under 70. He was four shots off the lead held by Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge.

“The conditions when we were playing were pretty nice: not a lot of wind and soft greens,” he said of the difficult Pete Dye layout. “It would have been nice to pick up a couple more (birdies) … It was definitely tough mentally. I think I’ll have a pretty good sleep tonight after being out here all day.”

Conners added with a laugh that he’d had lunch three times during the delay. The golfers were only given short windows of time between updates, not long enough to leave and see wife Malory and their newborn daughter at their hotel. He played just six holes before the horn sounded.

Canada’s top-ranked male golfer was third in strokes gained: tee to green on Thursday, but 123rd in strokes gained: putting — a microcosm of his season.

“I’m a little sour about that … but I still have a chance to get to the top.”

No pressure

The most iconic, and difficult, shot at TPC Sawgrass is off the tee to the island green on No. 17. That will be Canadian Taylor Pendrith’s opener when his first round resumes Friday. Only one tee shot, by Harold Varner III, found water on 17 in the opening round. Pendrith, the PGA Tour rookie making his debut at The Players, sat at 4-under through 16 holes. He managed to get four holes in before the delay. After the break, he walked up to a 40-foot putt for birdie on the par-4 fifth hole and rolled in right in the heart. He added birdies on the 11th and 16th holes before play was suspended because of darkness.

Dark day

Sunset in Ponte Vedra Beach was at 6:31 p.m. on Thursday. Canadian Adam Hadwin hit the first shot of his opening round at 6:29 p.m. And that’s likely how things will go over the next few days. With torrential rain in the forecast for Friday, golfers are expecting the worst with a Monday finish quite likely. Play was called at 11 a.m. and resumed at 3:15 p.m. It was the first weather delay on tour since the first round of the Houston Open in November.

More Canadians

Roger Sloan managed to finish his round — one of 66 to do so — at 1-over 73, while Mackenzie Hughes was at even par through six holes.

Matsuyama out

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A month away from trying to defend his Masters title, Hideki Matsuyama, who has two victories this season, withdrew from The Players Championship with a nagging back injury.

More water

Former Players champion Adam Scott put two tee shots in the water off the 18th tee on the way to a quadruple bogey and a round of 78.

With files from The Associated Press

Adam Stanley is an Ottawa-based contributor to the Star’s Sports section and the host of golf podcast Next Round’s On Me. Follow him on Twitter: @adam_stanley