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Three takeaways from the first round of The Players Championship

garry smits, florida times-union
·2 min read
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Min Woo Lee slaps palms with children between the 16th green and the 17th tee of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday during the first round of The Players Championship. Lee is among the first-time Players participants.
Min Woo Lee slaps palms with children between the 16th green and the 17th tee of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday during the first round of The Players Championship. Lee is among the first-time Players participants.

Three takeaways from the first round of The Players Championship:

First-timers kick up their heels

Tyson Alexander all but guaranteed on Wednesday that some of the 32 first-time would be in the mix come Sunday. A handful got off to a good start in the first round, topped by first-round leader Chad Ramey, who had a bogey-free 64. Ben Griffin shot 65 to tie for third and Min Woo Lee and Adam Svensson (both at 68) are tied for fourth.

Justin Suh, playing in the final group of the day to tee off No. 1, birdied five of six holes, from Nos. 7 to 12, and was 5-under when play was suspended. He had three holes left.

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United Nations

The first round was a wonderful mix of American and international players, illustrating the global reach of the PGA Tour. Taylor Pendrith (67) and Svensson are from Canada, Lee and Cam Davis (69) are from Australia, Christaan Bezuidenhout (68) is from South Africa, Si Woo Kim (69) is from South Korea and Justin Rose (69) is from England.

The Players field includes competitors from 19 countries.

Postcard day at TPC

After a morning in which the sun struggled to break through high clouds, the afternoon was gorgeous and a stark contrast to last year, when the field got in only about seven hours total of golf, with an hour-long delay in the morning to dry out the wet grounds, a delay of more than four hours after 11 a.m. because of a line of thunderstorms and then a darkness suspension.

Tournament officials never caught up and the result was the first Monday finish in 17 years.

The only drawback about the day was 21 players were unable to finish because of darkness. They will return at 7:40 a.m. on Friday to finish. The second round will begin as scheduled at 6:50 a.m.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Players Championship takeaways: Youth is served and a UN on the green