Players complain of mudballs on Sawgrass fairways: ‘Complete guessing game’

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — As he stared down his approach shot at No. 4, Rory McIlroy watched it change direction mid-flight, corkscrewing to some 35 feet from the hole. “That,” he said, “is what we call a mudball.”

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: there were far bigger issues than fairway firmness on Thursday at the Players. (Friday, as a result, will be fan-free.) But it was in some ways a welcome, familiar distraction to hear players muttering post-round about the imperfections of the golf course.

Patrick Cantlay said TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course played “sneaky-hard” because of unpredictable ball flights from fairways. “I got so many mudballs that it was darn near a complete guessing game four or five times from the middle of the fairway,” he said.

“I was a little surprised at how soft the fairways were, especially getting all those mud balls. I don’t think that’s — I don’t think the golf course should ever play like that.”

Cantlay managed the unpredictability about as well as you could imagine, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens en route to a 5-under 67. In all, soft conditions made the course much more gettable, and midway through the afternoon the field still boasted a scoring average under 71. But pros have long held a particular contempt for mudballs, because they take what should be a reward (hitting the fairway) and turn it into an unpredictable dice-roll.

Dustin Johnson, not typically one of the Tour’s more loquacious personalities, offered his own breakdown of mudball struggles.

“It’s been every day,” he said. “I don’t know. I wish I had the answer. I’m sure the Tour wishes they did, too.”

The question of which mudball was the worst yielded a particularly lengthy Johnson answer.

“Well, I got really lucky on 16. I hit a great drive, I had 190 hole with a little help, it was perfect 7-iron in the middle of the fairway and I was aiming left of the green just because there was mud on it, and it hit in the rough or the little first cut just left of the cross ties on the right.

“I mean, it started left of the green and cut 30 yards. But I got lucky — it kicked on the green, I had a nice eagle putt. But same on 2. I had a really good number, I hit a hybrid and I mean, it went in the right trees.

“Same on — I had the worst one was probably I had 88 yards on 6 and a lob wedge sliced 20 yards, which you can’t do that even if you want to.”

DJ’s efforts resulted in a solid 2-under 70. “I felt like I played pretty solid, but it’s just, it was tough to control the golf ball,” he said.

The area has received fairly typical rainfall for this time of year, and although there was a rainstorm that dropped more than an inch last Friday, players have expressed surprise all week at just how lush conditions seem to be. The Stadium Course is complete with Sub-Air system, so tournament organizers may choose to firm up the greens, at least. Otherwise, we’re likely to see more scores like Hideki Matsuyama’s scorching 9-under 63 — but more exclamations about mudballs, too.

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