The start of Max Homa’s day at the Players Championship was better than most.
The 35-year-old started on the par-4 10th at TPC Sawgrass. He split the fairway and then pulled gap wedge from 137 to attack the flag. The ball landed right of the flag, hopped a few times and then spun back into the hole for an opening eagle.
“It was cool,” Homa said after the round. “I thought if I drew my gap wedge three or four right of it, it wouldn’t go long, and if I hit it good, maybe it would work its way over there. It’s just rare that it actually goes in the hole, but it worked itself out perfect.”
That was the start of a confounding day for Homa at TPC Sawgrass. He followed up his eagle with a birdie at the par-5 11th and then made a double bogey at the 12th. A bogey at 14 dropped him back to even and then Homa made a sloppy double bogey at the 15th to drop to 2 over on the day. He dropped another shot at the first, and then the pendulum swung back his way as he made birdies 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8 to move back to 2 under.
But Homa’s rollercoaster dipped one more time at the par-5 ninth, where he pulled his tee shot left into the trees and then missed a five-footer for par to drop a shot and finish the day at 1 under.
“I’ve been playing really well, so it was very frustrating how erratic it was,” Homa said. “But it also made it somewhat easier to know that if you just kept swinging, it would go the right place, but it was one of the weirder days I’ve ever had.”
After playing 12 through 15 in 5 over, Homa had to find a way to quickly reset, which is easier said than done on Pete Dye’s brutal track.
“You really have to have conversations with yourself that you’ve got to start over,” Homa said. “Pretty upset, and you’ve just got to remind yourself that it wasn’t that far off. This is a very hard golf course, so it’s nice to make some good swings and make some good putts to get going in the other direction, but that morning was very tricky.”
But Homa wasn’t the only one in the early wave on Thursday at the Players Championship to get out to a hot start before being bloodied by Dye’s masterpiece.
Tony Finau opened his day with five birdies in his first seven holes. Then, the wheels started to wobble. He bogeyed 17 and 18 to make the turn in 3 under. He gave shots back and No. 1 and No. 2 to fall further, and then bogeyed No. 5 to fall back to even.
But Finau finished with a flurry, birdieing 6, 7 and 9 to post 3 under.
“Overall, it was a roller coaster type of day,” Finau said. “I was cruising early, and then just got punched in the mouth in the middle of the round with a bunch of bogeys, kind of jumped on the bogey train. Really happy with the poise I had to just finish off where I started and shoot a few under.
“I was just happy the roller coaster ended up moving this direction at the end and not down.”
While Homa and Finau had hectic days at the Players, no pro had a crazier day at TPC Sawgrass than Max Greyserman.
The 30-year-old went out in 5-under 31 and held the outright lead early on. But Greyserman’s lead was short-lived as he took a beating on the back nine. He started with three straight bogeys from 10 to 12 and then made a double at 13. Another double followed at 15 before he made a birdie at 16. After going out in 31, Greyserman came home in 42 to shoot 1 over on the day.
The beauty of Pete Dye’s design is that birdies can be had if you put the ball in the right place, but big numbers lurk if you get out of position.
Either you have a complete game, or you’ll be exposed eventually.
“I think it’s one of those unique tests where it doesn’t favor any particular type of game, and it’s definitely not one that you stand up on the tee and try and swing as hard as you can,” Maverick McNealy, who shot 5 under to take the early lead on Thursday, said. “The shot value is really important. You’ve got to hit every club in your bag, every shape imaginable.”
If you don’t, TPC Sawgrass can put you in the blender — one that only mental strength and perhaps a small rain-delay reset can get you out of.
