Players Championship (Golf)

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    Rain, Wind, Cold, Tornado Warnings and After Five Days, a Champion

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    The Players Championship was battered by some of the worst weather PGA Tour pros had ever seen. Eventually, Cameron Smith of Australia prevailed.PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — There was an early omen that this year’s Players Championship, a signature event of the PGA Tour, would radically defy golf tournament convention. It arrived before the sun rose for Thursday’s first round in the form of an ominous-sounding weather delay, delivered as the golfers slept.In the end, most of them probably felt like they never woke up, as the ensuing five days of golf unfolded like a vengeful nightmare.“It was brutal out there,” Rory McIlroy, the four-time major winner, said of conditions that included 40 mile-an-hour winds, more than four inches of dousing rain, tornado warnings and temperatures that occasionally dipped to the mid-30s. As he spoke, McIlroy’s eyes almost appeared glassy. His face was wind burned, and his trousers were sullied by mud.Not long after McIlroy retreated to the clubhouse, the agreeable tour veteran Kevin Kisner described his tournament journey in spiritual terms: “It was just hit and pray.”As it turned out, the first weather delay Thursday was the literal calm before the storm and perhaps the last moment when the environment would be even remotely close to typical at the 2022 Players, an event that is meant to serve as a pre-spring celebration of warm-weather golf. Early Thursday it was not yet raining sideways on the T.P.C. Sawgrass golf course; it was just inevitable.Doug Ghim with his caddie Micah Fugitt on No. 10 during the final round on Monday.Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesWhat followed was something rarely seen on the PGA Tour — golf that made the pros curse like sailors and fling clubs into ponds while the everyday golfer watched at home and snickered: “Welcome to our world, Mr. Fancy Pants.”The pros, who generally did not complain about the conditions, understood. Max Homa wrote on Twitter: “Today was basically the worst day ever to play a golf tourney at Sawgrass but seemed like the best day ever to watch one. I was very jealous of the spectators.”Postponed to Monday, the event was won by a rising star on the tour, Cameron Smith, 28, of Australia. Smith pulled away from a handful of rivals with five birdies on the final nine to win by one stroke over Anirban Lahiri of India. It was the second PGA Tour victory this season for Smith, who has 10 finishes in the top 10 in the past year.Afterward, Smith even smiled.Others left the golf course shuddering, and not just because of their soggy clothing and freezing fingers. At times, the battered field — from Thursday to Monday there were more than 82 rounds with a score of 75 or higher — appeared to be in a half-numb daze.Sam Burns, who was in contention for much of the event, could be heard asking his caddie after one shot: “What day is today?”On Friday, after Matthew Wolff yanked an ugly shot way left and into the pond alongside the 18th fairway, he gently flipped his club, one-handed, into the pond. Apparently, he didn’t want anything to remind him of his nine-over-par 81.Workers squeeged water from the fairway after rain delayed the start of the first round.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockOn Saturday, when the wind was blowing the strongest, 29 tee shots aimed at the famed 17th hole par-3 island green splashed into the enveloping water hazard. On Thursday and Friday, only four tee shots had been deposited in the water.Brooks Koepka, ranked 18th in the world men’s golf rankings, was forced to play the devilish 17th hole twice on Saturday because his first round was postponed. He made a double bogey the first time on the 17th tee and then had a triple bogey on his next try.Then Koepka knocked his cap off his head to reveal hair dyed blond and walked away laughing.“I don’t laugh too often in competition,” Koepka said later. “But you know, this was different.” Koepka shot 81 and tied his career high for a tour round.Russell Henley had a different kind of daily double. He made a dispiriting double bogey on the 10th hole, then made a rare albatross — a 2 on a par 5 — on the 11th hole.Ian Poulter was so determined to finish his round on Thursday, he ran onto the 17th green and sprinted over to the 18th tee so he could be sure to get off the T.P.C. Sawgrass layout before the sun set.The wind and frigid temperatures over the weekend also had the golfers making some peculiar wardrobe choices.Joel Dahmen wore sweatpants beneath his form-fitting golf pants. Most players went with the more traditional thermal underwear. Paul Casey kept a hand warmer in each pants pocket. Viktor Hovland shoved his hands inside what looked like a pair of oversized oven mitts after each shot — and Hovland is from Norway.The wind was fierce and swirling in unpredictable patterns. Keegan Bradley, faced with a 95-yard shot downwind on Saturday, hit a short 9-iron. Later, in the same round, Keegan had 208 yards to the flagstick with the wind at his back. He hit 9-iron again. Bradley shot a fairly pedestrian score for a tour player, one-under-par 71, and yet, he proclaimed it “one of the best rounds of my life.”Collin Morikawa bundled up to stay warm during the second round.David Cannon/Getty ImagesSome of golf’s biggest stars, including Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele did not make the cut. Schauffele arrived at T.P.C. Sawgrass for Sunday’s second round tied for ninth in the tournament and left tied for 90th.But not everyone in the field will recall the 2022 Players Championship with consternation and a chill in their bones and down their spine.Shane Lowry of Ireland made a hole in one at the 17th hole on Sunday and zealously celebrated for almost five minutes with fans behind the tee. For a while, it looked as if Lowry might joyously leap into the water surrounding the hole.He thought better of it. Some parts might have been frozen. More

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      A Rare Rainout Suspends Players Championship With Three Tied for Lead

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      Torrential rains flooded the fairways at T.C.P. Sawgrass, a course that already features multiple water hazards. The tournament won’t end before Monday.PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — This year’s Players Championship, a signature event of the PGA Tour, will take an extra day to complete after torrential rains on Friday in northern Florida suspended play for a second consecutive day. Golfers endured Friday’s foul weather for only a few soggy hours at the T.P.C. Sawgrass golf course, one day after the first round was twice interrupted by rain delays and never completed.The back-to-back postponements will ensure that the 72-hole, four-round tournament, scheduled to end on Sunday afternoon, will not finish before Monday for the first time since 2005.Large puddles had become common on most greens by 10 a.m. on Friday, and maintenance crews used squeegees to remove water after each group finished a hole. But in time, with fairways all but flooded, officials ordered players off the course. The first round is still not complete.“The golf course has just reached a point of saturation, and unfortunately the weather conditions are not providing us any relief,” Gary Young, the chief referee of the event, said late Friday afternoon.Young added that the golf course had received almost three inches of rain in the previous 36 to 48 hours and that the tournament will restart no sooner than 11 a.m. on Saturday. The third round will not be completed Sunday, and severe weather was expected in the area Friday night into Saturday morning, including wind gusts that could reach 60 miles an hour. But the tour is anticipating clearer weather by midday Saturday even though the T.P.C. Sawgrass layout will most likely still be subject to considerable wind.The conditions, coupled with a challenging Pete Dye-designed course that features multiple daunting shots over water hazards, could make for unpredictable results. Moreover, the final-round leaders will be forced to complete more than 18 holes on Monday.On Friday morning, Young said the tour was potentially considering a Tuesday finish to the event, but hours later he said, “We feel very confident that we’re going to be able to accomplish the conclusion of this championship on Monday evening.” A last round on Tuesday was “not really in our thought process,” Young said.It is the eighth time that the Players Championship, which was first contested in 1974, will not finish on Sunday. While Monday finishes are infrequent on the PGA Tour and at major championships — the last Monday finish at the Masters tournament was 1983 — they are not unheard-of, and players have generally learned to adapt.“You just know that you’re here hopefully until the very end of the tournament, and you just get on with it,” said Tommy Fleetwood, who was one of a few dozen golfers to complete 18 holes on Thursday and is tied for the lead at six under par. “Everybody’s in the same circumstances. When it’s your turn to play, you play.“It’s easy to get caught off guard when you’re hanging around for a long time and then all of a sudden you have to try to switch it back on. But you almost have to relax as much as you can and save your energy but always kind of stay ready and in that mind-set that you might be going out at any time,” Fleetwood said. More

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      Tommy Fleetwood Tied For First With Tom Hoge At The Players Championship

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      “It was break some golf clubs or shave my beard,” Fleetwood, the English golfer, said of his recent struggles on the PGA Tour. “I went for the beard.”PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tommy Fleetwood, a golfer once ranked in the men’s top 10, has been missing from a PGA Tour leaderboard for so long, fans may not have recognized him when he vaulted into first place during the first round at the Players Championship here on Thursday.Fleetwood has also shaved his trademark — and popular — frowzy beard. And it turns out the facial hair is missing, in part, because of his recent two years of jagged play, which resulted in Fleetwood losing his PGA Tour playing privileges.“I was in a really bad mood,” Fleetwood, 31, said. “It was break some golf clubs or shave my beard. I went for the beard.”Fleetwood, a winsome Englishman best known for his shoulder-length hair and second-place finish at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, played like his old self for 18 holes on Thursday. His six-under-par 66 was one of the lowest scores among the several dozen golfers who finished a first round that was twice delayed by heavy rain and thunderstorms.When play was suspended because of darkness on Thursday night, Fleetwood was tied atop the leaderboard with Tom Hoge. Roughly half the field did not complete their rounds and will hope to tee off early Friday morning, though there is more rain in the forecast.But Fleetwood’s usual sunny disposition broke through, and his golf backstory would be relatable to anyone who has played the game recreationally or professionally. While he spent more than 15 minutes trying to explain how one of the world’s best golfers had sunk into an on-course funk that at one point dropped him to 137th in the FedEx Cup rankings, he also smiled and simplified.“It’s just a strange game that you never seem to be able to understand or that makes no sense,” Fleetwood said with a laugh.While he admitted to being somewhat lost in a golfing abyss, he refused to be downtrodden.“I still have one of the best jobs in the world,” Fleetwood said. “I’ve just not been performing to the level that I want to perform at. Again, I’m not going to sit here and moan or complain about playing poorly for a couple of years.”Fleetwood, who plays on both the PGA and European tours, offered some explanations for his drop from the world’s ninth-ranked player in 2018 to 49th entering this week’s Players Championship.“There’s been certain things in my swing that I haven’t quite understood,” he said. “So then your confidence takes a hit because you’re not quite comfortable out on the golf course. It adds up.”He added: “My results haven’t been terrible, but I’ve lacked obviously very good results. And then I think especially from a world ranking standpoint, that makes it very, very difficult. So I’ve just sort of been gradually declining.”Fleetwood playing an approach shot on the 14th hole.Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesTraveling the world to play on two tours has not helped.“You’re playing minimal events on both tours,” Fleetwood said. “Even in my best years, I was always starting way behind the 8-ball just to play consistently throughout those years. Again, it’s hard to make headway. And when you’re not seeing good scores and the shots aren’t quite there, it just becomes harder and harder for it to change that momentum.”For Fleetwood, like most golfers, the game mystifies. And that goes for even the best of the best. He did not, for example, come to Florida expecting to be leading the Players Championship at any point. Late Thursday afternoon after his round, he talked about playing “dreadful” lately — but then birdied his first two holes.That may have brought some good karma, but it was halted when inclement weather forced a delay of more than three hours. Fleetwood, however, was undeterred.“I was quite happy when the delay came,” he said. “You knew a delay was coming anyway, so I took the break and later I got to practice. Then I started the day by holing a putt and got going again.”The rain-soaked fairways and greens made conditions challenging, but Fleetwood remained unfazed, clocking three more birdies in his next nine holes. He finished with a birdie on the par-5 16th hole and another on the treacherous 18th. The close left him grinning, but he would not predict future results, not after the last two years. Looking ahead to his next round, he said: “I might play terrible, I might play great. We’ll see.”Fleetwood was much more certain about the eventual fate of his once-famous beard.Asked if his wife, Clare, likes him clean shaven or with facial hair, he answered: “She definitely has a preference, and it’s not this one.”Fleetwood does think he looks younger without the beard. He was playing in a tournament with his fellow tour players Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa on his 31st birthday in January, he said, when the duo looked at him and told him: “We had to Google your age. I thought you were 37, 38.”He added: “Everyone kind of noticed that I look a lot younger without the beard.”But then Fleetwood had a final thought.“Clare definitely prefers me with a beard, so I’ll definitely grow it back,” he said. “As long as I can keep my temper and keep smiling, then I won’t have to shave it off again.” More

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      Justin Thomas Surges to Win the Players Championship

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJustin Thomas Surges to Win the Players ChampionshipThomas, who entered the final round Sunday three strokes behind the leader, won his 14th career title on the PGA Tour.Justin Thomas held off Lee Westwood and Bryson DeChambeau to win the Players Championship.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesMarch 14, 2021, 9:09 p.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It was evident early that the final round of the Players Championship might not unfold as expected when Bryson DeChambeau took one of his trademark mighty swipes and barely made contact with the top of his golf ball, which nose-dived and skittered into a pond roughly 100 yards away.Next, on the same tee, was Lee Westwood, who was leading the tournament and predicted to duel DeChambeau, who was in second place after the first three rounds, throughout Sunday afternoon. Westwood hit a slice so crooked it would have warmed the heart of the everyday hacker. Westwood’s ball plunked into a different pond than DeChambeau’s, but the tone for the day was undeniably cast.Playing in the pairing ahead of DeChambeau and Westwood, Justin Thomas was not aware of the travails going on behind him. But he had a studied understanding.“I’ve watched this tournament for years,” Thomas said, “and I know lots of crazy things can happen.”Thomas began the last round three strokes behind Westwood but passed him, and DeChambeau, to take the tournament lead with an eagle on the 11th hole. From there, as his rivals wobbled, he was steady, especially when he birdied the 16th and made gritty pars on the two treacherous closing holes at the TPC-Sawgrass course.On a day of unforeseen ups and downs, Thomas’s consistency led to a one-stroke victory and another noteworthy title, his 14th on the PGA Tour. Thomas, 27, has also won a P.G.A. Championship and the 2017 FedEx Cup playoffs.“I was bold when I had to be — I took risks,” Thomas, who finished the tournament at 14-under par, said afterward. “But I was also patient when things didn’t go exactly as planned because you knew it was going to be that type of day.”The victory also was a respite in a stormy year for Thomas, the second ranked golfer in the world.In January, a television boom microphone caught him muttering a homophobic slur to himself after a short missed putt at the Sony Open. Thomas apologized immediately and has not shied from the consequences, which included a social media outcry and the loss of his clothing sponsor.In February, his 89-year-old paternal grandfather, Paul, a P.G.A. professional with whom Thomas talked daily, died. Later that month, Tiger Woods, who has become one of Thomas’s closest friends, was seriously injured in a car crash.Since the crash, Thomas has stayed in almost daily contact with Woods, including on Sunday when Woods wished Thomas luck before the final round. In his last four tournaments this year, Thomas had seemed distracted and turned in poor results, especially for a player of his recent pedigree.“It’s been a bad couple of months,” Thomas said after Sunday’s victory. He added: “I told my family I’m ready for something good to happen this year. I’d say this qualifies.”Thomas was in danger of missing the cut with nine holes remaining in his second round on Friday, but he rallied with four birdies on the back nine to earn a spot in the last two rounds. He began Sunday with seven consecutive pars on a warm but mostly windless day in northeast Florida. Though the conditions were benign, they still did not lead to many low scores on the devilish Pete Dye-designed layout. Thomas, whose closing 36-hole score of 12 under par was a tournament record, vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on the ninth, 10th and 12th holes — along with his eagle on the par-5 11th hole.Lee Westwood finished second for the second consecutive tournament.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesWith DeChambeau and Westwood, the top two finishers at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, trailing but not totally out of the picture, Thomas came to the par-5 16th hole needing a daring strike. For his second shot from the fairway, Thomas hit a gutsy 5-wood that curled onto the 16th green from 228 yards. It was Thomas’s first attempt at an eagle putt in his career on the golf course’s 16th hole, which he did not make from 46 feet. But he tapped the ball in for a crucial, timely birdie.“I was proud that I took some chances that paid off,” Thomas said.A second successive second-place finish did not leave Westwood, who will turn 48 in April, dejected. He appeared at a news conference with a wide smile.“I’m just having so much fun — everybody keeps telling me how old I am,” Westwood said, laughing. “I’m still out here contending for tournaments and playing in final groups with great players.”DeChambeau said he had never hit a shot in competition like his knuckling mis-hit off the tee on the fourth hole Sunday, but he was not overly dispirited either.“I don’t know what happened on four — that’s the game and I’m OK with it,” DeChambeau said. “Still smiling after. It just seemed like something wasn’t going my way today for some reason. I could just feel it. It was weird.”Thomas, despite the outcome, was not without at least one moment of fear that one of his shots might find a water hazard at an inopportune time. His drive off the 18th tee landed only a few feet from the large pond to the left of the fairway.“I thought it was 50-50 whether it was going to be dry or in the water,” Thomas said of the shot, which ricocheted to the right, away from the hazard, on its first bounce.He continued, “When you win tournaments, you get lucky breaks like that.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Bryson DeChambeau Keeps the Crowd Riveted at the Players Championship

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBryson DeChambeau Keeps the Crowd Riveted at the Players ChampionshipThe question of whether the big-hitting DeChambeau would pull out his driver seemed as compelling as the actual competition.Bryson DeChambeau played a shot from near the 12th hole back to the 14th as fans looked on at the Players Championship on Friday.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesMarch 12, 2021, 8:54 p.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Throughout the second round of the Players Championship on Friday, an entertaining crew of the world’s best golfers vied for the tournament lead. But for several hours, most fans were transfixed by a different matter: Whether Bryson DeChambeau would hit a prudent iron or take a mighty lash with his driver on hole after hole.In this recurring drama, it seemed as if most of the roughly 10,000 spectators permitted on the spacious grounds of the T.P.C. Sawgrass golf course were packed behind DeChambeau as he stood on a tee box and deliberated how to best attack a par-4 or par-5. The tension was palpable, and the fans hushed when DeChambeau moved toward his golf bag.As DeChambeau explained later, if he ultimately pulled an iron from the bag, the response was a crestfallen bellowing, as if the crowd had seen a child’s just-bought ice cream cone fall and splatter on the ground.“It’s always like a big ‘Awwww’ for an iron,” DeChambeau said after his round on Friday.And if he tugged his mammoth driver from the bag? Think climatic movie scene in which a hero finally vanquishes the villain.“If it’s the driver, it’s like, ‘Yeah!’ ” DeChambeau said with a hearty grin.It has come to this on the PGA Tour, and perhaps it is not a surprise. Winning golf is entertainment, but it’s no match for a dose of swashbuckling charisma mixed with the sight of a golf ball smashed as far as 380 yards.The DeChambeau era in men’s professional golf continues with resounding impact. After Friday’s round, Rory McIlroy, a four-time major championship winner who missed the cut, blamed trying to play too much like DeChambeau for his poor performance.While hitting towering drives, DeChambeau, the reigning United States Open champion, also shot a three-under-par 69 on Friday that put him at six under for the tournament and only three strokes behind the second-round leader, Lee Westwood. Play was suspended Friday evening because of darkness, with a small number of players unable to finish their second rounds.DeChambeau, who defeated Westwood in a final-round duel last weekend to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, is clearly buoyed by the fans’ attention. Their energy seems to inspire him, though he might not hit the driver as often as they would like on the tight T.P.C. Sawgrass layout. Between shots, he freely, and warmly, banters with the crowd.“They always ask how many protein shakes I’ve had, which is funny,” he said, “and I always reply back with however many I’ve had that day, for the most part.”Protein shakes are a staple of the diet that helped DeChambeau gain 40 pounds last year, although he has slimmed down by at least 15 now. As an explanation, DeChambeau said he had consumed only four shakes by Friday afternoon, or about half his intake four months ago.While DeChambeau hit several exceptional drives and approach shots on Friday, finishing with five birdies and a double-bogey, he was disappointed by his ball striking and headed to the practice range shortly after his round. He was still there pounding balls three hours later.Asked if he ever comes off the golf course satisfied and skips the post-round practice, DeChambeau, 27, blurted: “Never. Because my brain is — I mean, I’m a perfectionist, and I’ll continue to be so until the day I die and until the day I stop playing this game. That’s just the way I am. I love it about me.”He smiled and added, “But at the same time it makes me worry about stuff a lot.”DeChambeau at the ninth tee. He hit several exceptional drives Friday.Credit…Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThough DeChambeau once again cast a large shadow on a PGA Tour event, he was far from the only golfer making news.Viktor Hovland, the ascending 23-year-old who is ranked 13th in the world, missed the cut on Friday in part because his mother, who was watching the tournament at home in Norway, noticed a rules violation that he had committed in the first round and called it to his attention later. Her intervention led to a two-stroke penalty.Hovland finished Friday at two over for the tournament, or two strokes above the cut line. He received the penalty for inadvertently playing his ball from the wrong place on the 15th green in the first round on Thursday.As is custom, Hovland had moved his ball out of a competitor’s putting line. But then he failed to replace it in the proper spot, although he did not move it closer to the hole or gain any apparent advantage.According to the NBC broadcast of the Players Championship on Friday, Hovland received a call from his mother after the first round and then contacted PGA Tour officials, who reviewed video of the incident and verified Hovland’s mistake.“It’s unfortunate; I’ve already kind of put that past me,” Hovland said calmly after shooting 74 on Friday. “I’m just more disappointed that I wasn’t able to play better.”Hovland was not nearly as disconsolate as McIlroy, who shot 75 on Friday after a glaring 79 on Thursday. Like so many others at this year’s Players Championship, McIlroy had DeChambeau on his mind, and he believes trying to keep up with DeChambeau’s prodigious distance has led to his recent subpar play.Late last year, after DeChambeau’s U.S. Open victory, McIlroy, already one of the longest hitters on the tour, altered his swing in an attempt to add even more yardage to his drives.“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. “I think a lot of people saw that and were like, ‘Whoa, if this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps.’”McIlroy now considers that a mistake.“I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing,” he said. “And maybe — to the detriment a little bit of my swing — I got there. But I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Sergio García, Leading the Players Championship, Still Has Covid on His Mind

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesRisk Near YouVaccine RolloutGuidelines After VaccinationAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySergio García, Leading the Players Championship, Still Has Covid on His MindGarcía tested positive for the coronavirus just ahead of the Masters in November, and with a trip to Augusta National just weeks away, he is plotting ways to avoid the slight risk of reinfection.Sergio García had a two-shot lead over Brian Harman at the end of play on Thursday.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesMarch 11, 2021, 9:04 p.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — When Sergio García was asked on Thursday how he ended up leading the Players Championship with a first-round 65 while Rory McIlroy, who was part of the same threesome, shot a seven-over-par 79, García raised his right hand and held his thumb and index finger about a quarter-inch apart.“It’s the littlest things — tiny little things — that can make a round go from wrong to right,” García said. “It doesn’t take much.”Little things have been on García’s mind for a while, ever since a positive coronavirus test in early November forced him to withdraw from the Masters just days before the tournament, which in 2017 yielded his greatest triumph in the game.García said his Covid-19 symptoms were minor, although he believed that he infected his wife, Angela, who had a slightly worse reaction. He did not play again until mid-January, although part of that gap was a typical off-season layoff.García’s performances have been nondescript this year, and with the next Masters — back in its usual spot on the calendar — only weeks away, he is plotting a more cautious strategy to avoid reinfection with the virus, however slight that risk.Fans have returned to PGA Tour events, with as many as 10,000 welcome each day at the Players Championship this week, and García is happy for the energy the spectators bring. But he is wary, too.“You know that at any time you might get it from any one of them,” García, 41, said. “Not that they’re trying to give it to you or anything, but it might happen.”He added: “I would love to get closer to the fans, but there’s too much at risk for us. And if we get Covid, we pay the price. No one else does. So we have to be very careful as the fans come back into our game.”Rory McIlroy laughing with García during their opening round together.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesGarcía, who had a two-stroke lead over Brian Harman on Thursday when play was suspended because of darkness, also said he would skip the tour event the week before the Masters. Last year, he had played in the Houston Open, where he missed the cut and began to notice cold-like symptoms shortly thereafter.García’s view of the Masters, and his zeal to play in it, has changed considerably since the 2017 tournament, the only major victory of a luminous career that needed a signature moment. His success that year was, apparently, all about the little things.The Coronavirus Outbreak More