TPC Sawgrass for The Players 2024: Easier now than before?

TPC Sawgrass is currently hosting the 2024 edition of The Players Championship. Several low scores have been reported, including a 14 under from Wyndham Clark for 36 holes. Clark leads the tournament, although at the time of writing the second round is still on.

However, rumors are circulating already  on social media that the TPC Sawgrass is turning out to be an “easier” course than in previous editions. There is no shortage of conspiracy theories that the PGA Tour has “rigged” the course to allow a golfer to break the tournament record (24 under) held by “public enemy number one” Greg Norman.

What is true in here? Obviously, we cannot know what happened within the PGA Tour board, much less the preparation work at TPC Sawgrass to receive The Players Championship. What we can do is take a look at history and see if what is being done on the course is very different from what happened in previous years.

We take as reference the last five editions of The Players Championship (2018-2023, remember that 2020 was suspended). The data we offer is the leading score of the tournament and the number of players with a score of even par or better after 36 holes. A breakthrough: Wyndham Clark’s 14 under par is not even the best score of the selected period:

2023

• Leading score after 36 holes: 9 under
• Players with score of par or better: 49

2022

• Leading score after 36 holes: 7 under
• Players with score of par or better: 60

2021

• Leading score after 36 holes: 9 under
• Players with score of par or better: 71

2019

• Leading score after 36 holes: 12 under
• Players with score of par or better: 81

2018

• Leading score after 36 holes: 15 under
• Players with score of par or better: 87

TPC Sawgrass: Easier in 2024?

Without a doubt, Wyndham Clark went really low in the first two rounds of The Players Championship. Clark shot the lowest 36-hole score of his career and the second-best two-rounds score at TPC Sawgrass. But it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. In fact, 15-under 129 has been achieved not once but twice in the past eight years (Webb Simpson, 2018 – Jason Day, 2016).

At the time of writing, 83 players have shot even par or better. As can be seen from the data provided, this is not an unknown amount of players with that score after 36 holes during the last five editions.

The conclusion is that the TPC Sawgrass (one of the most prestigious courses in America and in the world, by the way) is reporting quite low scores, but not out of proportion to its own history.

Personally, I’ll leave the conspiracy theories to others and will continue to enjoy The Players Championship.