So Far, The Players Is Delivering on Its Major Promises

PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — I’m flying back home to Boston early tomorrow morning, and I genuinely wish I wasn't. Not that I love me some Florida (in moderation, it’s fantastic), but the golf has been so good in Ponte Vedra I a few more days.

Ludvig Aberg played out of his mind on Friday, perfectly encapsulated by his 316-yard draw down the par-4 18th to close out his day. That takes some big you-know-whats with danger lurking down the entire left side of the hole. The best part? He made three.

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The Swede made three birdies and two eagles on the front nine to go out in 29. There were fewer fireworks on his way back to the clubhouse, but a birdie on 16 and the aforementioned one on the closer solidified a back-nine 34 to post a 9-under 63. He leads Xander Schauffele by a couple with 36 holes to go.

Speaking of Schauffele, he didn’t miss a fairway around TPC Sawgrass on Friday. Not a single one. Thanks to that, he was able to play most aggressively. That resulted in a 7-under 65 for the two-time major champion. Schauffele has finished T-2 at The PLAYERS twice throughout his career, most recently in 2024 behind Scottie Scheffler.

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The story of the week so far though? Has to be Justin Thomas. The man who shot 14 over across 36 holes at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational has fired rounds of 68-68 to hold a share of fourth heading into Moving Day.

It’s shots like this one that have allowed him to make some noise, one week removed from one of the worst starts of his career.

Coming into the week, most of the attention was on Rory McIlroy and his ailing back. The rust has been apparent, but the defending champion did just enough to make it to the weekend. “It would have sucked to be going home this afternoon,” McIlroy said after his round.

Staying near the bottom of the leaderboard for a moment, it looked like Scheffler could miss the cut after a short miss on the par-5 16th with the Island Green lurking. But in true Scottie fashion, he gutted out a par at 17 and a birdie at the last to finish up at 1 over. He has plenty to clean up—he’s hitting it all over the planet—but for the vibes, it’ll be nice to have him and McIlroy on ESPN+’s early coverage in the morning.

Before signing off from Northern Florida, I just want to say: if you’ve never been to THE PLAYERS, put it on the bucket list. I had high expectations going in, and this place blew them out of the water. I can’t say enough good things about it.

For all the discourse earlier in the week, it really is a major-like experience

The quality of names littered through the top of the leaderboard is outrageously good—Aberg, Schauffele, Cameron Young, Thomas, Sepp Straka, Maverick McNealy, Tommy Fleetwood, Brian Harman, Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley, and Matt Fitzparick are all inside the top 10. The top 10!

Widen the scope to the top 30, and you’re talking Justin Rose, Jason Day, Sahith Theegala, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Akshay Bhatia, and Brooks Koepka.

The sheer amount of stars who could make a run and scare the Swede isn’t something you see too often.

And the golf course? Well there isn’t a blade of grass out of place. The rain is finally gone and the firm conditions should return for the final two rounds.

Thick rough, firm greens, and stars everywhere? That’s major stuff right there. And if you need any more proof how much this tournament means to the players out here, McIlroy and Keegan Bradley were just a few of the guys who were pumped just to make the cut.

Majors matter to everyone in the sport more than regular TOUR stops. The same can (and should) be said for THE PLAYERS—it still shouldn't be the fifth one, though.