| Dated:March 11-14 Location: Parcours Stadium, Sawgrass, Florida |
| Blanket: BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra commentary – Saturday: 9:00 p.m. GMT and Sunday: 8:00 p.m. Live text commentary from the last two rounds on the BBC Sport website from 7:00 p.m., with in-game highlights |
The PGA Tour introduced an internal offside at Sawgrass to ensure Bryson DeChambeau doesn’t take an unusual route to the 18th green at this week’s Players Championship.
The US Open champion considered hitting his tee shot left of the water and on the ninth fairway, rather than following the natural path of the hole.
The PGA Tour said the decision was made for the “safety” of spectators.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is the reigning champion.
McIlroy won the event in 2019 and last year’s tournament was put on hold after the first round due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 18th par four on the Stadium Course is a 460 yard hole that has water between the tee and the green to the left of the fairway.
Ahead of the PGA Tour announcement, DeChambeau, 27, said of his approach to aiming for the ninth fairway from the 18th tee: “I’ll probably try, but it probably won’t happen.
“If there are pits there, there really is no point in going there, as I could drive it 100 yards from the green if I have a good wind.”
The American won his eighth PGA Tour event last week, preventing England’s Lee Westwood from claiming the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Bay Hill, Florida all at once.
However, he said he was not happy with the way he played from tee to green, rating his overall play as a “C”.
“From my perspective, I just didn’t feel like I had it all,” said the world number six.
“My driving was not very pleasant. My putting was obviously ‘A’, I would give it an ‘A’, but my iron set just wasn’t where I wanted it to be.
“I’m not in any way trying to provoke anything by this, other than to say that I wasn’t doing my best – as I wanted to, last week.”
“I think I didn’t really win with everything shooting all cylinders, but then again you have to be lucky. For example, with putts of 40, 50 feet, it’s a bit lucky.
“You have to be lucky to win tournaments, and that’s what happened last week, and I hope that can continue and that we can continue to learn more with the iron game, the driving and chocking. “
DeChambeau will play with world number one Dustin Johnson, Masters champion and US PGA champion Collin Morikawa in the first two rounds at Sawgrass.
