Notebook: Min Woo Lee's Expensive Learning Experience, Jordan Spieth Gets 'Sawgrassed'

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Min Woo Lee’s major learning experience arrived in final round of the Players Championship. While tied for the lead early in the round, Lee made some unforced errors that cost him a triple bogey, the lead and effectively any chance of winning.

“It happened really quick,” Lee said of his demise on the 4th hole that included a drive in the rough and then, after chipping out, spinning his third shot off the green into the water. “It's one of those things where it's Sunday and you just make a couple bad decisions and it all kind of falls down.”

Lee would fall down the leaderboard quickly and while he recorded four birdies, that triple bogey, a double bogey and three additional bogeys sprinkled throughout the round cost Lee not only a seven-figure paycheck (he earned $736,607), but potential Special Temporary Membership status, which would provide him with unlimited starts via sponsor’s exemptions.

Proud of how he hung in at the end, finishing T6 despite the 4th hole, Lee seemed to not have the same swing he started the round with.

“I didn't have it all today,” Lee said. “It's funny how yesterday I felt like I had the best swing in the world, and then today I just felt like nothing could go right.”

Jordan Spieth Gets 'Sawgrassed' in T22 Finish

Jordan Spieth doesn’t hate TPC Sawgrass, but it seems to detest him.

Playing in his ninth Players Championship, Spieth has one top 10—a T4 in his first appearance in 2014—and since has five missed cuts and finishes of T41 and T48.

A T22 after an even-par 72 in the final round for his second-best finish here should have put a smile on his face, but standing in front of the media and talking about the week, 11 shots behind Scottie Scheffler, his finish was bittersweet.

“Top 25 for me out here feels like a win anywhere else,” Spieth said. “So, I wanted to shoot—I knew going in it was going to be a tough day, and I had my goal on 3 under.”

Unlike any other venue, Spieth lets the Pete Dye creation get under his skin like no other course.

Spieth doesn’t play with the amount of discipline required, letting his aggressive nature and inability to accept sometimes not making birdie create unforced errors and too many mistakes on a course where you can't get away with loose shots.

“I thought I should have birdied 10 and 11 (he parred both), and so I get on 12, and instead of just bailing out right in the collection area and making birdie, I'm trying to hit a driver on the green and make the birdie easier, have a chance at eagle, and I hit one in the water,” Spieth said. “It's just like I just do that every single year here. I just don't have the discipline to accept ... like 11 I did everything right, there happened to not be any sand in the bunker I was in and sometimes that happens and so it bounced, and I end up making par where I think I make birdie so I'm thinking, 'man, I got to get that back.'”

The lack of bunker sand Spieth called is being "Sawgrassed."

“Actually, every round everyone gets Sawgrassed to an extent where something quirky happens, and if you have the patience or you're just playing as good as Scottie is, then it goes well,” Spieth said. “But my aggressive nature and inability to accept sometimes not making birdie when I thought I was going to makes me make too many mistakes on a course that you can't get away with it.”

Shane Lowry Leaving With Good Vibes

Shane Lowry came to TPC Sawgrass with excitement, maybe a little too much excitement, but can leave with a level of accomplishment.

With a final round 2-under-par 70, Lowry finished off a rollercoaster ride for four days at the Players that saw disappointment ebb to a solace that comes with fighting off a missed cut and slowly moving up the standings through the week.

“It's by far the worst score I could have shot today,” Lowry said. “That's disappointing because I felt like I could have shot ... the way I played, had a 5 or 6 or 7 under in me today, and that would have moved me nicely up the leaderboard, but I have to look at the positives, as well, and the way I drove the ball and hit the ball over the last three rounds is pretty nice.”

After shooting a 5-over-par 77 on Thursday, the Irishman was half looking at taking the quick trip back home, but where his driver acted poorly in the first round, the big stick and his putter warmed up in the second round with a 3-under 69 and he made the cut on the number.

“The last three days are as good of golf as I can play, and I need to find something on the greens over the next couple of weeks,” Lowry said of where his focus is coming into major season. “I hit the ball great.”

Now Lowry is off to Augusta National to get a feel for a changed Masters venue.

“I'm playing there the next two days,” Lowry said. “Hopefully then when it comes to it on the Thursday of the tournament, I'll be ready to go.”

Late Lament for Hideki Matsuyama

Making seven birdies over a 13-hole stretch, Hideki Matsuyama jumped from 5 under par at the beginning of the final round to 12 under after a sweeping left-to-right 15-footer for birdie fell into the bottom of the cup.

Firmly in the hunt and with leader Scottie Scheffler making a bogey on the 3rd hole, the 2021 Masters champion was feeling the adrenaline as he got to the 14th tee and striped his drive on one of the hardest holes on the course.

With 204 yards left, Matsuyama lost his ball right, over a cart path and on an area of grass that had been trampled down by spectators.

The third shot, a chip, was caught fat and the resulting double-bogey 6 ruined Matsuyama's chase.

“Second shot was tough because the wind was blowing from left to right and I wasn’t sure and the shot I played was not the wind direction I thought,” Matsuyama said.

On the chip shot, Matsuyama thought his lie was more hard-pan and not one that he could dig his club into the ground, which he did and went underneath the ball.

Sitting on 10 under, Matsuyama still had a chance if he could take advantage of the last par 5, the 16th, but again after a solid drive, Matsuyama stood over the second shot trying to decide if he should hit 4-iron or 5-wood. He failed to birdie.

“I couldn’t tell if the wind was with me or against and so the shot, I hit was a really good shot,” Matsuyama said. “The shot I hit was a really good shot I thought, but I misjudged the wind.”

He left lamenting the final five holes.

“Just didn’t have the finish I would have wanted,” he said.

Tidbits

> Tyrrell Hatton recorded seven birdies on the back nine to move from 5 under par to 12 under and finish runner-up to Scottie Scheffler. The second-place finish was worth $2.725 million, a cool $1 million more than his next best check on the PGA Tour, $1,674,000 for winning the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

> Tom Hoge (T3), who carded a 6-over 78 in the first round before setting the course record (62) in the third round, becomes the first player to record a first-round score of 78 or higher in a Tour event and go on to finish in the top five since José María Olazábal at the 2007 Players Championship (78, T3)

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