The Players Championship: K.J. Choi Wins Sudden Death After David Toms Bogey

As they come down the backstretch in the Players Championship, David Toms and K.J. Choi find themselves in familiar positions in the final round at TPC Sawgrass: the hunted and hunter.

Toms is still leading the tournament at 13-under, and has held at that score with seven consecutive pars after a bogey on the seventh hole dropped him to it. Toms has been a model of consistency throughout the Players Championship, making just four bogeys through 69 holes.

David Toms has finished the first hole of his final round back nine atop the 2011 Players Championship leaderboard, scoring 13-under for the tournament after a bogey on hole No. 8. Also through 10 holes, K.J. Choi resides in second place for the moment at 12-under.

A pair of surging players have cracked the top five: Charley Hoffman is at 10-under for the week after going 5-under Sunday, tying him with Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Nick Watney for fourth, while Paul Goydos has shot four birdies on his back nine to take third at 11-under.

Nick Watney’s red-hot Sunday start has cooled somewhat, while David Toms has matched his final round pace to move atop the 2011 Players Championship leaderboard. Through six holes, Toms had birdied every other cup to reach 14-under for the event.

Watney sits at 11-under and a stroke behind second-place Graeme McDowell, who’s par through six holes after chasing a birdie with a bogey.

After a rain-soaked Saturday pockmarked by a five-hour weather delay, the Players Championship is finally finished with its third round, which stretched into Sunday morning. And Graeme McDowell took advantage of the break to take the lead heading into Sunday afternoon’s fourth and final round.

McDowell shot a 4-under 68 in the third round to move to 12-under for the Players Championship, and holds a one-shot lead over K.J. Choi and David Toms.

It was a slow day in sports, partly thanks to a cold front that soaked the East Coast and caused weather delays at the Players Championship and other events. But that rain may have provided cover for a turtle to sneak onto the course at TPC Sawgrass and then dive back into the water.

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The skies have cleared at TPC Sawgrass, allowing Nick Watney and Graeme McDowell to surge up the leaderboard in the third round of the Players Championship.

Watney, who came into Saturday’s third round one shot back of leader David Toms, birdied his first two holes to move to 11-under for the tournament, then was joined at that mark by McDowell, who made birdie on three of his first five holes.

Finally, The Players Championship might be able to sneak some holes during what was supposed to be third round action at TPC Sawgrass on Saturday. According to the PGA Tour, play will restart at 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

That’s good news for all the players and the Tour itself, because the weather delay that had stopped play just before 1 p.m. and then consumed almost the entire afternoon was threatening to completely wreck the Players Championship schedule. Now, while there will almost certainly be golfers playing more than 18 holes on Sunday, it seems possible that final round action could be wrapped up tomorrow.

Play has now been suspended for well over an hour at TPC Sawgrass, and Players Championship officials have announced that fans’ Saturday tickets will be good for Sunday. However, they say in the same statement that they expect third-round play to resume Saturday.

The weather forecast in the Jacksonville is an uncertain one. Through 8 p.m. ET, thunderstorms are likely to be somewhere in the general area. Here is what The Weather Channel’s radar map looks like as of 4:30 p.m.:

All of a sudden, Peter Hanson is lighting up TPC Sawgrass. After experiencing some serious missteps in the first and second rounds, Hanson has sprung into a tie for 11th place on the Players Championship leaderboard.

As of this writing, Hanson is playing on the 14th hole; through the first 13, he’s 6-under. He birdied the third, fourth, and fifth holes, and has avoided making the mistakes that plagued him earlier in the tournament -- the end of Round 2, which he ended with a double bogey and a bogey, particularly hurt him.

On Saturday morning at TPC Sawgrass, the players at the top of the Players Championship leaderboard have yet to tee off. Angel Cabrera has cracked into the top 20, though, with a terrific start to his third round.

Cabrera, who is on the 11th hole at the moment, is 5-under for the day so far. His showing at the tournament has featured a couple of bright spots, including three consecutive birdies in the first round and an eagle in the second round, but bogeys kept him at par entering Saturday’s play.

David Toms completed his second round of The Players Championship hours ago. With the tournament leader in the clubhouse on Friday afternoon, Nick Watney and Lucas Glover find themselves within a stroke of Toms on the leaderboard.

Watney, who woke up Friday morning in first place, is currently on the 16th hole. He recovered from a pair of bogeys on the front nine with a pair of birdies on the 10th and 11th, and now stands at 9-under, one behind Toms’ 10-under. The 30-year-old Watney is looking for his fourth career PGA Tour win.

The 2011 Players Championship’s second round begins with Tiger Woods not teeing off at all, as he’s out for the rest of the TPC Sawgrass tournament due to injury. Are you just now joining us? His former pairing-mates Martin Kaymer and Matt Kuchar still have tee times, however, putting club to ball on the back nine at 1:18 pm ET. They and their caddies will hopefully arrange themselves in missing man formation in honor of Tiger.

Current leaderboard top dog Nick Watney, along with Rory Sabbatini and Jonathan Byrd, begin on the front nine 10 minutes later. At the same time on hole No. 1, second-place player Lucas Glover’s group, which includes Ernie Els and Paul Casey, sets up shop.

Round one of the 2011 Players Championship is in the books, with Nick Watney hanging on to his first-place score. Turning in an 8-under performance on the TPC Sawgrass course despite a double bogey on hole No. 14 is quite a feat, though it will of course be overshadowed by Tiger Woods’ surprising exit from the field.

Lucas Glover holds sole possession of second place at 7-under, having secured an eagle on hole No. 9. He’s followed by Mark O’Meara and David Toms at 6-under each, with a herd including Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell tied at 5-under.

Nick Watney holds the 2011 Players Championship lead at the end of his first round, scoring 8-under to finish a single stroke ahead of Lucas Glover on the leaderboard. Martin Kaymer, who was abandoned by pairing-mate Tiger Woods after the front nine (so sad!), coming in at a crowded third-place tie with 5-under.

Also knotted up with Kaymer are Rory Sabbatini and Fredrik Jacobson, both of whom are finished for the day, along with Mark O’Meara, who has a hole left. Davis Love III and Ben Crane are the 4-under scorers who’ve entered the clubhouse, with the still-active David Toms, Graeme McDowell and Steve Stricker also along.

It’s going to be hard for any players to take the lead at The Players Championship from Nick Watney, who played TPC Sawgrass beautifully for a first-round 64. But Graeme McDowell is on pace to at least give it a go.

McDowell, who started on the back nine, is 4-under through seven holes, including an eagle on the par-5 16th, and could very well make a run at Watney if he can handle the course’s front nine like Watney did, rolling in five birdies and an eagle to only one bogey. Like McDowell, Watney began his first round on the back nine.

On Thursday afternoon at TPC Sawgrass, Nick Watney started and finished strong to end his first round of the Players Championship with the clubhouse lead. His closest competition on the leaderboard at this point is Lucas Glover, who is currently a stroke behind and on his final hole.

Watney, who started on the back nine, stormed out of the gate Thursday morning with birdies on each of his first three holes. After stumbling on the 14th and chalking up a double-bogey, Watney moved to the back nine and scored an eagle on the second hole. He then birded three of his final four holes to stand at 8-under for the tournament.

Tiger Woods has announced his withdrawal from the Players Championship for the second consecutive year. Given that he had been battling a nagging knee injury, as well as an ailing Achilles tendon, the move doesn’t come as a major surprise. From the PGA Tour website:

We don’t yet have confirmation that these injuries are the reasons for Woods’ withdrawal. Given that Woods, a noted golf enthusiast, skipped the Wells Fargo event with these injuries, however, it’s probably a safe bet. Woods was seen limping in the locker room after leaving the course.

On Thursday morning at TPC Sawgrass, the early Players Championship contenders are making the turn to the back nine. There is a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard, with Jason Dufner, Brian Davis, and Y.E. Yang sitting at 4-under through 10 holes. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is doing his best to stabilize himself after a wretched start.

Dufner and Davis both started on the front nine, and both have played bogey-free golf thus far. Dufner is still looking for his first-ever PGA Tour win after losing the 2011 Waste Management Open in a playoff to Mark Wilson. Davis, from England, also has no PGA Tour wins to his name, though he has won a pair of events on the European Tour.

Woods required seven shots to conquer the par 4 fourth hole, scoring a triple-bogey, putting him at 4-over. He then followed that up with a bogey on the fifth. So, that’s 5-over par through five holes. So yeah, pretty much the worst start imaginable.

But there are golfers not playing horribly in the first round. Brian Davis is atop the leaderboard, with four birdies on his front 9. Right behind him are Jason Dufner, Lucas Glover and Nick Watney, all off to strong starts.