The Players Championship 2015: Leaderboard, live updates, scores from Thursday at TPC Sawgrass

At the start of the opening round on Thursday at The Players Championship, all the hype focused on the return of Tiger Woods and the power pairing of Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. Those three big names, especially the two young guns at 1-2 in the world rankings, correctly made this one of the more anticipated Players. But by Thursday night, it was only world No. 1 Rory anywhere near the top of the leaderboard.

They’re all chasing Hideki Matsuyama, David Hearn, Kevin Na and Charley Hoffman, who posted 5-under rounds of 67. While Spieth and Rory get all the pub, Matsuyama is another young player that could pile up PGA Tour wins for the next couple decades. The 23-year-old phenom from Japan is probably a better ball striker than both McIlroy and Spieth, and has been on the first page of the leaderboard at majors several times in his early 20s.

Head down, slumped shoulders and air-swinging his 9-iron as he followed a flailed tee shot, Tiger Woods’ walk down the 13th fairway pretty much summed up the opening round 73 he carded Thursday at The Players Championship.

“I believe that picture right there speaks for itself,” former Woods rival David Duval said during Golf Channel’s broadcast from TPC Sawgrass.

Tiger Woods has had the kind of up-and-down round we’ve come to expect from the 14-time major winner. There have been awful tee shots, poor putts, and shaky irons. But despite all that, he’s still posting a score with an array of amazing recoveries, par saves, and a couple huge birdie putts right when it looks like the wheels are coming off.

The famous island 17th hole was the epitome of the tightrope act that is a place where it seems every Tiger round exists these days. Woods barely -- by a yard -- landed on the island, but still couldn’t use a putter thanks to his ball nestling right up against the collar.

Just when it looked as if the “fresh” swing changes Tiger Woods made in his eight-week layoff since the Masters were taking hold in Thursday’s opening round of The Players Championship, he goes and flat out fans a 4-iron into the water off the tee on the par-3 eighth.

We mean, a serious near-whiff from the two-time Players winner, who missed the green on the 210-yard hole by a mile. He was one of a very few to find that particular hazard.

One of Bubba Watson’s closer friends on the PGA Tour is Chesson Hadley. The two often play practice rounds together and they did so this week at The Players Championship.

But when Bubba, and many of these pros, go to sign autographs, they’re not exactly focused on making eye contact and having human interaction. So Bubba obliviously rifled through the autograph line, head down signing as much as he could without even noticing his millionaire friend and the pro he played a practice round with laughing at him.

Rory McIlroy was quick to dismiss a potential rivalry with Jordan Spieth that everyone in the golf world is pumping up this week.

The world No. 1, when asked during Wednesday’s pre-Players Championship press conference what part of Masters champ Jordan Spieth’s game he would most like to have, spoke glowingly about the third member of Thursday and Friday’s marquee grouping.