Players Championship 2015: Tee times, pairings for Friday’s round at TPC Sawgrass

Tiger Woods won’t have much time to recover from his disappointing double-bogey finish in the opening round of The Players Championship. The two-time winner at TPC Sawgrass will be right back on the Stadium Course Friday morning for his next 18 holes.

Woods is currently tied for 77th place and a number comparable to his opening round 1-over 73 will leave him hovering around the cut line and sweating it out late in the day on Friday while watching the second wave from his couch. Tiger’s first round was shaky throughout. There were the errant tee balls, most missed left, and then one awful 4-iron that came up some 35 yards short and in the water at the par-3 8th. But as we’ve come to expect from Tiger, he scrambled around, made a few putts, hit his irons well enough, and stayed close to even-par. The double bogey at the 18th cost him, and despite mediocre form, he said after the round that the 73 was the worst score he could have posted given how he played (OK?).

Now Tiger turns right back around and will play at 8:39 a.m. ET with Adam Scott and Martin Kaymer. The conditions changed a bit on Thursday as the round progressed. The wind picked up in the afternoon. The pros generally prefer the morning wave and think scoring conditions are easier -- the greens are fresh with less spike and ball marks, and the wind is often more still. Woods should have a scoring opportunity in front of him and if he’s so convinced that opening round should have been a number in the 60s, maybe he can come back Friday and post a low number with slightly improved form. That would definitely put a charge in the grounds before half the field even gets to the 1st tee.

The afternoon wave will be anchored by the marquee group of the entire tournament. Jordan Spieth matched his worst round of the year on Thursday, so the Rory McIlroy-Spieth hype fizzled a bit. But it’s still the tastiest group on the tee sheet and it’s unlikely Spieth will get worse on Friday. A mix of bad breaks and an awful tee-to-green game left him flailing just to post a 3-over 75. McIlroy had no such trouble, maneuvering through the dangers of this Pete Dye layout with just one bogey on his scorecard. Can Spieth make a run at Rory? This pairing, which tees off at 1:49 p.m. ET, will dominate the afternoon Golf Channel telecast.

There’s minimal chance of rain in the forecast on Friday so there should be no real issue getting the full field through 36 holes and making the cut on time. Like the U.S. Open or PGA Championship, that can be an problem with 144 guys in the field. The schedule basically calls for sun-up to sun-down golf in Ponte Vedra. Here’s the full tee sheet for Friday’s second round:

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