The Players Championship Recap: Four-Year Dry Spell Ends for Simpson

By the end of The Players Championship, 15 guys were bunched within three shots in one of the tightest leaderboards we'll ever see. It could've been an amazing Sunday of golf viewing and a fantastic finish to one of the marquee events on the PGA Tour calendar. Except that those 15 guys spent much of the tournament playing for second place.

As one of the members of the RotoWire Auction League explained, "Webb Simpson, bless his heart, ruined a hell of a golf tournament."

Simpson began the final round with a whopping seven-stroke lead, and that margin never got smaller than four as he capped off a record-setting runaway against the best field in golf. The lead was six coming to 18, and an inconsequential double-bogey left Simpson with a four-stroke win over Charl Schwartzel, Jimmy Walker and Xander Schauffele.

There was a glimmer of drama midway through the afternoon at TPC Sawgrass, as Simpson bogeyed Nos. 8 and 10, while Tiger Woods birdied six of his first 12 holes to climb within four. But a Simpson birdie followed quickly by a Woods bogey ended the competitive portion of the tournament, at least as far as the title was concerned.

Simpson's story is one of redemption. The 2012 U.S. Open champion and former top-five in the world rankings hadn't won in four years, as the anchored-putting ban sent his career into a tailspin. Simpson had used a belly putter since his college days at Wake Forest, but when the ban was implemented in 2016, the better-than-average putter became a disaster on the greens. He's worked hard at improving for more than two years and now, amazingly, is ranked in fifth on Tour in strokes gained: putting. Simpson finished first in the Players field in SG putting.

Outside of the return of Woods, Simpson's putting revival is perhaps the most stunning turnaround on Tour this season.

Three years ago, Simpson switched to a shorter putter to prepare for the impending ban. He ranked 174th in SG putting. Two years ago, 177th. Last year, 88th – real improvement. And now? Off-the-charts remarkable.

All the while, Simpson's overall game stayed afloat because of his stout tee-to-green game. It allowed for quite a few high finishes. But without being able to putt, Simpson wasn't able to close; for example, he lost to Hideki Matsuyama, no putting star himself, in a playoff at Phoenix in 2017. Simpson had last won in 2014, and even then it was the a fall series event (the Shriners).

Now, the golfer who was ranked fifth in the world after winning the U.S. Open in 2012 and then fell as low as 90th, is back to No. 20. Simpson has his sights set on numerous lofty achievements, none bigger than returning to the Ryder Cup this fall.

Simpson already had amassed four top-10s and eight top-25s before arriving last week at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. There's no reason one of the strongest tee-to-green players can't continue to perform at a high level, or even at a higher level, now that he has reinvented himself as a quality putter.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Justin Thomas
Thomas didn't win the tournament, but he ended up with a pretty nice consolation prize. Thomas became the 21st golfer to ascend to the No. 1 ranking in the world, using a tie for 11th to overtake Dustin Johnson for the top spot. For the better part of a year, Thomas has been the best golfer in the world in all eyes but the computer's. As good as Thomas has been – and we expect him to win one or two more times the rest of the season, perhaps even another major – the top four golfers are so bunched that the No. 1 ranking could change hands a few times over the next few months.

Dustin Johnson
Johnson knew his standing was in precarious position and he had said it meant a great deal to him. Yet he came out on Sunday and shot even-par 72, one of only three golfers in the top-40 on the leaderboard who didn't break par. Thus ends a run of 64 weeks in the top spot. It's not that Johnson has been bad this season – he's finished top-25 in all eight of his stroke-play starts – but clearly something has been off in his normally otherworldly game. If Johnson figures it out, he could be back at No. 1 in no time. Otherwise, he could fall to third or even fourth in short order.

Tiger Woods
It's hard to add to what everybody saw on Saturday and Sunday: Woods looked great, maybe the best consecutive rounds he's put together since his return. And don't forget that while Woods is a two-time champion at The Players, TPC Sawgrass is also a course at which he's had his share of struggles. We'll likely see Woods next at the Memorial, and his DFS price will be high. But he's going to win sooner rather than later, right?

Jason Day
Day tied for fifth a week after winning the Wells Fargo. So in one sense, the former world No. 1 is clearly back on the rise. On the other hand, Day grabbed his shoulder after an approach shot on the back nine on Sunday. Afterward, he said he didn't know whether his long-term back issues led to shoulder problems, but he disclosed that he does shoulder exercises twice a day. And that, in a nutshell, is Day. Whenever you back him, you'll always have to wonder when his next injury will torpedo your lineup.

Brooks Koepka
After missing almost four months with a wrist injury, Koepka has improved in each of the three tournaments he's played. The defending U.S Open champion tied the TPC Sawgrass course record with a 9-under 63 on Sunday, zooming up the leaderboard to tie for 11th. Koepka was only $7,700 in DraftKings and, while his price will now go up, you still might find some bargains in his next few outings.

Adam Scott
Scott was in a bad place, with only two top-25s since October and ranked 193rd in strokes gained: putting. So at The Players he made the drastic step of returning to his long putter, while also going back to an old driver. He should've made those changes sooner. Scott tied for 11th, finishing 28th in the field in strokes gained: putting. He's in the field this week at the Byron Nelson. Scott's price is likely to be on the high side because the field is so weak, but it might be a bargain if he plays like he did at The Players.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat
We might be seeing more of the "Barn Rat." Aphibarnrat tied for 30th at The Players, earning enough FedEx Cup points to gain special temporary membership. Whether he plays more on Tour than usual, we'll see. But if he does, Aphibarnrat is likely to do so with very favorable DFS prices, especially for someone ranked No. 31 in the world.

Charl Schwartzel
Schwartzel was a mess. He didn't have a top-25 all season and then the former Masters champion trunk-slammed at Augusta. For good measure, he missed the cut the next week at Hilton Head. But then, he teamed with Louis Oosthuizen to tie for third at the Zurich Classic. We normally wouldn't put too much into that, but the South African followed up that with a tie for ninth at the Wells Fargo and now, a tie for second at The Players. Was Schwartzel a former elite golfer who was no longer elite, or one who was just in a slump? Probably somewhere in between, but we'll lean toward the latter and can envision more good showings in the weeks ahead.

Danny Lee
As if we needed any more examples of the capricious nature of golf, how hard it is to handicap, we present to you Danny Lee. He had missed the cut or withdrawn from half of his 18 starts, and he hadn't had so much as a top-50 in six months. Yet he played his way into the final group on Sunday alongside Simpson. Lee managed only to shoot par to fall into a tie for seventh. While he looked outstanding for much of the week, it would not surprise us to see Lee disappear again for months. That's golf.

Phil Mickelson
Oh, Phil. Oh, Phil's shirt. Mickelson was a dud in his big showdown with Woods, shooting 79-73 to miss the cut by a wide margin -- and look ridiculous in doing so. He wore a long-sleeve dress shirt, part of a new sponsorship deal, and we'll see how long that lasts. If Mickelson continues to play like he did on Thursday and Friday, the sponsor will be begging him to, um, take the shirt off his back. And then Phil will have to roll up his sleeves and get back to work. Okay, we'll stop now.