Players Championship 2025: Heavy winds, possible thunderstorms will present playing challenges at TPC Sawgrass

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Justin Thomas, who charged on Friday in the Players Championship with a record-tying 62, spoke a lot after the second round about his attitude and focus. On Saturday, that will be heavily put to the test as the wind howls at TPC Sawgrass.

The players woke up to the tops of palm trees waving heavily, and from the first tee time to the last, set for 2:35 p.m EDT, in front of a sold-out crowd, the wind is supposed to sustain itself at 20 mph, with gusts much stronger. On one of the tour’s tightest tracks, with water seemingly everywhere, the battle is certainly going to be engaged as much between the ears as it is with swings of the club.

“I got to excited early in the week when I saw [the forecast] because I love playing in those conditions. I just think you've got to be creative, and it's just tough,” said Thomas, who after shooting 78-62 in the first two rounds will go into the third standing in a tie for 31st, seven shots off the 11-under lead of Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia.

Numerous players were asked on Friday evening how the wind will affect their play, and among the prominent themes were creativity and mental toughness. A sampling of what they said:

Rickie Fowler (T-17): “I'm looking forward to it. I love playing in the wind. I feel like it's, obviously, you can't fake it, and definitely around this place without wind you can't fake it either. So it should be interesting.

“It will be a big test on just controlling the golf ball as well as emotions, because you're not going to go play perfect golf around this place in 30-mile-per-hour wind. There's going to be a couple interesting shots or potential lies and stuff like that.”

Rory McIlroy (T-4): “I think it's going to be really important to try to flight your ball and keep it under the tree line. I think once it gets above the tree line here it can start to really get hit by it. And it does swirl a little bit, but I think when the wind is so strong, it will be a little more consistent. But, yeah, this course is challenging enough, but with a wind like that, yeah, I'm excited for that challenge.”

What excites him?

“Just trying to control my ball flight, trying to hit different shots, trying to play with some creativity is something that I think I've gotten a lot better at over the last few years,” McIlroy said.

Scottie Scheffler (T-17): “It will be very challenging. The wind moves around a good amount out here. If you go to like a course like where the Open Championships usually are, you could play the ball on the ground. Around this place you can't really. The fairways are fairly soft. You got to get the ball airborne, and so got to make sure you're controlling your spin, hitting it really solid. At times it can feel like you're guessing a little bit on the wind, and you hopefully guess right more often than you're wrong.”

Billy Horschel (T-11): “The wind we're expecting the next two days is going to be one helluva challenge, and yeah, you always want it to be tough, but when you start getting wind conditions like that, quality golf shots don't always turn out well. It's one of those days of acceptance and understanding that you're going to hit some good shots that turn out well and some bad shots that turn out in some really bad spots.”

Unfortunately for the tournament, the forecast for Sunday is a bit ominous. Strong winds are again expected, but more concerning is the potential for scattered thunderstorms at about the time the leaders tee off.

Will they move up the tee times? We shall see.