Rain Dominates Players: Friday’s Pretty Much A Wash-Out

Friday at The Players got off to a rainy start as players slogged their way across the Stadium Course.

By 11:15 a.m., the course was getting unplayable and the horn sounds — leaving 47 players who still hadn’t finished their first round.

The rains kept coming and by 3 p.m. — it was declared a wash-out.

Problem now is that more severe weather is coming into the Ponte Vedra area on Saturday morning.

It’s looking more and more like a Monday finish is in the works.

No change at the top, Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge managed to finish on Thursday.  Bruce Garnett has it to six-under par thru 13 holes.

Dustin Johnson was four-under through 16 holes, Scottie Sheffler was four-under through 15.

Players Championship Scoreboard:

Kramer Hickok Chokes On Previous Saudi League Comments:

Back in February, it seemed that Kramer Hickok went all Tim Rosaforte and tried to become the Tour’s next “Insider” when he claimed he knew 17 Tour players who had signed up for the Saudi Golf League.

Here’s what he said on a February podcast:

“You’re going to see a lot of big names jump over there. I think there’s already been 17 guys that have jumped over, and I can’t say who they are, but there’s going to be some big names going over there.  Look, I mean, from what I’ve heard the money’s very, very appealing. You’re only gonna have 12-14 events. Those events are gonna have purses. You’re not going to have to deal with missing a cut anymore; there’s only going to be 40 players. And 10 of those 14 events will be in the States. Signing bonuses, huge, huge purses – it’s going to be very appealing for some of these guys. Yeah you’ll see some big names for sure.”

Notice that “for sure” part of young Kramer’s quote.

Well, with more than the usual amount of media on hand at The Players and with young Kramer shooting 67 on Thursday, it seemed a good moment for the media guys to pounce on Hickok and see if, indeed, he really knew anything or perhaps he was just blowing hot air.

Seems he was blowing hot air because he did some serious back-tracking and tap-dancing when asked about those “17 guys.”

“It was a weird situation,” he responded.  “It was probably something I shouldn’t have said because it didn’t concern me, and so I’ve tried to stay out of it recently. You know, news spreads like wildfire, especially surrounding that Tour.  I have no idea. I’m not going to comment on it.”

It’s obvious that young Kramer was indeed full of hot air.  Besides, he’s just an outlier on Tour.  He’s ranked 143rd in the World Rankings and it’s probably safe to say that Kramer’s not hanging out with the guys who the Saudis were courting.