Jeff Plotts is getting the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass ready for the best players in the world for the 10th time at The Players Championship.
It’s hard work as he and a staff that will swell to nearly 200 next week often get to the course around 4 a.m. and leave as late as 18 hours later.
But Plotts not only takes pride in giving the PGA Tour’s deepest field of the year a manicured, emerald-colored playing surface but understands that players of that caliber will sometimes lay waste to the course with birdies, eagles and low scores.
That happened last year when Scottie Scheffler won at 20-under-par 268, matching the second-lowest 72-hole score in tournament history, and the final-round scoring average was the third-lowest in Stadium Course history. The tournament was played in near-perfect weather conditions, the only thing Plotts and PGA Tour rules officials who set up the course can’t control.
“I actually take pride in it,” Plotts said of providing a perfectly manicured golf course that could play soft due to weather conditions.
He tells the story of Phil Mickelson coming down to the 18th hole during the first round of the 2013 WM Phoenix with a chance to shoot 59.
“I was doing a radio interview and he asked me if I was going to be upset if Phil shot 59 on my course,” Plotts said. “Heck no. I’m a golf fan. I want to see him shoot 59. The problem is, can you do it two days in a row?”
Mickelson shot 60 that day, then went 65-64-67 and won by four shots.
Jeff Plotts makes a bowling analogy to golf
Plotts said to picture world-class bowlers.
“People go out and bowl 300s and we don’t change the lanes to be all crooked or more narrow or make the gutters bigger,” Plotts said. “It’s just that you bowled a perfect game. Now go bowl a perfect game again. That’s kind of the way I feel with these guys coming out and playing. Mother Nature is the one thing that has all the control. These guys are the best players in the world and they’re going to shoot low scores if you have benign conditions.”
That’s what the field may face at The Players. After rain on Sunday and Monday, weather for the tournament rounds is predicted to be sunny to partly cloudy and temperatures in the low-70s. There’s a chance of rain for Sunday’s final round.
Plotts has done what he can to get the rye grass fairways and greens in pristine shape, given a colder than usual winter. The rough will be about 4 inches and while Plotts said only that the greens will be at “tournament speed,” that generally means about 12-13 in the Stimpmeter.
“We’re in a position to be really firm if we don’t catch [rain],” he said. “If we get around 2 inches of rain before the tournament like we did last year, the greens will be soft all week. Give them no wind and soft greens and these guys are drooling when they see a pin. They’ll go right at it.”
But who knows?
“The most predictable thing about Northeast Florida weather in March is that it’s unpredictable,” he said.
Plotts said the winter of 2025 was challenging
Plotts estimated that the area of the golf course touched freezing temperatures around a dozen nights during the winter, with eight mornings of frost.
“Probably one of the coldest winters that I’ve experienced,” said Plotts, who previously worked at the TPC Scottsdale.
But overseeded rye grass, which has traditionally been used for Players Championships in March during both eras (1982-2006 and 2019 to the present) holds up well to cold weather.
Plotts said unless the weather forecast changes or the wind is up, players will be in attack mode again.
But the Stadium Course certainly is a dazzling shade of green.
“We have certainly had our hands full with this winter,” Plotts said. “But the grass has responded well and the golf course is shaping up.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Field at Players Championship will find Stadium Course pristine as usual
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