Players Championship Betting – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson Lurking

The Players Championship at Sawgrass in Ponta Vedra, FL started on Thursday afternoon, and plenty of questions surround the event.

The most notable is how Tiger Woods will do following his missing the cut with two brutal rounds of golf at the Quail Hollow Championship in his most recent appearance. Tiger’s most recent round of golf before coming to the TPC at Sawgrass was that woeful 79 at Quail Hollow in Round 2. Many felt as though Woods, who was only playing in his second event since returning to the course from his domestic disputes, was rusty and/or showing signs of decay in his game. However, no such rust was evident in the 2001 TPC champ in Round 1 on Thursday, as he shot two under par to finish the day four shots off of the pace.

That pace has been set by relative unknown J.B. Holmes and Robert Allenby, both of which fired -6 66s on the day. Holmes has only won on one golf course in his career on the PGA Tour, with that coming at the FBR Open. It’s a tournament that he has won twice, once in 2006 and once in 2008. Allenby, a veteran on the tour, hasn’t won an event since the 2001 Marconi Pennsylvania Classic. He has four career tour titles.

Eight golfers, including Kenny Perry, are tied at -5 for third place. There were 103 golfers that shot par or better on a day in which scores were very low at the TPC.

Phil Mickelson has an opportunity to become the #1 ranked golfer in the world if he can win this event, and he has gotten off to a great start as well, shooting a two under par to be tied with Tiger and a host of others in 37th position.

Last year’s champion of this event, Henrik Stenson shot a -3 69 to finish Round 1 in a great position just three shots off of the pace. There aren’t many multiple time winners at the TPC, as there are only five golfers that have ever pulled off the feat. Jack Nicklaus is the only man that has won three tournaments here at the TPC, while Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Davis Love III, and Hal Sutton are the others. Love shot -3 today and is the only multiple time winner that is playing in this event.

There are quite a few golfers that can join this elite list of multiple time winners at Sawgrass, including both Mickelson and Woods. 2006 champion Sergio Garcia went -3 on the day, while ’06 winner Stephen Ames is at -2 through 18 holes.

No matter who you plan on backing for your PGA Tour betting action at the TPC at Sawgrass, keep it locked to JustBet Sportsbook for all of the overnight lines prior to each day’s festivities.