PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It seems that Si Woo Kim might not be ready to relinquish the trophy at The Players Championship.
TPC Sawgrass has been notoriously difficult on defending champs, never yielding a back-to-back winner. Since the tournament moved to the Stadium Course in 1982, only one other PGA Tour event (Fort Worth Invitational) hasn’t featured a back-to-back winner, and since this tournament moved to May in 2007 only once has the defending champ even cracked the top 25.
But one year after cruising to a three-shot win over Ian Poulter, Kim started his bid to reverse those trends with a 5-under 67 that left him one shot off the early lead.