The Players Championship has turned into a dramatic affair as play is in the final day on Sunday from TPC Sawgrass, as Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia went back and forth over some crowd noise on the second hole of the round, as Garcia said Woods pulled a club too early and distracted him and as the afternoon went on Woods had the outright lead and as he went into the clubhouse he had a
Woods said Garcia was mistaken and while Woods may have pulled the club early, it was not in his backswing as Garcia accused, as the video from NBC showed. The incident occurred when Woods was hitting from the right side after putting his ball into the trees and Garcia was on the fairway and after Garcia hit a bogey and Woods hit a birdie, he glared after the shot and was upset later. Garcia told reporters later during a rain delay that he felt Woods needed to watch his surroundings more, while Woods snapped back that he wasn't surprised that Garcia was complaining.
Rain forced the round to end early and both Woods and Garcia finished up on Sunday at 11 under par and now are tied for first along with David Lingmerth at the top of the leaderboard and Woods will be paired with Casey Wittenberg, while Garcia will play behind with Lingmerth. Ryan Palmer and Henrik Stenson are behind along with Wittenberg at 10 under, while Jeff Maggert is at nine under ahead of David Lynn and eight under along with Hunter Mahan.
Woods and Garcia have not been close for many years, stemming back to when Garcia celebrated a win like it was a major at match play over Woods and since then the two have had a frosty relationship. Now they sit tied atop the leaderboard and gives the PGA some high drama for the final round on Sunday, with Garcia playing behind Woods. Garcia shot a 72 in the third round while Woods shot a 71 on the day to put himself in first place with Garcia. The noise from the crowd came when Woods pulled a wood from his golf bag and as the crowd made noise Garcia had the chance to pull his club back, but decided not to and went for the shot.
The TV replays clearly showed that Garcia was standing over the ball, but he decided to go through with his shot anyway and now he is angry with Woods, although he was happy that the two did not need to play together again on the final day. Lingmerth had previously missed the cut in his past five starts and now he is up on the leaderboard with the number one golfer in the world and Sergio Garcia. Woods has been stellar this season in situations where he has the chance to win and after taking three tournaments on tour this year he is back to number one in the world. Woods last won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and previously won the Farmers Insurance Open and the WGC Championship and he may have had a shot at the Masters had he not dealt with his drop shot controversy and two stroke penalty.