PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | Whether at ritzy golf or country clubs around the south of the United States, before settling once and for all at the Stadium Course at Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, the various venues of the Players Championship have hardly yielded successful results to those from Europe. In its first 26 stagings, from 1974 to the end of the millennium, Sandy Lyle’s triumph in a playoff over Jeff Sluman in 1987 was the only victory by a man from that continent. Nick Faldo (1992), Bernhard Langer (1993, 1995) and Colin Montgomerie (1996) all finished runner-up during this time.
There was a clear reason for this paucity of success. Very few Europeans were good enough, eligible or had the appetite to compete on the PGA Tour. In the early years it was much the same at the Masters, the US Open and the PGA. Only in the mid- to late 1980s did Europeans arrive in significant numbers on the west side of the Atlantic. This coincided with the success of Europe in the Ryder Cup.
Since the millennium, however, in the 25 editions of the Players (the 2020 event was cancelled because of COVID-19), the rapid rise of European golf has been demonstrated by victories by Sergio García (2008), Henrik Stenson (2009), Martin Kaymer (2014), and Rory McIlroy (2019 and again yesterday, 2025).
Further evidence: Pádraig Harrington was runner-up in successive years (2003 and 2004); Luke Donald was one of three men to be beaten only by Fred Funk in 2005; García was runner-up in 2007 and 2015, Ian Poulter in 2009 and 2017, Martin Laird in 2012, David Lingmerth in 2013, Lee Westwood in 2021 and Tyrrell Hatton in 2023.
At this event, the first coming together of almost all the best players in the world and a few weeks before the Masters, the performance of Europeans is scrutinised through the prism of a Ryder Cup in September. Ten members of Luke Donald’s victorious team in Rome in September 2023 last week tangled with the Stadium Course, which is snake-like in its ability to strike a player at any moment. Only Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, two defectors to LIV Golf, were absent.
Of those 10, five did not survive the halfway cut – Ludvig Åberg, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland and Nicolai Højgaard. For those hoping for success by the visiting side at Bethpage in September, there is no need to worry about Åberg. Spend time around golfers and their caddies and they are agreed that Åberg is one player of real talent. He has won one tournament in the US already this year. There is little need to fret about Højgaard, either. Whether Rose, 44, has a seventh Ryder Cup in him as a player will be determined in the coming months. He is a strong candidate to lead Europe at Adare Manor in 2027.
But Hovland? The form of the Norwegian who lit up the Marco Simone course in Rome in 2023 with his broad smile and sparkling golf is of concern. He started with an 80 last Thursday and even a 68 in Friday’s second round was not good enough for him to play the last two rounds. Though 19th in the world, he has not won a tournament since his year of years in 2023 – nor looked like doing so. Of his four events on the PGA Tour this year he lasted only two rounds in two and has a best finish of 22nd in the other two.
And what has happened to Matthew Fitzpatrick? He has mislaid his form dramatically since he won the 2022 US Open in striking style at The Country Club, outside Boston. Once as high as eighth in the world ranking, Fitzpatrick was 61st last week.
On Friday, after rounds of 78 and 72 and the inevitable missed cut, Fitzpatrick did what players often do when in the midst of a spell of bad form – he fired his caddie in the hope that this might mark a change in fortunes. He and Billy Foster, a famous veteran British caddie, had been together for six years. “All good things must come to an end,” Foster wrote on social media. “Onwards and upwards.” Fitzpatrick’s best result on the PGA Tour this year has been 22nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week before the Players.
Five others from Rome played all 72 holes – Robert MacIntyre, the Scot who seems to be growing before our eyes into a golfer of real stature and whose electric play late in the fourth round propelled him up the field to ninth; Sepp Straka, Mr Consistency from Austria, who finished tied for 14th, ; and the Irish duo of Shane Lowry, who finished tied for 20th and McIlroy, who celebrated St Patrick's Day with his second victory. And then there was Tommy Fleetwood who is ranked 10th in the world and will surely play in this year’s Ryder Cup.
He had just concluded his final round when the horn was sounded and players brought in from the course. He wore black, save for a pair of white golf shoes, sombre colours that seemed at one with the grey skies and occasional rain that blighted Sunday’s play. Dodging the raindrops he raced from the 72nd green where he had made his fourth birdie of the day for a round of 71 to go with rounds of 71, 66 and 75 to finish tied 14th.
Fleetwood has had a steady start to his year in the US, coming 22nd at the AT&T event at Pebble Beach, which McIlroy won. Then he came fifth at the Genesis Invitational and tied 11th in the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week before the Players.
As Fleetwood was signing his card, Ian Finnis, Fleetwood’s towering caddie, emerged from the scorer’s room. He had a smile on his face, as he often does, and Fleetwood’s bag looked child-sized when slung over his shoulders.
“How are you?” he was asked. His reply was unexpected. “This day one year ago Tommy drove me to hospital [in Orlando],” he said.
A virus caused bacteria to form in Finnis’ heart and it was discovered he needed further surgery to repair two heart valves and a pre-existing heart condition. Finnis missed the Masters, where Fleetwood tied for third with Max Homa and Collin Morikawa, and did not return to carry Fleetwood’s bag until just before the Open at Royal Troon.
“Tommy likes it out here and has played consistent this year,” Finnis said. “I like it too. I am very well now, too, and glad to be here. Thank you for asking.”
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: Tommy Fleetwood plays his shot from the 15th tee during the final round of the Players Championship.
Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images
