Hoffman's putter toss highlights tough day at Players
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.: Charley Hoffman missed a 20-inch putt, then did something just about every golfer has at least considered after one shot or another.
He threw his club.
He whipped it actually.
Hoffman flung his putter into the murky water next to the 13th green Friday, a frustrating response to a double bogey that delighted the crowd and sent the 31-year-old player into a tailspin. It was a fitting highlight to Friday's second round of The Players Championship, which was played in gusting wind.
"I had thoughts of diving in front of it," caddie Miguel Rivera said. "I did actually think about going in, but the water looked a little funky."
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Hoffman declined comment after he shot 11-over 83 in the second round and badly missed the cut at 15 over. He was 7 over when he reached the par-3 13th and needed a few birdies to make it to the weekend.
Instead, he missed what would have been a gimme on any municipal course and ended up shooting 8 over in the final six holes.
He used his sand wedge and a hybrid club to putt the rest of the round and actually had a few nice shots with them. Not knowing what to do with the head cover for the putter, Rivera threw it on the sand wedge for the final five holes "just to make sure we designated it as our putter."
A volunteer eventually retrieved the putter, taking off her shoes, rolling up her pants legs, then tiptoeing along the edge of the water and pulling it out with an extendable ball retriever.
There was no word whether the volunteer planned to return it to Hoffman.
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PRESIDENTIAL VISIT: After knocking his tee shot into the murky lagoon, Billy Mayfair walked to the drop area at No. 17 and found two dignitaries watching from the front row.
Former President George H.W. Bush made a brief visit to The Players Championship on Friday. Accompanied by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, Bush spent a few minutes on the practice range and then headed to the famed island green at TPC Sawgrass.
Bush watched three groups play the treacherous hole in wind gusting to 35 mph. Mayfair, Bubba Watson, John Mallinger, Dean Wilson, Michael Campbell, Shaun Micheel, Mark Calcavecchia and Carl Pettersson teed it up in front of the former president.
Mayfair was the only one who didn't land safely on the green.
"I didn't see him until after I hit my shot," said Mayfair, who was 1 over after the second round. "I just wish I hit that green. I've missed it twice, two days in a row, so that hole's kind of hurting me. Other than that, I've played pretty well."
Mayfair has met Bush several times, the first one in 1987 as a member of the Walker Cup team. So Mayfair didn't hesitate to stop, shake his hand and say hello.
"I know him a little better and I feel very comfortable," Mayfair said. "It's not every day you get to meet a former president of the United States."
But Mayfair knew better than to spend too much time socializing. After all, the former president is known to enjoy fast play.
"I've heard he's very quick," Mayfair said, adding that Bush probably wouldn't spend too much time worrying about the tee shot on the 17th. "It's only 135 yards. It can't be that hard."
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TORTOISE AND THE SCARE: Anthony Kim's scariest moment of the second round had nothing to do with gusting wind or slippery greens.
Kim and playing partner Boo Weekley spotted a turtle as they walked from the tee box to the green on the par-3 No. 8. At first, Kim would only touch the turtle's shell with his wedge. But Weekley convinced him to feel it with his hand.
Just as Kim started the stroke the shell, the turtle snapped its neck upward.
"He jumped and backed up real fast," Weekley said.
"He got me pretty good," added Kim, who shot 70 and was 4 under.
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KRAFT'S BREAK: Greg Kraft didn't think his tee shot on the par-3 17th stayed on the green. He even stopped at the drop zone to hit another one.
It wasn't until he was about to drop a ball that the gallery and his playing partners alerted him that his shot landed a few feet from the edge, hidden in a sprinkler head.
"It's nice to get a good break on that hole because in 10 years I've had some bad ones," Kraft said.
Kraft was allowed a free drop from the sprinkler, then two-putted for par. He could have easily had a bogey or worse, and thanks partly to the break, he made the cut at 3 over.
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