The following is adapted from a post that first appeared on the APBA Between the Lines forum.
This post reports on a simulation of the COVID-interrupted 2020 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass (The Stadium Course). This simulation included 72 of the 80-card 2020 APBA regular season set of players that actually participated in the 1st round of the truncated event. After the first two rounds, fifty-nine players made the cut (+5) to move on to rounds three and four. The tournament adhered to the full set of APBA Golf Master Game rules and was played using the Game Caddie.
After the first round of the actual tournament Hideki Matsuyama had the lead with a record-tying 9 under par (63), while Harris English, Chistiaan Bezuidenhout, Si Woo Kim, Marc Leishman, and Patrick Cantlay had rounds of 67 or better. Eighty-two of the 144 players in the field were under par. Conditions were ideal that day. The tournament was suspended at that point due to COVID-19 concerns.
In the replay simulation of Round 1, with the pin at location No. 1 and under calm winds and soft course conditions, Dustin Johnson led the field with a 65. Cameron Champ followed at 66, and Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Kevin Kisner and Bubba Watson were in at 67.
The second round featured some fireworks in that Harris English made a hole-in-one on No. 3, and Bryson DeChambeau turned in an amazing round of 61. Winds were calm and conditions firm with the pin at location No. 6. This was the best single round, regular season performance in my 50+ year history of playing APBA Golf! While DeChambeau led the day’s scoring, Phil Mickelson represented the more senior players by turning in a second best score of 65. Next, Jon Rahm posted a score of 66, and Matt Wolff, Rory McIlroy, and Tommy Fleetwood followed with scores of 67.
The wind picked up in round 3 to a moderate level, and conditions were normal with the pin set at location No. 4. On “moving day” it was Justin Thomas that prevailed by carding a top score of 66. Harris English and Matt Wolff continued their excellent play with scores of 67. Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood followed at 68. Phil Mickelson moved down the leaderboard yet stayed within the Top 20. Anchoring the field, Adam Scott turned in a tournament worst score of 83. Bryson DeChambeau shot 10 strokes higher than his previous round of 61, yet retained the lead, four strokes over Harris English and Matt Wolff. Paul Casey made the highlight reel by acing the Island Hole (No. 17).
With the pin at location No. 3, under normal course conditions with moderate wind, the final round turned into a victory lap for Bryson DeChambeau. The other top tournament leaders from round 3 fell by the wayside one by one. Matt Wolff unraveled on Nos. 7 and 17 by hitting multiple shots into the water (somewhat reminiscent of the finishing round in the movie Tin Cup). With lackluster putting, Harris English’s green woes kept him from applying any real pressure on DeChambeau. Dustin Johnson had a chance to contend by coming into No. 18 at 6 under. Although Dustin hit the fairway off the tee, he too met a watery end to his campaign on his next shot. Bryson DeChambeau was rewarded for his conservative play in the final round, finishing 2 under par. That was good enough for a 4-shot tournament win over runner-up, Dustin Johnson.
Honorable mentions go to Tommy Fleetwood, Webb Simpson and Tony Finau, who all recorded a 66 on Round 4, which was the top score of the day. None of these three players was positioned to challenge DeChambeau for the tournament, though. The final results for the Top 20 ranked finishers are provided in the table below.
Relative to par, the most challenging holes were 18, 14, 5 and 8; No. 2 was the easiest. Note that No. 17, the Island Hole, just missed the top 4 most difficult list, because most players saved a momentum and/or bounce back point (if awarded) just for this hole. That strategy not only resulted in fewer disastrous outcomes, but also made it possible for many to birdie the hole. Players who lacked or exhausted these perks faired much worse on No. 17 overall. This was the case for Sebastion Munoz who suffered a 9 on No. 17. Here are hole-by-hole scoring averages relative to par:
It will be interesting to see how the soaked conditions will affect scoring in this year’s Players. The cooler weather coming in Saturday might have an even bigger effect. The soft conditions yesterday led to good scores that very deep into the field. Wasn’t sure whether the tournament was using lift-clean-place on Thursday to keep scores down. Today was pretty much a wash out. Looks like a Monday finish for sure now. I like to see the APBA replays, and thanks for posting this one. Looks like APBA does produce realistic results at the tournament level of play for the modern players. Timely.