In a tournament jam-packed with world class golfers, anybody could be forgiven for failing to predict the winner of The Players Championship (or the top 10, for that matter). By anybody, I mean us! All eyes, including our own, were watching with unwavering attention as Rory McIlroy debuted his TaylorMade clubs, World No. 1 Dustin Johnson looked to return to winning ways and Sergio Garcia tried to follow up his maiden major with golf's unofficial major.
Remarkably, not a single one of the world's top 10 players could manage a top 10 finish on The Players leader board (although Adam Scott's T6 finish propelled him into the world's top 10 after the tournament). It was youth that prevailed on the merciless TPC Sawgrass course as we saw South Korean Si Woo Kim smash Adam Scott's record as the youngest-ever winner of golf's 'Fifth Major'. A flawless final round of 69 gave the 21-year-old a comfortable three-shot, -10 victory in Florida; writing his name in the history books in the process. Not only did Kim become the youngest Players Champion, he also put his name amongst the illustrious list of Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia as he became only the fourth player to have two PGA Tour victories at the age of 21; the other coming in the 2016 Wyndham Championship.
Topping the field catapulted Si Woo Kim from 75th to 28th in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). Meanwhile, South African Louis Oosthuizen climbed from 33rd to 18th following his T2 result, which he shared with England's Ian Poulter. Poulter will rejoice in the knowledge that he is once again amongst the OWGR's top 100. Dustin Johnson's T12 result may look like a shocker on paper, but Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Jason Day finishing T35, T30 and T60 respectively made Dustin's score look semi-respectable for an OWGR top 5 golfer. The only comfort for McIlroy, Garcia and Day comes in the form of one Jordan Spieth, who failed to make the cut for the third year running.
Whilst McIlroy's disappointing finish wasn't the immediate return TaylorMade had hoped for from their £77 million investment, they teamed up with Titleist and Scotty Cameron in the surprise winner's bag.
So, what's in the champion's bag?
What's in the Bag?
Driver: TaylorMade 2017 M1 460
3-wood: TaylorMade 2017 M1
5-wood: TaylorMade 2017 M1
Irons: TaylorMade P770
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM6
Putter: Scotty Cameron 009M Prototype
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x