Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood lead English challenge in Players Championship
Wednesday 9 May 2018 21:01, UK
Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood will spearhead a seven-strong English challenge in The Players Championship.
The trio have been grouped together for the opening two rounds at TPC Sawgrass, teeing off at 12.54pm (BST) in the first round on Thursday and at 6.19pm in Friday's second round.
An Englishman has yet to win the tournament in Florida, but Poulter has twice finished second and has the best record at the course of this year's challengers.
The 42-year-old tied for second place with Louis Oosthuizen last year, coming up just short with a final-round 71 as South Korea's Si Woo Kim eased to a three-shot victory.
Poulter also came runner-up in 2009 after closing with a 70 when Sweden's Henrik Stenson stormed clear of the field to prevail by four shots with a 66.
Other than that, Poulter has missed the cut only three times in his 14 appearances in The Players Championship, although he has failed to make the top 20 the other nine times he has survived into the weekend.
Rose will also be making his 15th start at TPC Sawgrass with his best performance coming in 2014 when he finished tied for fourth, three shots behind the winner Martin Kaymer.
The world No 5 missed the cut in six of his first 12 appearances and has had some mixed rounds over the last couple of years.
In 2016 he opened with a 65 - his best round at the course - to share second place after 18 holes and finished with a 66, but a 78 in the third round meant he had to settle for joint-19th overall.
Rose went into the final round in 25th place last year but tumbled down the leaderboard into a tie for 65th after shooting an eight-over 80.
Fleetwood is making only his second appearance in the 'fifth major', having finished in a tie for 41st place last year following rounds of 74-67-76-74.
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Tyrrell Hatton is also back for more after making his debut last year when he ended up alongside Fleetwood in 41st place, scoring 76-70-71-74.
Matt Fitzpatrick is another relative newcomer among the Englishmen, but he has missed the cut on his two previous visits, by only one shot in 2016, when he opened with a 69, and by three shots last year.
Ross Fisher will also be hoping to make it to the weekend for the first time this year after missing the cut four times.
He was four shots off the mark on his debut in 2009 and two shots away in both 2010 and 2011 before returning to the venue last year when he missed out by three.
Danny Willett has also failed to make his mark at TPC Sawgrass and withdrew last year, citing a back injury, when he was 11 over after 27 holes after opening with a 79.
His debut in 2015 saw him miss the cut by two shots and he could not repeat his Masters heroics in 2016 when he was only one away from making it into the third round.
Paul Casey was scheduled to make it eight Englishman, but he has pulled out on the eve of the tournament due to a back injury.
The 40-year-old has already twice withdrawn from the event in his 11 appearances, pulling out due to illness in 2015 after an opening 79, having also made an early exit on his previous start in 2012 because of a shoulder injury after playing the front nine in 42.
