For comments: ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com

Good Friday morning, golf fans, as day two of The Players gets underway from TPC Sawgrass.

1. Players: Ramey leads after rd. 1

PGATour.com staff…”Chad Ramey didn’t look like a PLAYERS Championship rookie on Thursday as he cruised around TPC Sawgrass in a flawless 8-under 64 to take the lead in the suspended first round. The 30-year-old from Mississippi, who won the 2022 Corales Puntacana Championship, birdied six of his first 11 holes to sprint out of the blocks, then birdied Nos. 16 and 17. He’s one shot ahead of Collin Morikawa (65).”

• “Not easy at all,” said Ramey, who started the week ranked 174th in the FedExCup. “I might have made it look that way but it wasn’t easy at all. It was fun, first time to shoot a score on such an iconic course like this. You can’t ask for any more.”

• “Ramey led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining more than five strokes on the greens. He has missed the cut in nine of 14 starts this season and does not have a top-25 finish but Thursday he was the best player on TOUR. His 64 was one shot off the course record at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.”

2. Cam Smith tees it up in Florida

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch…”Smith played with friends and posed for pictures with fans at The Yards, a nine-hole course that sits one mile down the driveway from the course where the world’s best players are competing.”

• “He looked great. You can tell in his eyes he’s a quality young man,” said one golfer who spoke with Smith during his visit Thursday morning. “Extremely cordial and personable.” Staff at The Yards confirmed that Smith played on Thursday morning, but declined further comment.

• “The 29-year-old Australian won the 2022 Players Championship and went on to victory in the 150th Open at St. Andrews. One month after his Open win, Smith joined LIV Golf, the Saudi-financed rival league. That move earned Smith an immediate suspension from the PGA Tour. He last competed at the Tour Championship in August.”

3. Criticism from the “rank and file”

Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski…”Veteran Ryan Armour has taken to referring to himself and some of his fellow PGA Tour members as “the mules” of the organization in light of the tour’s new scheduling paradigm, and he argues that the tour’s plan to turn seven designated tournaments into limited-field, no-cut events beginning in 2024 is a recipe for driving more good players and aspiring young talent to rival LIV Golf.”

• “Speaking as a member of the tour’s Player Advisory Council and as a representative for the rank-and-file, Armour pulled few punches in his assessment of the proposed realignment of the tour’s schedule that includes 16 designated tournaments, half of which will feature fields of 70-80 players and no cut. And he was not alone in taking a few swings. Golf Digest spoke to a number of players about the plan that was presented to them in a meeting on Tuesday at the Players Championship—and apparently was passed in a surprise vote nine days ago by the PGA Tour Policy Board during the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Sentiment ranged from hope to unease to downright indignation…”

• “I think what bothers me most about this,” Armour said at TPC Sawgrass, “is that we all were in the same [PAC] meeting in San Diego [in January] and there were serious concerns about going forward with this. We talked about the value of full fields, what it means for hospitality, for fans who want to watch golf all day, what the tour experience is all about. And then they went forward with it. If this was such a great idea, we should have done it 20 years ago when Tiger was winning everything. These guys aren’t Tiger Woods. None of them are. The current hierarchy on the tour … what makes this generation of 20- and 30-year-olds so special to benefit the most from this?”

4. ICYMI: The ace at 17

PGATour.com staff…”Hayden Buckley made a hole-in-one at the 125-yard 17th hole in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship on Thursday morning.”

• “It was the second career ace on the PGA TOUR for Buckley, 27, whose tee shot with a pitching wedge landed behind the pin and spun back into the hole. The crowd erupted and Buckley threw his hat in air, touching off a wild celebration with his caddie, Brian Mahoney, and playing partners Taylor Montgomery and Adam Long.”

5. “LIV has lost”

Michael Rosenberg for Sports Illustrated…”LIV Golf has already lost its battle with the PGA Tour. Whatever happens in courtrooms and to golf rankings over the next year will not change that. With its new schedule featuring elevated events, the PGA Tour has co-opted the one argument in favor of LIV: That the best players in the world will compete against each other. The PGA Tour has also minimized the incentive for anybody to leave for LIV now—top players can make a fortune, and lesser players should have a clearer path to becoming top players.”

• “Most importantly, the Tour has solidified its reputation as the premier men’s golf league in the world. This week’s Players Championship will be missing its defending champion, the since-defected Cam Smith, but Smith will miss the Players more than the Players will miss him. As a competitive entity, LIV Golf has zero credibility. It will never give Smith the platform or feeling he had at TPC Sawgrass last March.”

• “LIV Golf is a morally indefensible operation, funded by the murderous, propaganda-spreading Saudi Arabian government with no plausible business plan. But even if you forget where the money is coming from, you cannot forget it is there. For every single player who joined LIV, money was the No. 1 factor. There are no exceptions. Any golf fan understands this.”

6. Photos from The Players

• Check out all of our galleries from the PGA Tour’s Flagship event!