Players Championship

The 2015 Players Championship caused even some of the world's best golfers to stumble in the opening round, and Friday should offer plenty of compelling storylines to follow as the weekend cut line is determined.

Rising young star Hideki Matsuyama headlines the leaderboard after a five-under 67. Kevin Na, David Hearn and Charley Hoffman matched Matsuyama's score, but it's a jumbled list of contenders toward the top.

The start of the opening round on Thursday at The Players Championship, all the hype focused on the return of Tiger Woods and the power pairing of Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. Those three big names, especially the two young guns at 1-2 in the world rankings, correctly made this one of the more anticipated Players. But by Thursday night, it was only world No. 1 Rory anywhere near the top of the leaderboard.

They're all chasing Hideki Matsuyama, David Hearn, Kevin Na and Charley Hoffman, who posted 5-under rounds of 67. While Spieth and Rory get all the pub, Matsuyama is another young player that could pile up PGA Tour wins for the next couple decades. The 23-year-old phenom from Japan is probably a better ball striker than both McIlroy and Spieth, and has been on the first page of the leaderboard at majors several times in his early 20s.

Matsuyama is expected to push those two almost as much as they push each other -- the talent is overwhelming, he just needs to putt at a slightly above average, or even average level. He loses so many strokes up on the green green, but his tee-to-green game is so good that he's one of the top ranked golfers in the world. Thursday's round is the kind of number he's capable of posting regularly, and he often has over the past year on tour. A bogey five on the first hole was his only blemish on the card. Expect Matsuyama to hang around the top of the board through the weekend.

Tiger never really could get his round in order and capped it with a double-bogey on the 18th to drop to 1-over. It was the exact same finish that Phil Mickelson posted just a group ahead. Both put drives in the immense lake that lines the entire left side of the fairway, and so they'll go to bed with that final double bogey on their mind. Woods hit several wild tee balls to start his round, but held it together with the usual recoveries and kept his round at a respectable number. The 1-over 73 wasn't too bad given the shots we saw and the grind it appeared to be out there, but he told Golf Channel afterwards that he thought it was the highest number he could have posted given the way he played. After that finishing double, Phil probably feels the same way.

Some highlights and a full account of Tiger's opening round.

Tiger may have been the headline player but the headline group was the McIlroy-Spieth-Jason Day tee time in the morning. After going 58 holes last year at this event without dropping a shot, Spieth started his round bogey-bogey and never seemed in it. He's been the hottest putter in the world over the last seven months, but he got nothing to drop on Thursday. That work on the green, combined with some sloppy short game shots, resulted in his highest score of the season -- a 3-over 75. While Spieth scuffled from start to finish, McIlroy cruised through Sawgrass with a clean card. An 8-iron from 203 yards! set up a short eagle putt that highlighted his round. Spieth was supposed to be the guy who didn't fluctuate with bogeys and birdies dotted throughout his card on this unforgiving Pete Dye course. But McIlroy's round was the one with 14 pars and he's just two shots off the lead.

Place	Player	Score	Round 1
T1	Hideki Matsuyama	-5	67
T1	David Hearn	-5	67
T1	Charley Hoffman	-5	67
T1	Kevin Na	-5	67
T5	Troy Merritt	-4	68
T5	Ben Martin	-4	68
T5	Billy Horschel	-4	68
T5	Brendon Todd	-4	68
T5	Charles Howell III	-4	68
T5	Derek Fathauer	-4	68
T11	Jeff Overton	-3	69
T11	Cameron Tringale	-3	69
T11	Marc Leishman	-3	69
T11	Webb Simpson	-3	69
T11	Rickie Fowler	-3	69
T11	Steve Stricker	-3	69
T11	Jason Day	-3	69
T11	Rory McIlroy	-3	69
T11	Ricky Barnes	-3	69
T11	Jason Kokrak	-3	69
T11	Alex Cejka	-3	69
T11	Brandt Snedeker	-3	69
T11	Sergio Garcia	-3	69
T11	Martin Kaymer	-3	69
T25	Freddie Jacobson	-2	70
T25	Rory Sabbatini	-2	70
T25	Chris Kirk	-2	70
T25	James Hahn	-2	70
T25	Bo Van Pelt	-2	70
T25	Spencer Levin	-2	70
T25	Jamie Donaldson	-2	70
T25	Chris Stroud	-2	70
T25	Louis Oosthuizen	-2	70
T25	Russell Henley	-2	70
T25	Robert Streb	-2	70
T25	J.B. Holmes	-2	70
T25	Jim Furyk	-2	70
T25	K.J. Choi	-2	70
T25	Robert Allenby	-2	70
T40	Padraig Harrington	-1	71
T40	Scott Stallings	-1	71
T40	Chesson Hadley	-1	71
T40	Jimmy Walker	-1	71
T40	Bubba Watson	-1	71
T40	Ian Poulter	-1	71
T40	Ben Crane	-1	71
T40	Jason Bohn	-1	71
T40	Joost Luiten	-1	71
T40	Ryo Ishikawa	-1	71
T40	Jerry Kelly	-1	71
T40	Pat Perez	-1	71
T40	Branden Grace	-1	71
T40	Andrew Svoboda	-1	71
T40	Zach Johnson	-1	71
T40	Justin Rose	-1	71
T40	Vijay Singh	-1	71
T40	Charl Schwartzel	-1	71
T40	Brian Harman	-1	71
T40	Daniel Berger	-1	71
T60	Bryce Molder	E	72
T60	Andres Romero	E	72
T60	Michael Putnam	E	72
T60	Nick Taylor	E	72
T60	Patrick Reed	E	72
T60	Scott Brown	E	72
T60	Russell Knox	E	72
T60	Scott Langley	E	72
T60	Sang-Moon Bae	E	72
T60	Geoff Ogilvy	E	72
T60	Hunter Mahan	E	72
T60	Bill Haas	E	72
T60	Dustin Johnson	E	72
T60	Henrik Stenson	E	72
T60	Adam Scott	E	72
T60	Danny Willett	E	72
T60	Stephen Gallacher	E	72
T77	Justin Thomas	1	73
T77	Graeme McDowell	1	73
T77	Michael Thompson	1	73
T77	Ernie Els	1	73
T77	Scott Piercy	1	73
T77	Boo Weekley	1	73
T77	John Senden	1	73
T77	Matt Kuchar	1	73
T77	David Toms	1	73
T77	Seung-yul Noh	1	73
T77	Bernhard Langer	1	73
T77	Shane Lowry	1	73
T77	Kevin Kisner	1	73
T77	George McNeill	1	73
T77	Danny Lee	1	73
T77	Brendon de Jonge	1	73
T77	Ryan Moore	1	73
T77	Justin Leonard	1	73
T77	Jason Dufner	1	73
T77	Phil Mickelson	1	73
T77	Tiger Woods	1	73
T77	Tim Wilkinson	1	73
T77	Thongchai Jaidee	1	73
T77	Brendan Steele	1	73
T77	Martin Flores	1	73
T102	Gonzalo Fdez-Castano	2	74
T102	Brian Stuard	2	74
T102	Billy Hurley III	2	74
T102	Luke Guthrie	2	74
T102	Matt Every	2	74
T102	John Huh	2	74
T102	Erik Compton	2	74
T109	Jhonattan Vegas	3	75
T109	Daniel Summerhays	3	75
T109	Angel Cabrera	3	75
T109	Harris English	3	75
T109	Jordan Spieth	3	75
T109	Will MacKenzie	3	75
T109	Adam Hadwin	3	75
T109	William McGirt	3	75
T109	Robert Garrigus	3	75
T109	Matt Jones	3	75
T109	Kevin Streelman	3	75
T109	Brian Davis	3	75
T109	Graham DeLaet	3	75
T122	Brice Garnett	4	76
T122	Anirban Lahiri	4	76
T122	Morgan Hoffmann	4	76
T122	Lee Westwood	4	76
T122	Stewart Cink	4	76
T122	Sean O'Hair	4	76
T128	Shawn Stefani	5	77
T128	Carl Pettersson	5	77
T128	Ryan Palmer	5	77
T128	Jonas Blixt	5	77
T128	Keegan Bradley	5	77
T128	Luke Donald	5	77
T128	Steven Bowditch	5	77
T128	Kevin Chappell	5	77
T128	Bernd Wiesberger	5	77
T137	Aaron Baddeley	6	78
T137	Camilo Villegas	6	78
T137	Nick Watney	6	78
T137	Brooks Koepka	6	78
T137	Retief Goosen	6	78
T142	Gary Woodland	7	79
T142	Paul Casey	7	79
WD	Darren Clarke	10	WD