The Players Championship

Infobox_Golf_Tournament
tournament_name = The Players Championship
nickname =


location = Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
establishment = 1974
course = TPC at Sawgrass, Stadium Course
par = 72
yardage = 7,215
tour = PGA Tour
format = Stroke play
purse = $9,500,000
month_played = May
aggregate = 264 Greg Norman (1994)
to-par = -24 Greg Norman (1994)
Current Champion =Sergio García

The Players Championship (often styled THE PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour.

The inaugural event in 1974 was played at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia before moving to Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975 and Inverrary Country Club in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 1976. Beginning in 1977, the event relocated to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, first being played at Sawgrass Country Club's Oceanside Course (a combination of the "East" and "West" 9-hole courses). Since 1982 it has been played across the road from Sawgrass Country Club, on the Stadium Course at the "Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass" (usually referred to as the TPC at Sawgrass; it is not uncommon for "TPC" in this context to be conflated with "The Players Championship" because they happen to have the same initials).

The Players Championship offers the highest prize fund of any tournament in golf ($8 million 2004–06, $9 million in 2007, $9.5 million in 2008), and is sometimes referred to by certain sections of the North American media as the "Fifth Major", but it does not have official major status. The field usually includes the top fifty golfers in the world rankings, but unlike the three majors which are staged in the U.S., it does not count as an official event on the European Tour, which has the Deutsche Bank Players Championship of Europe, although it is an imperfect parallel. The winner receives a fixed allocation of 80 points towards his Official World Golf Ranking, which is the most allocated to any event apart from the majors, in which winners earn 100 points. For comparison, the winners of the three individual World Golf Championships generally receive between 70 and 78 points. The winner of The Players Championship also receives a 5 year exemption on the PGA Tour, a 3 year invitation to The Masters, a 3 year exemption for the British Open, and an exemption to the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship for that year.

The Players Championship can be further distinguished from the "Majors" in that it is owned and administered by the PGA Tour. In contrast, The Masters is owned by the Augusta National Golf Club,the U.S. Open by the USGA, the British Open by the R&A, and the PGA Championship by the PGA of America.

The Players Championship is best known for what may be the single most recognizable par 3 in professional golf, the Stadium Course's 17th hole, known to golf fans worldwide as "the Island Green" and what has become TPC Sawgrass' signature hole. The final three holes are considered one of the toughest finishes in golf. They are also sometimes referred to as 'running the gauntlet'.

The Players Championship had been played in late March for most of its existence, two weeks before The Masters. In 2007 it was moved to mid-May, as part of a restructuring of the PGA Tour. This restructuring involved the introduction of the lucrative FedEx Cup, which concludes with the Tour Championship, now played six weeks earlier, in mid-September. This gives the PGA Tour a marquee event in six consecutive months (The Masters in April, the U.S. Open in June, the British Open in July, and the PGA Championship in August). [http://www.pgatour.com/info/company/story/9158540]

Following the 2006 event, the course underwent a major renovation, which received very positive reviews from the players in 2007.

With the rearrangement of 2007, the final round of The Players Championship is scheduled for the second Sunday of May, Mother's Day. This parallels the U.S. Open, which concludes on the third Sunday of June, Father's Day.

Winners

"* Indicates a win in a playoff"

Multiple winners

Five men have won The Players Championship more than once through 2008.

*3 wins
**Jack Nicklaus: 1974, 1976, 1978

*2 wins
**Fred Couples: 1984, 1996
**Steve Elkington: 1991, 1997
**Davis Love III: 1992, 2003
**Hal Sutton: 1983, 2000

External links

* [http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r011/ Coverage on the PGA Tour's official site]
* [http://www.tpc.com/sawgrass/ TPC at Sawgrass official site]
* [http://www.golfobserver.com/new/golfstats.php?tournament=The+Players+Championship&tour=PGA Results at golfstats.com] - 1974-2007