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Tournament Stats:
The Players
May 9 - 13, 2007
TPC Sawgrass
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,093
Purse: $8 million with $1.35 million going to the winner
Defending Champions: Stephen Ames
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:264 (Greg Norman in 1994)
54-Hole Record:
197 (Greg Norman in 1994)
36-Hole Record:
130 (Greg Norman in 1994)
Low round of tournament:
63 (Fred Couples in third round in 1992, Greg Norman in 1st round in 1994)
Tournament information:
This will be the 34th edition of The Players. It was originally conceived as the Tournament Players Championship and was the PGA Tour's answer to a "major". In the beginning the tournament moved around the country to existing PGA Tour sites, (Atlanta C.C., Colonial C.C. & Inverrary C.C.) but after three years it was viewed as just a replacement tournament for the event it was replacing. It was also not receiving "major status" and many thought the only way to receive that status was to find a permanent site. In 1977 the Tour picked Sawgrass as a semi-permanent site and after a year decided to move the PGA Tour offices from Washington D.C. to the Jacksonville area. After two years at Sawgrass, the Tour decided that it should own the course that held their "major" but they found out that the owners of Sawgrass didn't want to sell the facility. Everyone was dissapointed, except PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman who then came up with the idea of building their own course. Beman then went through a year and a half of trying to sell his idea to the Tour and in August of 1978 the members approved his idea. After a search of several sites around the Northern Florida area, a site just down the road from Sawgrass in Ponte Verde Beach was picked and Pete Dye was picked to build the Tournament Players Club. It was dedicated in October of 1980 and since 1982 has been the permanent site of The Players Championship, which changed it's name to The Players this year.
Course information:
While Deane Beman was still a player he had dreamed of a course that would be challenging for the player but at the same time spectator friendly. He continued the dream and when he because the commissioner of the PGA Tour added one thing, that the PGA Tour would own the course.He thought that his dream would be fulfilled when the Players Championship went to Sawgrass in 1977. He loved the area so much that he moved the Tour headquarters down to the Ponte Vedre area. Then he tried to buy Sawgrass but the owners weren't interested in selling.
After Beman got the support of the players for the venture, he went out looking for a site. He looked all over the Northwestern Florida coast and parts of Georgia and after visiting about 30 sites narrowed it down to seven. Beman wanted to build the course in the Jacksonville area and the folks at Sawgrass had some land that they were willing to give to Beman for a dollar. At the time it looked like the steal of the century for Beman and the Tour but the Sawgrass area became big because of the building of the TPC Sawgrass so those folks saw a nice return on their dollar investment.
Still Beman had 415 acre's of swamp land and was looking to build something special on it. He turned to Pete Dye, who was able to see the vision that Beman had and translate it into a course in the swamp. He built a great course that had amphitheater shaped viewing areas in a way making the TPC Sawgrass the Yankee Staduim of golf.
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The course opened in 1981 and hosted The Players Championship in 1982. That year the course was very "raw" with a lot of complaints from the players that the greens and landing areas had too much slope in them. Winds in the early days didn't help but over the years improvements have made the course more "player-friendly".
As the years have counted down the TPC Sawgrass has gone from a course the players didn't care much about to one of the most loved, tough courses being played. With the advent of the Players moving to May, the course went through an extensive redo in which all of the grass on the tees, fairways and greens were stripped off with a new drainage and irrigation system placed underneath and on the greens they were built with a sub-air system just like the one at Augusta National, which can control the firmness in any weather conditions. At the same time 122 yards was added to the course and the rough is now Bermuda instead of rye.
With all of this plus the new clubhouse will give the Players a new dimension in making it one of the best tournaments in the world. For a more comprehensive look at the courses, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.com
The Buzz:
It's the Players time. Yes it's two months later and many are wondering if it event changed dates as a cold front moved in with temperatures the same as it is in March with rain in the forecast for Wednesday.Even with that it's not going to ruin all of the hard work that was put into redoing not only the course but the clubhouse which looks more Hearst Castle like than it was before. Still it becomes a symbol of what the course and tournament is, big in stature.
The only question is the same old one, is this a major? Even with the great layout, the great field in which 48 of the top 50 players in the world is in attendance it doesn't look like the Tour will get it's wish. It's not like Tinker Bell flying down and throwing pixie dust and just like that the Players is a major. No matter what the Tour does the fact of the matter is that as long as there is a Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship around the best the Players is going to get is to be classified as Golf's "fifth major".
Lot's of storylines this week, like can Tiger Woods get better with the driver and play well at the Sawgrass. Yes he may of won this event in 2001 and was runner-up in 2000 but has only been in the top-ten one other time, a T10th in 1999. In his last two visits to the Players he finished T53rd in 2005 and T22nd last year
Phil Mickelson would love to win this week and be able to talk about what a great decision it was getting Butch Harmon to sort his swing out. The odds on that happening are good considering that he has had some good years at Sawgrass, the best in 2004 when he finished T3rd. But the bottom like is if the wind blows it won't help his chances so Phil is looking for a calm week in Flordia.
Vijay Singh would love to win this week. He has had some runs in past, finished 2nd in 2001 and T8th last year. That could of been better but a final round 77 derailed him.
As for Ernie Els the big question mark was brought out in a Andrew Both story saying that he may had a debilitating back injury. What this means is anyone's guess but Els is the Ernie of old and you have to think if it's mental or physical. Lastly you have to wonder if this will be another Players dominated by a Craig Perks type. In the last five weeks we have had Zach Johnson, Boo Weekly and Nick Watney win, the kind of names not associated with winning not only a PGA Tour event but an event with such high esteem. But as unlikely as Perks win was in 2002 you have to remember that Todd Hamilton did win the British Open in 2004 and hasn't been seen since, Michael Campbell won the U.S. Open in 2005 and hasn't been on the radar scope in over a year and Stephen Ames was the Players champ last year and has struggled a bit since. So anything can happen this week.
Here are some things to look for this week:
Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at The Players:
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This week we have the crowing jewel of the PGA Tour, The Players. Other than the four majors, it's the fifth most important tournament in men's professional golf. The big news is what will be different for the players that are in the Players. How will the course play this year? Will it be firm and fast as officials said it will. Even with bad weather officials will have control of the roll and firmness of the greens with the new sub-air system. The major change will be wind, it will be blowing differently this time of year than it blows in March. With the change holes like 17 will be different as the wind will be at the players backs making it hard to hold that green. Then you have holes like 14 which have added yards but now will play into the wind instead of against it. So there will be a lot of changes and adjustments in this year's event.
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Key stat for the winner:
Craig Perks blew the greatest stat the tournament had going for it with his win in 2002. Before his victory, nobody had ever won the Players without a win on the PGA Tour. Matter of fact, other than Perks, every champion back to 1990 had won a major championship and 19 of the 25 winners of the Players had also won a major championship. Still the fact is if the course is dry and firm without rain hampering it the cream always rises to the top. . Just look at the list of champions at TPC Sawgrass, Sutton, Couples, Kite, Love, Norman, Leonard, Duval and Woods, not a bad list. But the one thing they have in common is firm and fast conditions so if that happens this year look for a marquee winner. - Great putting is a must for the week, the greens are always tough and fast, this year officials have them rolling at 12.5.
- Scrambling is important, no matter how well a player does he will still miss greens and have to be able to get it up and down to win. There is a lot of tough chips on this course and it will take a lot of chip and runs instead of pitching it in the air.
- Hitting greens is always a plus, four of the last seven champions led this stat with all of these winners in the top-ten. Taking this stat a notch further the last three winners, Adam Scott, Fred Funk and Stephen Ames hit the most greens.
- Par 3s are tough and one of the things that all of the winners have in common is playing well on them, dominating these holes will help you win the event.
- Wind is going to play a key, you always have wind in the afternoon so it's something that will have to be dealt with, look for a player that likes playing in the wind to do well.
- One big stat that we can't forget about, the only time Tiger won The Players in 2001, he also won the previous week at Bay Hill. Tiger won last week at the Wachovia so lets see if history is true to form.
