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Tournament Stats:
The Players
May 8 - 11, 2008
TPC Sawgrass
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,220
Purse: $9 million with $1.7 million going to the winner
Defending Champions: Phil Mickelson
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 35th edition of The Players. The event 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 its "major," but they found out that the owners of Sawgrass didn't want to sell the facility. Everyone was disappointed, except PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, who came up with the idea of the Tour building its 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 its 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 became the commissioner of the PGA Tour he made sure the Tour would own a course of its own.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, forcing him to either find another course or build one which he decided was the best course of action.
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 over the course of time the Sawgrass area became big because of the building of the TPC Sawgrass so those folks saw a nice return on their dollar sale to the Tour.
Still Beman had 415 acres of swamp land and was looking to build something special on it. He turned to Pete Dye, who was able to create the vision Beman had and translate it into a course in the swamp. He built a great course that had amphitheater shaped viewing areas, making the TPC Sawgrass the Yankee Stadium 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. Winds in the early days didn't help ease the pain of the mounds, but over the years improvements have made the course more "player-friendly".
Over the years, the TPC Sawgrass has gone from a course the players didn't care much about to one of the most loved, but toughest courses on Tour. With the advent of the Players moving to May, the course went through an extensive renovation in which all of the grass on the tees, fairways and greens were stripped off with a new drainage and irrigation system placed underneath. The greens were built with a sub-air system just like the one at Augusta National, which can control 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 -- it gave the Players a new dimension in making it one of the best tournaments in the world, with the possibility of it one day being considered a major. 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. For the PGA Tour this is the pinnacle of the year, its most prized championship. Now in the second year in its May slot, the novelty of the new time is over and the focus will be more on the championship rather than the new date, new clubhouse and overhaul of the course.The first thing about this year is that it will be Fred Klauk's last year. He has been the superintendent of the Stadium course since 1985 and will be stepping down at the conclusion of this year's event. Kluak has been the major force in a lot of changes to the course that has been well received by the players
Now with the move to May the question is the same old one: Is this a major? Even with the great layout, the great field in which 45 of the top 50 players in the world will be in attendance, it doesn't look like the Tour will get its 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."
There are lots of storylines this week. Beginning with what will a big event like this be without Tiger Woods. Yes, he hasn't done very well in this event, but he will still be missed. Just look at the whiplash at the Wachovia, CBS averaged a 1.6 overnight rating for the Saturday and Sunday shows, a drop of 48% from last year. As one sports blog site said, the PGA Tour would be better off simply canceling events that Woods isn't playing in.
We have to wonder if Phil Mickelson could start work with Butch Harmon and win the Players two seeks later, could the same thing happen to Ernie Els. He has been working with Butch for a month now and all he has to show for it is a missed cut at the Masters and the Verzion. It will be interesting to see if Butch could throw some pixie dust on Els long enough for him to win this event like Mickelson did last year. If by chance Els could, Butch would become probably the most popular teacher on the PGA Tour.
Another question will be if another player in his 20s could rule this week. Many may feel that it takes a lot of experience to win the Players, but since the event moved to the Stadium course, 11 different players in their 20s have won. The list is impressive: Jerry Pate in 1982, Hal Sutton in 1983, Fred Couples in 1984, Sandy Lyle in 1987, Jodie Mudd in 1990, Steve Elkington in 1991, Davis Love III in 1992, Justin Leonard in 1998, David Duval in 1999, Tiger Woods in 2001 and Adam Scott in 2004.
Lastly, you have to wonder if this will be another Players dominated by a Greg Kraft, Andes Romero, Johnson Wagner and Anthony Kim, 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 screen in more than two years now and Stephen Ames was the Players champ and had struggled until his Disney win last year and has not been inside the Top 10 here 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. 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 difficult to hold that green. Then you have holes like 14, which has added yardage, but will now play into the wind instead of against it. So there will be a lot of changes and adjustments for 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. As a matter of fact, other than Perks, every champion since 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, Mickelson 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 are 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 eight champions led this stat with all of these winners, except for two, in the top-ten. Taking this stat a notch further the last three out of four 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 the par 3s holes will help you win the event. Of course you can also look at what Phil Mickelson and Stephen Ames have done on the par 5s. Ames was 11 under par while Mickelson was 10 under last year.
- Wind is going to play a key role. 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.
- Only fourteen players among the field of 144 are making their debuts in The Players. Sixty players in the field have played in the event three or fewer times so there is a chance a player with limited experience on the Stadium course could win.
