The Players

May 7 – 10, 2009
TPC Sawgrass
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,220
Purse: $9.5 million with $1.71 million going to the winner
Defending Champions: Sergio Garcia

List of Champions & Scores

Results & Scores 2008 Players

Box Score of 2008 Players

Tournament facts:

Tournament information:

Course information:

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.

Photo: © Stan Badz/WireImage Thanks to Alice Dye's suggestion, the 17th hole is probably the most famous hole in the world.

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.

Dye built some ingenious holes, even one devilish hole that was a bit of a accident. He basically built 17 holes and ran into problems when the par 3 17th hole wouldn't fit because to build the mounding around the hole, he took it from the site of where the 17th hole was to be. He knew that he had a problem with this gigantic hole in the ground that wasn't suitable for a hole and when he was surveying the hole with his wife, Alice. He asked her if she had any suggestions. She told him to fill the hole with water and place an island green in the middle. With that suggestion was born the most recognizable hole in the world, the par 3 17th which has drawn praise and ire from golfers around the world.

Look at the hardest holes in the 27 year history of the Players at the Stadium Course:
Hole	Par	Eagles	Birdies	Pars	Bogeys	Doubles	Others	Scoring average
18th	4	2	1,017	6,692	2,987	848	197	4.368
14th	4	3	1,090	7,137	2,963	464	86	4.261
5th	4	7	1,100	7,403	2,828	357	49	4.219
Hardest Par 3
8th	3	5	1,052	7,600	2,875	197	15	3.192
Hardest Par 5
9th	5	24	2,601	7,015	1,845	224	35	4.980

Look at the easiest holes in the 27 year history of the Players at the Stadium Course:
Hole	Par	Eagles	Birdies	Pars	Bogeys	Doubles	Others	Scoring average
16th	5	292	4,785	5,389	1,147	106	24	4.665
2nd	5	191	4,018	6,204	1,179	132	21	4.754
11th	5	115	3,415	6,487	1,525	179	22	4.856
Hardest Par 4
12th	4	20	2,749	7,488	1,353	120	13	3.901
Hardest Par 3
3rd	3	3	1,1356	8,011	2,232	131	11	3.099

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:

One thing that we have to point out, when it was two weeks before the Masters they got all of the top players to show up, now in May some foreign players aren't coming. This year Miguel Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood, Shingo Katayama and Alvaro Quiros took a pass on playing. But the low blow that Tim Finchem probably didn't appreciate while eating his breakfast eggs was the Spaniard's comments that "It's not a major," said Jimenez, defending his decision. "There's lots of money, lots of world ranking points and it's a very important tournament, but I want to concentrate on Europe and the majors." Still Finchem has nothing to worry about, the field for this year is very good as 47 of the top 50 of the world rankings will be in attendance with 102 of the 144 players having won a PGA Tour event. So this again brings up the big question, is this a major? Even with the great layout, the great field it doesn't look like the Tour will get its wish, for the time being. 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."

Several items to think about this year is that Fred Klauk, who was the superintendent of the Stadium course for 25 years before stepping down last year will have his name associated in the championship as his son Jeff will be one of the 18 first-time participants in the field.

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, 12 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, Adam Scott in 2004. and Sergio Garcia last year.

Still you have to wonder if winning the Players is not what it's cracked up to be. Other than Phil Mickelson, the other winners since 2002 have had a bit of a struggle on the PGA Tour. First look at Craig Perks, the surprise 2002 champion. After his victory he played in 135 PGA Tour events before retiring after the 2007 season. For his trouble he only made 41 cuts and only had two top-tens, the best a 4th place finish in the 2004 Colonial.

The 2003 winner Davis Love III had a great year but it was probably Love's last really big win. Yes he won four other times after that, the last coming at Disney last year but Love hasn't been as dominating and in control of hist game since the win.

One of the saddest stories right now has to be of 2004 winner Adam Scott. As a 23 year-old, Scott was the future of golf. He has won four times since but honestly he has become a big bust. He hasn't really been the factor in any major. Last year it seems like he was either sick or injured and this year hasn't been any better. Starting his season at the Mercedes Championship, he became tabloid news with his week long fling with actress Kate Hudson while finishing T18th in the 33 man field. He did finish 2nd the next week at the Sony Open in Hawaii but things have been going downhill. It started in his defense of the Qatar Masters he finished T21st. Then at the Accenture Match Play he lost in the first round to Sean O'Hair. At the WGC-CA Championship he finished T66th in a field of 80. After that it's been rock botton as he missed the cut in his next four events, the Transitions, the Arnold Palmer, The Masters and now the Quail Hollow Championship. In looking at his yearly stats it's a combination of a lot of poor play, he is 67th in driving distance followed by 151st in driving accuracy making his the 135th player in total driving. He is 94th in greens hit while he rounds things out being 143rd in putting average and rounds out the bad year ranked 93rd in scrambling.

Now the 2005 winner Fred Funk was just a couple of months short of 49 and did win the 2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic, but for any real major play on the PGA Tour that just didn't happen. He almost lost his leg due to infection in 2008 which took a while to heal. He has won on the Champions Tour but the reality of things when he won at the Players in 2005 was that he was at the sunset of his career.

2006 winner Stephen Ames did win at Disney a year later and have some moments of brilliance, but he hasn't really become the type of players that we felt he could be after his win three years ago. As for 2007 winner Phil Mickelson, he has been the only consistent winner of the last seven. He has won five times and this year promises to be one of his best years so we have hopes of great things from Phil.

Lastly we have the defending champion Sergio Garcia, who frankly is in no shape to defend. After last year's Players win he had three runner up finishes at the PGA Championship, Barclays Classic and the Tour Championship. In November he won the HSBC Champions and got within a earshot of Tiger Woods in the World Rankings but since then it's been a slow burn backwards. He began the year T8th at Abu Dhabi, T7th in Qatar and T11th at Dubai but since then it's been terrible including a missed cut last week at Quail Hollow. His putting is in disrepair as he is going back and forth from a long to a belly to a short putter. At the start of the year many felt that 2009 would be the year of Sergio Garcia, that he would win a bunch, win a major, take over the number one ranking from Tiger and before his 30th birthday become a world class player. But going into this week's Players all of this looks like a distant vision as he struggles and frankly is like an ugly drunk, not a pretty sight with all of his complaining. Again, we hope that something will click but at this rate we probably will have to wait until he is 30.

Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at The Players:

Photo: © Caryn Levy/WireImage A view of the 18th green at last year's Players.

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.

• 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. On top of that 21 of the 29 past Players champions winners have won 44 major championships. 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, Garcia, 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.
• One of the biggest oddities of The Players Championship is the fact that nobody has ever repeated as champion and if you go back and look at all the tournaments that started after 1998, the only other one like this is the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. Five players have won this event multiple times, but none in consecutive years. Nicklaus is the only three-time winner (1974, 1976, 978). Two-time winners include Steve Elkington (1991, 1997), Hal Sutton (1983, 2000), Couples (1984, 1996) and Love (1992, 2003).
• The most unusual winner of the Players has to be Sandy Lyle who won it in a playoff in 1987. We say unusual because of his 13 starts he only made three cuts, his win in 1987, a T74th in 1994 and a T70th in 1997. Now Craig Perks only made two cuts in six tries but after winning the 2002 Players he finished T17th the next year.
• Rory McIlroy is the youngest player in the field at 19 years old, although he will celebrate his 20th birthday on Monday of tournament week (May 4). D.A. Weibring is the oldest player in the field at 55 years old (he will be 56 on May 25). Weibring was in his 13th season on the PGA TOUR - and had already won three of his five PGA Tour victories – the year McIlroy was born.
• So what does it take to win at the Players?
  Going back to 2000, every winner but two has been in the top-10 of greens hit category and five of them have led (Sergio Garcia-2008, Stephen Ames-2006, Fred Funk-2005, Adam Scott-2004, Hal Sutton-2000).
• 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.
• 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. Now last year Sergio Garcia may of put to rest this stat as he played the par 3s in 7 over, the worst of any winner at the Staduim Course.
• 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.
• As of right now there are are 18 first-time participants at this year’s PLAYERS Championship. The players teeing it up for the first time at TPC Sawgrass are Brad Adamonis, Matt Bettencourt, Ross Fisher, Thongchai Jaidee, Martin Kaymer, Soren Kjeldsen, Jeff Klauk, Martin Laird, Michael Letzig, Rory McIlroy, Parker McLachlin, Scott Piercy, Chez Reavie, Jeev M. Singh, Kevin Streelman, Marc Turnesa, Oliver Wilson and Y.E. Yang. The only players to win The Players on their first start at the Stadium Course (since 1982) is Hal Sutton in 1983 and Craig Perks in 2002.
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