The PLAYERS Championship
THE PLAYERS Championship is a prestigious annual golf tournament for professional male golfers which takes place every March 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 in 2005), and is sometimes referred to by the media as the "Fifth Major", but it does not have official major status. The field usually includes virtually all of the top few dozen ranked golfers in the world, but unlike the three majors which are staged in the United States, 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 forty points towards his Official World Golf Ranking, which is the most allocated to any event apart from the majors, in which winners earn fifty points. For comparison, the winners of the three individual World Golf Championships receive between 36 and 38 points. Winners of THE PLAYERS Championship also receives a 5 year exemption on the PGA Tour, 3 year invitation to The Masters, 3 year exemption to the Open Championship, and a PGA Championship and U.S. Open invitation for that year.
THE PLAYERS Championship is best known for featuring what may be the single most famous hole in professional golf, the Stadium Course's Par 3, 137-yard #17, instantly recognizable to golf fans worldwide as "the Island Green" and what has become TPC Sawgrass' signature hole.
In 2007, The PLAYERS Championship will be moved to May, as part of a restructuring of the PGA Tour which also involves the introduction of the FedEx Cup and an earlier Tour Championship. This means that the PGA Tour will have a marquee event in five consecutive months (The Masters in April, the U.S. Open in June, The Open Championship in July and the PGA Championship in August). [1] Also, the course is undergoing major renovation.
[edit] Winners
THE PLAYERS Championship
| 2007 Phil Mickelson | |
| 2006 Stephen Ames | |
| 2005 Fred Funk | |
| 2004 Adam Scott | |
| 2003 Davis Love III | |
| 2002 Craig Perks | |
| 2001 Tiger Woods | |
| 2000 Hal Sutton | |
| 1999 David Duval | |
| 1998 Justin Leonard | |
| 1997 Steve Elkington | |
| 1996 Fred Couples | |
| 1995 Lee Janzen | |
| 1994 Greg Norman | |
| 1993 Nick Price | |
| 1992 Davis Love III | |
| 1991 Steve Elkington | |
| 1990 Jodie Mudd | |
| 1989 Tom Kite | |
| 1988 Mark McCumber |
Tournament Players Championship
| 1987 Sandy Lyle | |
| 1986 John Mahaffey | |
| 1985 Calvin Peete | |
| 1984 Fred Couples | |
| 1983 Hal Sutton | |
| 1982 Jerry Pate | |
| 1981 Raymond Floyd | |
| 1980 Lee Trevino | |
| 1979 Lanny Wadkins | |
| 1978 Jack Nicklaus | |
| 1977 Mark Hayes | |
| 1976 Jack Nicklaus | |
| 1975 Al Geiberger | |
| 1974 Jack Nicklaus |
