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 event was founded in 1974 as the Tournament Players Championship, played at Sawgrass Country Club's Oceanside Course (a combination of the "East" and "West" 9-hole courses) in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. 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 known as the TPC at Sawgrass). It became known as THE PLAYERS Championship (officially rendered in all caps) in 1988.
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 PGA European Tour, where they have The Deutsche Bank Players' Championship of Europe. The winner receives a fixed allocation of forty points towards their 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 thirty-eight points.
Many golf journalists have said that The PLAYERS should be moved from late March to mid-May, because there would then be a prestigious golf event in five consective months (The Masters takes place in April, the U.S. Open takes place in June, the Open Championship takes place in July, and the PGA Championship takes place in August). PGA TOUR commissioner Tim Finchem is seeking to do just that as early as 2007. Such a move would place The PLAYERS in between the Wachovia Championship and the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. [1]
Winners
- 2005 Fred Funk, United States
- 2004 Adam Scott, Australia
- 2003 Davis Love III, United States
- 2002 Craig Perks, New Zealand
- 2001 Tiger Woods, United States
- 2000 Hal Sutton, United States
- 1999 David Duval, United States
- 1998 Justin Leonard, United States
- 1997 Steve Elkington, Australia
- 1996 Fred Couples, United States
- 1995 Lee Janzen, United States
- 1994 Greg Norman, Australia
- 1993 Nick Price, Zimbabwe
- 1992 Davis Love III, United States
- 1991 Steve Elkington, Australia
- 1990 Jodie Mudd, United States
- 1989 Tom Kite, United States
- 1988 Mark McCumber, United States
- 1987 Sandy Lyle, Scotland
- 1986 John Mahaffey, United States
- 1985 Calvin Peete, United States
- 1984 Fred Couples, United States
- 1983 Hal Sutton, United States
- 1982 Jerry Pate, United States
- 1981 Raymond Floyd, United States
- 1980 Lee Trevino, United States
- 1979 Lanny Wadkins, United States
- 1978 Jack Nicklaus, United States
- 1977 Mark Hayes, United States
- 1976 Jack Nicklaus, United States
- 1975 Al Geiberger, United States
- 1974 Jack Nicklaus, United States
External links
- THE PLAYERS Championship's page on the PGA Tour website
- THE PLAYERS Championship's page on the host club's website