THE PGA Players Championship

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Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, the inaugural event in 1974 was played at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia before moving to the 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)

The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, colloquially known as TPC at Sawgrass. Has two individual courses, the Stadium Course and the Valley Course. Opened in 1980, but as mentioned before did not host the Players Championship till 1982 as the Stadium course was still in its design phase, it was the first of several Tournament Players Clubs to be built. In addition to annually hosting The Players Championship, the PGA Tour's flagship event It is also home to the PGA Tour headquarters

The Stadium Course was designed in 1980 by noted golf course architects Pete and Alice Dye, and is known as one of the most difficult golf courses in the world. Constructed specifically to host The Players Championship, it employs a distinctive "stadium" concept: like in other sports, fans at the TPC sit in "stands" made of raised mounds of grass. It is known for its signature hole, the par-3, 132-yard 17th, known simply as the "Island Green", one of golf's most recognizable and difficult holes.

The 17th, known simply as the "Island Green", although it is technically a peninsula. While some may consider it gorgeous to view, the hole has been known to scare even the top professional golfers. It measures only 132 yards (121 m) from tee to green (requiring only a pitching wedge for most pros), but consists of nothing but an undulating, 78-foot (24 m)-long green and a tiny bunker in front of it. Save a small path to the green, the rest of the hole is completely surrounded by water, and its location amidst a canyon of trees causes the wind to swirl over the green. Club selection at 17 is a huge consideration, as there is nowhere to land the ball but on the green – or in the water. It is estimated that over 100,000 balls are retrieved from the surrounding water every year, courtesy of professionals and tourists alike trying their luck.

According to the TPC Sawgrass website, the design came by accident. The original design for the 17th was to be a simple par-3 green only partially surrounded by a lake. However, the soil surrounding the 17th consisted of sand – necessary to build a good golf course, but rare on the otherwise swampy property – and by the time the course was near completion all the sand had been dug from the area, leaving a large crater. Alice Dye suggested the Island Green concept, remembering another course with a similar green; Pete was not thrilled at the idea but went ahead with it, in the process creating one of golf's most recognizable holes. So there you have it people that slate Dye for the creatin of such a hole it was done due to the surroundings and against his own prinicples.

Yet despite all this the 2 most significant dramas at 17 in my mind are 1) Fred Couples Par 3 made by holing his second tee shot after putting his first in the water! and 2) The seagull that picked up the ball flew off with it and dropped it in the lake.

The Players Championship also receives a 5-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a three-year invitation to the Masters Tournament, three-year exemptions for The Open Championship and for the U.S. Open, and an exemption to the PGA Championship for that year.

The Players Championship can be further distinguished from the "Majors" in that it is owned and administered by the PGA Tour. In contrast, The Masters is owned by the Augusta National Golf Club; the U.S. Open by the United States Golf Association (USGA); the British Open by The R&A, an offshoot of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews; and the PGA Championship by the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America).

Notable tee times for viewers of this event are: The threeball consiseting of Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer and Matt Kuchar. Bubba Watson and Luke Donald are paired together for the first 2 rounds and that will give a contrast of styles. The other 3 ball that will no doubt appear largely on the coverage for the first 2 days is last weeks winner Lucas Glover, Ernie Els (will he have thebelly putter out there!) and Paul Casey.

Notable stayaways Worlds No1 Lee Westwood who is not a fan of the course, and World No6 Rory Mcilroy who has never made a cut at Sawgrass.

So who do we think will do well here, many will root for Donald, but his record at Sawgrass is pretty average but he is having a big year, Tiger is returning from injury and looking like his game is starting to come together would there be a better PGA event to announce his return! Garcie has won here back in 2008 and has the ball striking to tear the place apart provided he settles on the greens, Young guns Fowler and Mannasero are teeing up together with ALavro Quiros so could one of those tear up the title run in, whoever takes the title it promises to be an exciting 4days of golf over what can only be described as the Marmite Course of the PGA Tour you either love it or you hate it!

Like Westwood, McIlroy isn't a full member of the PGA and could probably have done with missing this one anyway, even if he hadn't said he didn't like the course. He's already said that his schedule is hectic for the next few weeks so this tournament can easily be passed by as it's only in America it's seen as the fifth major. Over in Europe it's not that big a deal.

As for Woods not stating that a course doesn't suit him, he certainly does a good job of playing as few tournaments as he can get away with, perhaps it's because he can't be bothered, however I'll wager there's a few courses he prefers not to play, even if he doesn't admit to it.

It's generally reckoned that Tiger doesn't do his own Tweets as all the others do - someone in his management team does them for him. They'd probably be just as boring if he did his own but at least we'd know what sort of education he had and whether he can spell and punctuate or not

super_realist wrote:A bit dull??????

I wonder if we've got at cross purposes here. TW (in his twitter form) is most certainly terminally dull - so much so that it seems likely that it's not really him after all but someone from his PR team.

I don't think we are talking at cross purposes Davie, I meant "a bit dull" as in "bit" was being too kind to him. He is undoubtedly the sports most dreary high profile player. He never does anything except "state the bleeding obvious". We all know he's dull dull dull, so why wouldn't it be him tweeting?
Just how boring would you have to be to get someone else to do your tweets for you, and still not be interesting or insightful. Why bother to tweet at all?, probably just doesn't like other people getting headlines and publicity over him, so even having a puppet doing your tweets seems like a good idea to him. I don't think he can be right in the head.

Sorry s_r I must've missed your sarcasm

yadda, yadda, you 2.

anyway, kaymer's off to a blinder, birdieing the first 4 with magnificent approach shots. nice to see him back on form. look forward to catching up tomorrow morning to see what sort of start donald and mcdowell get off to.

and kaymer's bagged another one to make it 5 birdies in the forst 7 holes and he joins toms at the top of the leaderboard.

now i really should be going to bed but this is too good not to watch. sorry kids, tired, grumpy daddy in the morning ;-)

anyway...


pgatour.com's reporting that the hole location was moved on 16 after stormy weather made the original one unplayable. Can anyone tell me what this actually meant? I assume that when they moved the hole no players had actually reached 16, cos otherwise I can't see how it's gonna be fair; surely you can't move the hole after some have played it and others haven't, otherwise you're giving certain people an advantage based on the relative difficulty of the change.

I'd have thought they would have to place the pin somewhere of similar difficulty as the groups of Ben Crane, Angel Cabrera and Peter Hanson, Ben Curtis had all played the 16th at time of rain delay!

The end of the third round is quite interesting. The whole field started with a giant charge forward, but at the end several players in the lead pack fell apart. Glover and Watney really messed up, and Donald lost quite a bit of momentum. Choi's early -11 looks better now, but McDowell is really charging. It will be his to lose.

Too bad it's not on TV in the UK - at least I assume it's not.

Oooops, McDowell has just hit the ball in the water on 18. Somebody should tell these guys this is only the third round.

Maverick wrote:I'd have thought they would have to place the pin somewhere of similar difficulty as the groups of Ben Crane, Angel Cabrera and Peter Hanson, Ben Curtis had all played the 16th at time of rain delay!

I don't think it matters much that these back markers have played it. Since the hole was destroyed, they had to fix it, that's all they could do. Golf has a lot of unfair things in it.

vinyl - Sky had it on the red button, with the Iberdrola on the main feed.

GMac heading backwards now while Toms looks pretty steady.

How many chances does Watney need to get back into this? He hardly sunk a putt in r2 despite giving himself a rake of birdie chances, blew up this morning and looking lost now after giving away a flying start.

KJ the only one putting pressure on Toms now. On a side note, thank flip the ASA rejected the complaints about the Paddy Power 'Tiddles' ad. The replacement ad really wound me up but that one cracks me up every time.

Poor way for it to end, Toms 3 jabbing 17 on first playoff hole after draining a brilliant 20 footer on 18. KJ's Engrish is great!

Great tournament. Always a joy to watch, got myself a nice little win as well with Donald e/w.

I'd backed Watney, decent ew return but frustrated that the winning scoreline was a number he was on after 45 holes of the tournament. He was -1 on the Par 5s for the weekend, very poor for somebody with his long game. Not only that but he missed a rake of putts on the back 9 each day esp 12-18, he could have been out of sight after 36 holes. I am sure he will be even more frustrated than me though.

Good betting week for me each way on Donald and Stricker. But once again proved you do not need length to win the big events, you need accuracy, a good wedge game and decent putter, surely no coincidence as last years winner Tim Clarke a short hitter won, now this year we have a leader board littered with guys down the down distance rankings taking up top spots with the likes of Toms, Donald, Stricker, and the Winner Choi, but all hit a shed load of fairways this week and played some great approaches from 130 and in.

Good tournament this year Well Done KJ

That's also Donald now upto World No2 above Kaymer and breathing down LW's neck, impressive form from Donald 7 straight top 10 finishes. But still no idea what KJ said in that winners speech

Donald has had a fantastic season so far, and has been in contention week after week, so deserves to be right up there. Gmac looked like he was getting his game back, but had 3 wet disasters yesterday which carded a 79 final round. I realise that after his first blunder that he had to attack and chase the pin, but the result was another set back for him, and I hope he can get through it. I still feel however that money has cost him, because there's no way I would have changed clubs after the season he had last year. He's obviously struggling for consistency with the new Srixon's and he should have stayed with Callaways that saw him win time after time. Yes he should do what he did with regard to cashing in on all the offered endorsements as he deserved it, but crazy to change his tools that got him in the position to get the offers.

Last night it seemed that nobody wanted it, and I had a feeling that Toms would struggle if he was put under pressure, due to the fact he's not been up there for a few years. Only KJ was really going for it though, and even he missed 3 great short putt chances to take the lead or tie at the top. Why Toms decided to take the water on instead of playing safe, only he knows. Pleased that Sergio had a great round, and besides the odd bad putt looked to have his game back, and carding a -7 in those conditions was great and would have earned him a few quid. Watney seemed really inconsistent yesterday, so don't know what went on there, but it was his for the taking and he had GMac moments throughout yesterdays final round.

Doc wrote:Donald has had a fantastic season so far, and has been in contention week after week, so deserves to be right up there.

Given the the OGWR rewards consistency, I think you could put a good argument together to say that Luke should already be Number 1

He would appear to deserve it at least as much as LW

On this seasons form alone Luke is and should be the World No1 but its a 2year system for fairness to all which means LW is still No1 for his consistency over that period which cannot be argued but if Luke continues his form which I think he will, He will get to No1 this year and I can see a major this year for him too.

As for Toms at 16 even before he played the shot I was wondering why he had the fairway wood in hand. But can't take anything away from KJ great play and a great champ surprised he isn't higher in OGWR considering how consistent he is too