The Players Championship

Lore & Background

The Players Championship was conceived by the PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman; the inaugural event in 1974 was played at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia, concluding on Labor Day weekend in early September. It moved to Texas in 1975, at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth in August, and then to south Florida in 1976 at Inverrary Country Club in Lauderhill, at its East Course in late February. In 1976 the PGA Tour agreed a multi-year deal to play the event up the coast at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach in mid-March, beginning in 1977. Since 1982, it has been played across the road to the west, at the Stadium Course at TPC at Sawgrass. The word 'Tournament' was dropped from the title following the 1987 event. The 2020 Players Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Their Own Story

The May sun hangs low and amber over the 17th. The grandstand is a wall of faces, thousands of them, breathing in unison. A player steps to the tee, caddie settling the bag with the soft thud of leather on turf. The wind is coming off the water, cross and sneaky, the kind that makes the flagstick tremble without a visible cause. The crowd has gone quiet—not silent, never silent, but hushed, the way a cathedral goes quiet before a reading. The player addresses the ball. The swing is a whisper. The ball leaves the face with a sound like a struck bell, rising into the orange sky, and for two seconds nobody breathes. Then it lands, rolls, stops. The stadium detonates. The caddie drops the bag and presses his palms against his eyes. Somewhere in the third row, a woman who has made the pilgrimage every year for eleven straight summers lets out a sound that is half laugh, half sob, and her husband squeezes her hand. The flagstick stands in the cup, swaying. The week is not over. But for this one moment, it is perfect.

Reader's Guide

As of 2023, the victor receives $4.5 million, the winner's share (18%) of the largest purse in golf ($25 million), and receives 80 points towards his world ranking. The winner also receives a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a three-year invitation to the Masters Tournament, and three-year exemptions for the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. The winner earns 750 FedEx Cup points. The field comprises 120 players who constitute: Winners of PGA Tour events since last Players; Top 100 from previous season's FedEx Cup points list; Top 100 (medical); Major champions from the past five years; Players Championship winners from the past five years; PGA Tour winners from the past year; World Golf Championship winners from the past three years; Memorial Tournament, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Genesis Invitational winners from the past three years; Top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking the week prior to the event; Senior Players Championship champion from prior year; Korn Ferry Tour money leader from prior season; Money leader during the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, if not the regular-season money leader; Top 10 current year FedEx Cup points leaders; Remaining positions and alternates filled from the current season FedEx Cup standings. The playoff format was sudden-death through 2013, lately starting at the par-3 17th hole. The format was changed to a three-hole aggregate in 2014, played over the final three holes, in order. If still tied, the playoff goes to sudden-death on the same three holes, but starts at the 17th.

Did You Know?

• Despite not being a major, it has been promoted as such by the tour, dubbed the 'fifth major', and is often regarded as the next most prestigious tournament in golf.
• The tournament has a renowned host course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (the TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course, home of the iconic par-3 No. 17 'Island Green').
• Jack Nicklaus is tied for the most wins with three, having won three of the first five events.
• Scottie Scheffler is the only player to successfully defend the title since the move to TPC Sawgrass in 1982.
• Seven players have won The Players and a major championship in the same calendar year: Jack Nicklaus (1978, Open), Hal Sutton (1983, PGA), Tiger Woods (2001, Masters), Martin Kaymer (2014, U.S. Open), Cameron Smith (2022