The Players Championship 2008 - Fifth Major

The Players Championship is an annual golf tournament 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 2004-06, $9 million in 2007), and is sometimes referred to by certain sections of the North American media as the "Fifth Major", but it does not have official major status. The field usually includes the top fifty golfers in the world rankings, but unlike the three majors which are staged in the U.S., 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 40 points towards his Official World Golf Ranking, which is the most allocated to any event apart from the majors, in which winners earn 50 points. For comparison, the winners of the three individual World Golf Championships generally receive between 35 and 39 points. The winner of The Players Championship also receives a 5 year exemption on the PGA Tour, a 3 year invitation to The Masters, a 3 year exemption for the British Open, and an exemption to the U.S. Open and 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 USGA, the British Open by the R&A, and the PGA Championship by the PGA of America.

The Players Championship is best known for what may be the single most recognizable par 3 in professional golf, the Stadium Course's 17th hole, known to golf fans worldwide as "the Island Green" and what has become TPC Sawgrass' signature hole.

The Players Championship had been played in late March for most of its existence, two weeks before The Masters. In 2007 it was moved to mid-May, as part of a restructuring of the PGA Tour. This restructuring involved the introduction of the lucrative FedEx Cup, which concludes with the Tour Championship, now played six weeks earlier, in mid-September. This gives the PGA Tour a marquee event in six consecutive months (The Masters in April, the U.S. Open in June, the British Open in July, and the PGA Championship in August). [1]

Following the 2006 event, the course underwent a major renovation, which received very positive reviews from the players in 2007.

With the rearrangement of 2007, the final round of The Players Championship is scheduled for the second Sunday of May, Mother's Day. This parallels the U.S. Open, which concludes on the third Sunday of June, Father's Day.

For 2008
Date: May 8 – 11, 2008
Place: TPC Sawgrass Ponte Vedra Beach, FL


Credit: Wikipedia