The Players Championship

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The Players Championship (often styled 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**
2006 Stephen Ames	Canada
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

**Tournament Players Championship**
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