The Players Championship

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Tournament information
The Players Championship

Location	Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Established	1974
Course(s)	TPC at Sawgrass, Stadium Course
Par	72
Yardage	7,093
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Format	Stroke play
Purse	$9,000,000
Month Played	May
Tournament record score
Aggregate	264 Greg Norman (1994)
To-par	-24 Greg Norman (1994)
Current champion
Phil Mickelson

The Players Championship (often styled 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 U.S. Open is owned and administered by the USGA, the British Open by the R&A, the PGA Championship by the PGA of America, (as opposed to the PGA Tour), and The Masters by the Augusta National Golf Club.

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, but in 2007 it was moved to mid-May, as part of a restructuring of the PGA Tour. This restructuring also involves the introduction of the lucrative FedEx Cup, which concludes with an earlier Tour Championship, now played six weeks earlier in mid-September. This allows the PGA Tour to have 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] Also, between the 2006 and 2007 events the course has undergone major renovation which has received very positive reviews from the players during the 2007 event.

**The Players Championship**
2007 Phil Mickelson	United States
2006 Stephen Ames	Trinidad and Tobago / 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