The Players Championship


The Players Championship is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour and is the tour's flagship event. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The Players Championship at one point offered the highest purse of any tournament in golf. The field usually includes the top 50 players in the Official [World Golf Ranking|world rankings], but, unlike the major championships, it is owned by the PGA Tour and not an official event on other tours.
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. This is because of the characteristics it shares with the majors, such as the high class field, challenging course conditions, and its large purse. It also has a renowned host course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Format

As of 2023, the victor receives $4.5 million, the winner's share of the largest purse in golf, and receives 80 points towards his world ranking, the largest share aside from the majors, for which winners earn 100 points. For comparison, the winners of other leading tournaments receive between 65 and 70 points.
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 Open |U.S. Open], The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. The winner earns 600 FedEx Cup points, if a PGA Tour member.

Field

The field comprises 120 players who constitute:
  1. Winners of PGA Tour events since last Players
  2. Top 100 from previous season's FedEx Cup points list
  3. Top 100
  4. Major champions from the past five years
  5. Players Championship winners from the past five years
  6. PGA Tour winners from the past year
  7. World Golf Championship winners from the past three years
  8. Memorial Tournament, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Genesis Invitational winners from the past three years
  9. Top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking the week prior to the event
  10. Senior Players Championship champion from prior year
  11. Korn Ferry Tour money leader from prior season
  12. Money leader during the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, if not the regular-season money leader
  13. Top 10 current year FedEx Cup points leaders
  14. Remaining positions and alternates filled from the current season FedEx Cup standings

    History

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 these first three years the event replaced existing events, the Atlanta Classic in 1974, the Colonial National Invitational in 1975 and the Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic in 1976, which each returned to the schedule the following year.
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.
Following the 2006 event, the course underwent a major renovation, which received very positive reviews from the players in 2007. Included in the renovation was a new Mediterranean Revival-style clubhouse.
The 2020 Players Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seven players have won The Players and a major championship in the same calendar year: Jack Nicklaus, Hal Sutton, Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer, Cameron Smith, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

Move to May

For the first thirty years at Ponte Vedra Beach, the championship was played in mid- to late March, several weeks before The Masters. It was moved to May in 2007, to the weekend including the second Saturday, 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. The change gave the PGA Tour a marquee event in six consecutive months.
With the rearrangement of 2007, the final round of The Players Championship was usually on the second Sunday of May, Mother's Day in the United States. To mark this, most players wore pink shirts or accessories on Sunday, and many in the galleries also joined them in donning pink garb.
In August 2017, it was announced that The Players would return to March beginning in 2019, due to a realignment of the golf season that moves the PGA Championship from August to May.

Playoffs

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, similar to the PGA Championship, 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.
The only playoff prior to the Stadium Course was in 1981. Since moving to the Stadium Course in 1982, there has been a playoff on five occasions. The 1987 playoff started at the par-5 16th and went to a third extra hole at the par-4 18th, with three pars by the winner; the next two were won with pars at the first extra hole. The 2015 playoff was the first for the three-hole aggregate; it went to sudden-death and became the first to be won with a birdie.

Venues

Course lengths

Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Source:

Multiple winners

Jack Nicklaus has the most wins, having won three of the first five events, in alternating years and on different courses. Since Players Championship moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982, a further seven players have won twice, with Scottie Scheffler being the only player to successfully defend the title. In contrast to Scheffler, the 17 years between Hal Sutton's first and second titles is the longest period between wins in the competitions history, while three other players have waited more than ten years for their second title.