This week brings with it the biggest non-major golf tournament of the year as the PGA Tour hits The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Most of the top players in the world will be in action, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson, still the biggest three draws in golf.
TPC Sawgrass is best known for the famous island green on the 17th hole, which is a par-three with a treacherous shot over water that puts the pressure on down the stretch on Sunday. The course as a hole is a demanding layout that typically calls for precision, as Pete Dye designed a track full of pitfalls and what some players call unfair bounces on reasonably well hit shots.
The Players Championship offers the biggest purse in golf at nearly $10 million, which has drawn all of the top 30 players in the world. With the theater of the finishing holes and all of the best and brightest stars of the PGA Tour in attendance, it’s a great venue and event for fans to check out.
Tiger Woods attempts to win the event for just the second time in his career. For whatever reason, TPC Sawgrass hasn’t been a great course for Woods. His lone win came in 2001 when he was on top of the golf world by a wide margin and since, he’s only finished in the top 10 once.
Rory McIlroy more or less boycotted the event in 2011 and has admitted that the course doesn’t suit his eye, but will be in attendance this week hoping to change his own perceptions of TPC Sawgrass.
Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson will have to reign in his tee shots after a wild week at Quail Hollow in which spectacular putting kept him in the mix even as he took a tour of some wide-reaching parts of the golf course. That style is not likely to work at TPC Sawgrass, but as a former winner of The Players Championship, Mickelson knows that.
With the event upon us, don’t miss out on getting your tickets today.