Inside The Players Championship
INSIDE THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
The Players Tournament does not have a long and rich history in the majors; however, the history it does have is very interesting and important to the PGA Tour. If you ask the PGA Tour, they want the Players Tournament to be a major, and have done their best to make the tournament a major in the players themselves. Joe Dey, the first commissioner of the PGA Tour then called the Tournament Players Division of the PGA, had the original vision for the tournament. The tournament was played on four different courses before landing on it’s current home, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. No tournament in the world pays more to the victor than The Players Tournament, which in 2013, paid $1.71 Million dollars to Tiger Woods. The large purse is a big reason the tournament fields are some of the greatest in the world. The beginnings of the tournament are quite interesting, as well as, the beginnings of the course the tournament now calls home. The original idea for the Tournament Players Championship, the original name, was to reward the Tour’s best sponsors with the season ending tournament hosted in the sponsor’s local communities. The first tournament was in 1974, on Labor Day weekend hosted at The Atlanta Country Club in Georgia with a purse of $250,000, the largest purse at the time. The tournament was billed as the Super Bowl for the Tournament Players Division. The European tour had the British Open, the USGA had the US Open, the PGA had the PGA Championship, and the Masters stood alone on its own. The Tour needed it’s own tournament, and found their tournament in the Tournament Players Championship. The ‘Major’ talk came out right away, with Lee Trevino saying that this tournament should replace the Masters in golf’s Grand Slam. Jack Nicklaus contended the new tournament should become a major. Nicklaus, who had won three of the first five Players Championships said, “If we took
The Players Tournament does not have a long and rich history in the majors; however, the history it does have is very interesting and important to the PGA Tour. If you ask the PGA Tour, they want the Players Tournament to be a major, and have done their best to make the tournament a major in the players themselves. Joe Dey, the first commissioner of the PGA Tour then called the Tournament Players Division of the PGA, had the original vision for the tournament. The tournament was played on four different courses before landing on it’s current home, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. No tournament in the world pays more to the victor than The Players Tournament, which in 2013, paid $1.71 Million dollars to Tiger Woods. The large purse is a big reason the tournament fields are some of the greatest in the world. The beginnings of the tournament are quite interesting, as well as, the beginnings of the course the tournament now calls home. The original idea for the Tournament Players Championship, the original name, was to reward the Tour’s best sponsors with the season ending tournament hosted in the sponsor’s local communities. The first tournament was in 1974, on Labor Day weekend hosted at The Atlanta Country Club in Georgia with a purse of $250,000, the largest purse at the time. The tournament was billed as the Super Bowl for the Tournament Players Division. The European tour had the British Open, the USGA had the US Open, the PGA had the PGA Championship, and the Masters stood alone on its own. The Tour needed it’s own tournament, and found their tournament in the Tournament Players Championship. The ‘Major’ talk came out right away, with Lee Trevino saying that this tournament should replace the Masters in golf’s Grand Slam. Jack Nicklaus contended the new tournament should become a major. Nicklaus, who had won three of the first five Players Championships said, “If we took
References: Carter, I (2012, May 8). How 'the fifth major ' won the heart of Sandy Lyle [Web blog]. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/iaincarter/2012/05/how_the_fifth_major_caught_the.html. PGA Tour (n.d.). The Players Championship. Retreived from http://together.pgatour.com/tournaments/r011.html PGA Tour (n.d.). The Players. Retrived from http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/the-players-championship.html Schupak, A (2011). Deane Beman – Golf’s Driving Force Orlando, FL: East Cottage Press.