What You Need to Know About The Players Championship
By: Derek Clements | Mon 10 Mar 2025
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The Players Championship has long enjoyed a prestigious and iconic place in the game, but what are some pieces of trivia that you may not know about it? Golfshake's Derek Clements has picked out the following facts for your attention.
It was first played in September 1974 at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia. It moved to Texas in 1975 to Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth and then to Inverrary Country Club in Florida in 1976, when it was played in February.
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 at the Pete Dye-designed Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Following the 2006 event, the course underwent a major renovation.
Six players have won The Players and a major in the same calendar year: Jack Nicklaus (1978, Open), Hal Sutton (1983, US PGA), Tiger Woods (2001, Masters), Martin Kaymer (2014, US Open), Cameron Smith (2022, The Open), Scottie Scheffler (2024, Masters).
For 30 years it was held in March, being moved to May in 2007. 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 moved the PGA Championship from August to May.
Scottie Scheffler is the only player to successfully defend the title. Jack Nicklaus won three of the first five events, but in alternating years on different courses. Since moving to TPC Sawgrass in 1982, five players have won twice.
The winner collects a staggering $4.5m, the biggest purse on the PGA Tour, and a five-year exemption.
Slow play is the curse of professional golf today. In 1992 Mark Calcavecchia and John Daly were reprimanded by Deputy PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem "for failure to exert their best effort" after they finished 18 holes in only two hours and three minutes.
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Tags: TPC Sawgrass The Players PGA Tour FedEx Cup
