The Players Championship (commonly known as simplyThe Players, stylized by the PGA Tour asTHE PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on thePGA Tour. Originally known as theTournament Players Championship, it began in1974.[2] The Players Championship at one point offered the highest purse of any tournament in golf (from $12.5 million in 2019 up to $25 million in 2023).[3][4] The field usually includes the top 50 players in theworld rankings, but, unlike themajor 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, dubbedthe fifth major,[5] 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 inPonte Vedra Beach, Florida (theTPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course at which the tournament has been played since1982, home of the iconic par-3 No. 17 "Island Green").[6][7]
As of 2023, the victor receives $4.5 million, the winner's share (18%) of the largest purse in golf ($25 million),[8] and receives 80 points towards hisworld 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.[9]
In 1976 the PGA Tour agreed a multi-year deal to play the event up the coast atSawgrass Country Club inPonte Vedra Beach in mid-March, beginning in1977.[13][14] Since1982,[15][16] it has been played across the road to the west, at the Stadium Course atTPC at Sawgrass.[7] The word "Tournament" was dropped from the title following the1987 event.
Following the2006 event, the course underwent a major renovation, which received very positive reviews from the players in2007. Included in the renovation was a new 77,000-square-foot (7,150 m2)Mediterranean Revival-style clubhouse.
For the first thirty years at Ponte Vedra Beach, the championship was played in mid- to late March, several weeks beforeThe Masters. (Three weeks prior for the first six seasons(1977–1982), then two weeks prior in1983.) 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 lucrativeFedEx Cup, which concludes withThe Tour Championship. The change gave the PGA Tour a marquee event in six consecutive months (The Masters in April, The Players in May, theU.S. Open in June,The Open Championship in July, thePGA Championship in August, and the Tour Championship in September).[18]
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 worepink shirts or accessories on Sunday, and many in the galleries also joined them in donning pink garb. (The two exceptions were in2011 and2016, when the final round was on Sunday, May 15.)[citation needed]
In August 2017, it was announced that The Players would return to March beginning in2019, due to a realignment of the golf season that moves the PGA Championship from August to May.[19][20][21]
The playoff format wassudden-death through2013, lately starting at the par-3 17th hole. The format was changed to a three-hole aggregate in2014, similar to thePGA 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.[22]
The only playoff prior to the Stadium Course was in1981.[23] Since moving to the Stadium Course in 1982, there has been a playoff on five occasions (1987,2008,2011,2015,2025). 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;[24] the next two were won with pars at the first extra hole (17). 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.
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.
Phil Mickelson with the 2007 Players Championship trophy
1974:Jack Nicklaus wins the inaugural edition of the tournament. He beatsJ. C. Snead by two shots near Atlanta.[27]
1977:Mark Hayes wins by two shots overMike McCullough at Sawgrass Country Club, despite shooting the highest winning score on the PGA Tour, 289, since Nicklaus at the1972 U.S. Open.[28]
1978: Jack Nicklaus wins his third Tournament Players Championship title. He edgesLou Graham by one shot.[29]
1979:Bob Murphy, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, shoots a final round 92. Winds were gusting up to 45 miles per hour that day.[30]
1983:Hal Sutton wins by one shot over Bob Eastwood.John Cook came to the 72nd hole tied for the lead with Sutton before hitting his tee shot in the water on his way to a double bogey.[33]
1984:Fred Couples shoots a course record 64[34] during the second round of play on his way to a one-shot victory over Lee Trevino.[35]
1986:John Mahaffey wins by one shot overLarry Mize after Mize makes bogey on four of the last five holes during the final round of play.[36]
1987:Sandy Lyle defeatsJeff Sluman with a par on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff. At the playoff's second hole, Sluman stood over a 6-foot (1.8 m) birdie putt to win, and a spectator jumped into the water surrounding the 17th green. He backed away, then missed.[37][38][24]
1989:Tom Kite wins for the second consecutive week. He beatsChip Beck by one shot.[40]
1991:Steve Elkington wins by one shot overFuzzy Zoeller.Phil Blackmar had solo possession of the lead before hitting his tee shot into the water on the 71st hole resulting in a double bogey.[41]
1992:Mark Calcavecchia andJohn Daly, the first pair on the final day of the tournament, are reprimanded by Deputy PGA Tour CommissionerTim Finchem "for failure to exert their best effort" after they finish their 18 holes of golf in only two hours and three minutes.[42]
1994:Greg Norman shoots the 72-hole record score for the tournament, 264, on his way to a four shot victory over Fuzzy Zoeller.[43]
1995: After Norman's record score, the course is made tougher by the creation of new, rock hard greens.Lee Janzen shoots 283 to win the tournament, the biggest one-year swing for a tournament played on the same layout inPGA Tour history.[44]
1996: Twelve years after his first win at the TPC at Sawgrass, Fred Couples triumphs again. He shoots a final round 64 to beatColin Montgomerie andTommy Tolles by four shots.[45]
1999:David Duval wins by two shots overScott Gump. The win by Duval propels him to No. 1 in the World rankings.[46]
2000: Hal Sutton wins at the TPC at Sawgrass for a second time. He edgesTiger Woods by one shot.[47]
2002: Playing for the first time ever in The Players Championship,Craig Perks finishes eagle-birdie-par to win by two shots overStephen Ames. It is the only PGA Tour win for Perks.[48]
2003: Davis Love III wins The Players Championship for a second time. He shoots a final round 64 to win by six shots overJay Haas andPádraig Harrington.[49]
2004: In spite of hitting his 2nd shot at the 72nd hole into the water,Adam Scott is able to get it up and down for bogey to win by one shot over Pádraig Harrington.[50]
2005:Fred Funk becomes the tournament's oldest champion by edgingTom Lehman,Luke Donald, andScott Verplank by one shot. During the final round,Bob Tway hits four balls into the water surrounding the 17th green, scoring a twelve on the hole.[51]
2010: After 206 career PGA Tour starts,Tim Clark breaks through for his first Tour win.
2011:K. J. Choi becomes the first Asian born golfer to win The Players Championship. He defeatsDavid Toms on the first hole of a sudden death playoff.[52]
2013:Roberto Castro ties the course record with a 9-under 63 in the opening round.[53]Sergio García, tied for the lead with Tiger Woods at 13-under par going to the par-3 17th hole in the final round, puts two balls into the water.Tiger Woods wins the event for the first time since 2001. It is his 78th career PGA Tour win in his 300th start.
2015: The tournament's first aggregate three-hole playoff over holes 16–18 was won byRickie Fowler, who defeatedKevin Kisner on the first hole of sudden-death afterSergio García had been eliminated.[55]
2017: 21-year-oldKim Si-woo becomes the event's youngest winner.
2020: The tournament was canceled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[56] The first round had been played.Hideki Matsuyama led, having tied the course record with a score of 63 (−9).[57] Half of the $15 million purse was distributed to the players who played the first round, $52,000 each.[58]
2024:Scottie Scheffler overcomes a five shot deficit heading into the final round to become the first back-to-back winner.[59]
2025:Rory McIlroy wins his second Players Championship after defeatingJ. J. Spaun in a Monday three-hole aggregate playoff.[60]
Former PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush shakes hands with Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan and then received the Professional Golfers Association Tour Lifetime Achievement Award.
Rory McIlroy
2025 Players Championship
J. J. Spaun
Tyrrell Hatton
Cameron Smith
Anirban Lahiri
Charl Schwartzel
Kim Si-woo
Sergio García
Martin Kaymer
David Lingmerth
Martin Laird
Stephen Ames
Pádraig Harrington
Craig Perks
Stephen Ames
Vijay Singh
Nick Price
