The Players Championship
Presented by the media as the fifth major of the year, the Players Championship is the most illustrious event of the PGA Tour. It offers the richest purse in world golf and consequently attracts a field made up of the top 50 golfers on the Official World Golf Ranking. The 2008 tournament will be held from 5-11 May.
Not only will the 2008 winner pocket a very tidy sum, but the added bonuses include numerous points which count towards the year-end Official World Golf Ranking, and invitations and exemptions to the four Grand Slam events held each year.
Since the early 1980s the event has been played on one of the toughest golf courses on the planet - the Stadium Course at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass - less formally known as TPC at Sawgrass. The club is situated in the famed Ponte Vedra Beach area in Florida, and is home to the PGA Tour HQ itself.
The only downside to the Players Championship is that it is not considered an official event on the European Tour, unlike the four Majors. This goes a long way to explaining why the event has been dominated by American golfers through the years. The European Tour has its own Players Championship, the Deutsche Bank Players Championship of Europe.
Since 2007 the event has been hosted in May, and The Players Championship is now part of very elite company. The first Major of the year is the Masters which is played at Augusta in April. TPC Sawgrass is then the venue for the Players Championship in May. This is closely followed by the US Open in June, the British Open in July and the PGA Championship in August.
Tickets to the 2008 Players Championship are already available, and although it is probably the next best thing to the Majors, it does not demand the exorbitantly high prices of the Grand Slams of golf, especially the Masters.
The current defending champion is the world number two, Phil Mickelson, but there is one man who has made the Players Championship his own, and that is the celebrated ‘Golden Bear’, Jack Nicklaus. He is the only man to have claimed the championships on three occasions, and deserves to be one of the champions of the Players Championship. Australia’s Greg Norman holds the course record, and is also deserving of his title as champion.
To make the tournament more intriguing why not wager a bob or two on the outcome of the 2008 Players Championship? The Players Championship Betting Guide and the Players Championship Odds page will give you a couple of tips on betting on golf and the Players Championship in particular.
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