Every year brings some level of change to The Players Championship golf tournament at the TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The big one this year is the tournament’s move to March for the first time since 2006. Fans will definitely feel the cooler weather since last year’s tournament in May, but that’s not the only noticeable difference.
Fans driving to the course also will notice construction activity of the PGA Tour’s new 187,000-square-foot headquarters building along County Road 210.
The PGA Tour expects to move into that building in November 2020, Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday during a news conference.
“I'm always reluctant to say anything's on schedule,” Monahan said. But he sounded optimistic.
“We have broken ground, we're going vertical,” he said.
“All you need to do is to walk into or to drive into the general parking lot and you can see that,” he said. “We're well underway.”
The PGA Tour has about 800 employees working in 17 buildings in and around TPC Sawgrass. The new building not only consolidates the headquarters employees into one site but also allows it to expand, with plans to add about 300 jobs.
“We are now moving to a common headquarters on the back of the property,” Monahan said, “and we have had great community support in doing so.”
The Players Championship was moved to March as part of a revamping of the PGA Tour schedule, to get all the important events completed before football season. Although it’s not one of golf’s four major championship, The Players is a significant event in the season.
“You look at the depth of field and just look outside, look at the range, look at the field list, this is as strong as any field as you'll ever see,” Monahan said.
“The reason that we're in March is because when you look at the global competitive sports calendar, we felt this was a very strong position and an opportunity for more fans to follow and engage the players and the PGA Tour earlier in the season, which is good for the event and for the Tour,” he said.
Jared Rice, executive director of the tournament, said in an interview the move to March also is a boost for the Jacksonville area economy.
Rice said the move is attracting more fans from outside of Northeast Florida, because fans in colder climates are looking for an escape to better weather.
“As a tournament, we prioritize awareness of the tournament in the region outside Northeast Florida,” Rice said.
He said 60 percent of tickets sold are purchased outside of the five-county Jacksonville metropolitan area.
That’s a plus for area hotels.
“The Players Championship is usually their (hotels') highest occupancy and also the highest ADR (average daily rate),” he said.