Since 1974 with Jack Nicklaus’ historic win over J.C. Snead at the original Players Championship at the Atlanta Country Club, The Players has been one of the PGA Tour’s most-coveted titles.
It’s one of the most anticipated tournaments because it boasts the strongest field in golf, as well as the biggest payday.
The 146-man field for the 2015 Players, with minor exceptions, is set.
It’s a field that includes defending winner Martin Kaymer, Masters champion Jordan Spieth, two-time Players winner Tiger Woods, 2007 Players champion Phil Mickelson and the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, Rory McIlroy.
The tournament runs Tuesday-Sunday.
From golf’s largest $10 million purse, the winning Player receives $1.8 million. Those are big numbers but they pale in comparison to the impact of the tournament.
The 2014 Players had an estimated $151 million economic impact on the local area. Attendance in 2014 reached a record, with more than 179,000 spectators visiting the tournament.
The Players anticipates exceeding that record this year. Television coverage of the tournament will be available to nearly 1 billion worldwide viewers this week.
This is a truly incredible event that takes place in our backyard and is a must-attend if you enjoy golf.
Because you live in Jacksonville or the surrounding area you are familiar with the tournament.
However, you may not know the interesting history about The Players.
The Players is the direct result of the efforts of the second PGA Tour commissioner, Deane Beman, to create a special host site for the event.
The event would be the only one owned by the players of the PGA Tour and Beman’s vision was to find a permanent host site for the event.
Beman’s first choice was Sawgrass Country Club, owned by Arvida Corp. at the time. Beman attempted to negotiate a deal with Sawgrass, but Arvida was not willing to sell.
Arvida Chairman Charles Cobb was confident a deal would not go through and even proposed a $100 “business sportsmanship” bet that Beman would not be able to get financing to construct such a facility.
A determined man, Beman sought other options to stay in Ponte Vedra Beach. He had one team in his corner.
The Fletcher brothers, major landowners in the area, believed in Beman’s dream and sold 415 acres of Florida swamps and wetlands to the PGA for a mere $1.
As you can imagine, approval within the PGA passed quickly to initiate the building of the Stadium Course.
The creation of the Stadium Course as host to The Players was based on several distinct concepts.
First, the location would be the permanent home of The Players and would be wholly owned by PGA Tour players.
Next, the course and the surrounding areas were designed and constructed with spectators in mind.
It was developed as a true “stadium” course designed and built to improve the fan experience.
The accomplishment of this conceptual idea was difficult because the site was flat, wet and heavily wooded.
As a result, lakes were created in strategic areas and fill from them was used to create huge swales for an enhanced spectator to view of play.
As it turned out, the best location for fill was located in the area of the 17th hole. An unexpected byproduct of the fill removal was its island green.
This area originally was designed as a small pond near the green but continued to be expanded for the valuable sand base. After completion of the excavation necessary to construct the swales, nearly all the area around the green was surrounded by water.
The 17th hole, now the most famous Par 3 in the world, is credited to golf course architect Pete Dye’s wife, Alice, who convinced him to leave the island green.
Another unique concept of the course was that the design favored no particular player or style of play.
This design effectively resulted in Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer failing to make the cut for the inaugural tournament at the Stadium Course in 1982.
Finally, prior to construction of TPC Sawgrass and the Stadium Course, most great tournaments were played exclusively at private clubs, where the average fan really had no chance to play.
The Players, on the other hand would be a great design and course that would be accessible to all golf fans.
More than 30 years after Beman first set his Players dream to life, The Players’ stands as not only one of the strongest fields in golf but also one of the most popularly played courses for golf fans around the world.
Volunteer experience
If you have never volunteered for The Players, you should try it. Each of the last five years, I have taken off the week of The Players to work with the other 2,000- plus volunteers that make the tournament possible. Without the dedication of these volunteers, who give up their time and actually pay for the right to be a volunteer, The Players would still only be a dream of Beman’s.
Due in large parts to their efforts, The Players last year generated 7.5 million benefitting approximately 320 charities.
Since 1977, the Players has generated an estimated 67.5 million for Northeast Florida charities.
Deadline extended
In case you have not signed up yet, The Players was kind enough to extend the JBA deadline to sell tickets.
However, we were only able to secure a limited number of additional tickets for this inaugural event that combines the opportunity to earn five CLE hours of ethics credits. It’s a tremendous entertaining and networking opportunity.
For the price of admission registrants receive access to the conference including CLE credits and a tremendous program, all-day course access to The Players, breakfast and lunch, afternoon access to our own private chalet, Dye’s Pavilion located on the 16th fairway, open bar and snacks during the afternoon networking event and parking.
The few remaining tickets will sell out quickly, so sign up by calling The Jacksonville Bar Association office at (904) 399-4486 or visiting jaxbar.org.
I hope to see you at The Players.