It is not among the magnificent four, that is, the tournaments that make up the Grand Slam, but unofficially it is unofficially considered as ‘the fifth great’. The Players Championship, of the American Tour, gathers this week at the TPC Sawgrass designed by Pete Dye the best of world golf. The line-up is of the highest luxury: 49 of the top 50 in the world ranking.
The highest expectations are placed on world number one and two, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, especially after their respective victories in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play for the Northern Irishman and in the Augusta Masters for the American.
Another favorite is the defending champion, the German Martin Kaymer, now seventeenth in the world ranking and who won last year’s The Players after 28 months of victory drought. However, that title was so good for him that a few weeks later he won the US Open.
The return of Tiger Woods to the competition will also generate great expectation after two months of retirement to try to regain the talent he once had. The Masters was the last tournament played before this event by Woods, one of only six players to have won this ‘fifth major’ more than once, most recently in 2013.
Sergio Garcia, tenth in the world ranking, will tee off the first day in a group with Phil Mickelson and K.J. Choi. All three have won The Players. Mickelson, who finished second at this year’s Masters, won in 2007, Garcia the following year and Choi in 2011.
But undoubtedly the star trio of the first day will be McIlroy, Spieth and Jason Day. All three have won a tournament this season. The Northern Irishman, who won his tenth PGA Tour victory last week, has finished in the top-10 in the last two The Players. Spieth had a great debut at this tournament last year. He finished fourth and played Sunday in the final group alongside eventual champion Martin Kaymer. Day, seventh in the world ranking and winner of this year’s Farmers Insurance Open, had his best record at The Players in 2011 when he finished sixth.
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