The Players Championship (often styled as THE PLAYERS Championship or THE PLAYERS) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The Players Championship offers the highest prize fund of any tournament in golf ($10 million in 2015). The field usually includes the top 50 players in the world rankings, but unlike the three major championships staged in the United States, it is not an official event on the European Tour.
The Players has often been considered the unofficial "fifth major" due to its prestige, its host course (the TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course at which the tournament has been played since 1982, home of the iconic par-3 No. 17 "Island Green") and its considerably larger purse.
The victor receives $1.89 million, the winner's share (18%) of the largest purse of any tournament in golf ($10.5 million), and receives 80 points towards his world ranking, the largest share aside from the majors, for which winners earn 100 points. For comparison, the winners of the four individual World Golf Championships generally receive between 70 and 78 points. The winner also receives a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a three-year invitation to the Masters Tournament, three-year exemptions for the U.S. Open and The Open Championship, and an exemption to that year's PGA Championship in August. The winner earns 600 FedEx Cup points, if a PGA Tour member.
The field consists of 144 players consisting of the following criteria:
The Players Championship was conceived by the PGA Tour commissioner at the time, Deane Beman. The inaugural event in 1974 was played at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia, with the final round in early September. It moved to the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975 and to Inverrary Country Club in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 1976. Beginning in 1977, the event was played at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida in mid-March, initially at Sawgrass Country Club's Oceanside Course (a combination of the "East" and "West" 9-hole courses). Since 1982, the tournament has been played across the road from Sawgrass Country Club, on the Stadium Course at TPC at Sawgrass.
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