Author: Matt Fargo - Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The first major of the new season tees off on Thursday at THE PLAYERS Championship. Well, it's not an official major but the players treat it like one and the purse certainly pays out like one. The winner will earn in excess of $1.44 million in what is the strongest field of the season. The TPC at Sawgrass is one of the best known courses around, namely for its signature 17th hole, but last year it was the 18th hole that proved to be the toughest test for players.

49 of the world's top 50 are at Sawgrass, the sole exception being Kenny Perry who is still recovering from knee surgery. The field also includes 84 of the top 100, nine of the past 10 PLAYERS champions and the winners of the past 24 majors. The Big Five of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els have combined for only one win at THE PLAYERS, that being Woods, and Mickelson is the only other that has been atop the leaderboard. That happened in 2000 after the first round.

Woods had a good run a few years back finishing 10th, 2nd and then winning it in 2001. Since then however, he has not been in contention as his best finish the last four years was a tie for 11th in 2003. He closed last year with a pair of 75's over the weekend and has not had a lot of success as less than half of his career rounds have been under par. He does not come into this event with a lot of momentum as he struggled last week at Bay Hill with four rounds in the 70's.

Fred Funk was the improbable winner last year thanks to finishing the week 1st in driving accuracy. That stat was important in the bad weather that extended the tournament into Monday. History is not on Funk's side this year however as there has never been a repeat winner at THE PLAYERS Championship. As a matter of fact, only six players have finished in the top 10 the following year after winning with Adam Scott being the most recent last year.

Luke Donald was the leader after Friday and Saturday last year but he closed with a final round 76 and finished in a tie for 2nd. 2005 was the first year in three career starts that he made the cut and he is playing very well right now so he should be in contention once again. He has finished 24th or better in all of his starts including three top 10's and a win at the Honda Classic in his last start two weeks back. Dating back to last season, he has not finished outside the top 25 in his last eight events.

Tom Lehman was a contender for four years between 1997 and 2001 before hitting a skid the next three years. A final round 68 put him in a tie for 2nd last year, which was impressive considering the Monday scoring average was 76.5. Lehman is this year's U.S. Ryder Cup captain and looks to become the first United States playing captain since 1963. Lehman has two top 10 finishes this year along with a 4th place finish at the Accenture Match Play.

Taking a look at some of the odds, Woods is a 9-2 favorite followed by Singh at 14-1 and then it bunches up after that. Adam Scott, the 2004 champion and David Toms, the hottest player on tour, are both at 25-1 which are excellent odds as both should play well again this week. Chad Campbell, off to the best start of his career is at 40-1 as is Geoff Ogilvy, who has missed only one cut this year and has five top 20 finishes. Looking for a sleeper? Lucas Glover is at 80-1 and has finishes of 4th, 5th, 6th and 10th along with two other top 20's in his eight starts.

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