The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Is The Players a fifth major championship?

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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Is The Players a fifth major championship?

Florida: What some bill as the fifth-best golf tournament looked more like an open house on Monday.

One by one, players pulled their courtesy cars to the front of the 77,000-square-foot clubhouse at The Players Championship and were pointed in every direction. Volunteers guided them to the locker room, to a players-only dining room where not even their agents were allowed, and to the ``Tunnel of Champions'' that led them out a back door to the refurbished Players Stadium Course on the TPC Sawgrass.

Most of them didn't know where they were.

``I'm a little lost,'' U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said. ``It's such a big building.''

And despite the new look at The Players Championship, one thing hasn't changed: No one is quite sure what it is.

The fifth major?

That won't get too many arguments because the golf course is superb, the field is the strongest and deepest of the year, and the purse for this year's tournament will be $9 million, the richest of any tournament in the world.

But there are only four majors. One reason The Players moved from March to May was to give golf a major event every month, starting with the Masters in April through the US PGA Championship in August and even the new FedEx Cup finale in September. But even with a new clubhouse and a refurbished golf course meant to play firm and fast in any weather, there is still enough evidence to suggest that one of these is not like the other four. — AP

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