AS AN out-of-sorts Sergio Garcia strives to become the first golfer in 35 years to successfully defend the Players Championship, it's debatable whether even the Spaniard himself would regard another victory at Sawgrass, welcome as it may be, as proper compensation for his continuing drought in the majors.
With a prize fund of $9.5 million – the winner on Sunday takes home $1.71m – one of the strongest fields of the season and a venue which is both challenging for the players and exhilarating for spectators, it's little wonder the Players has long been
regarded as the most important stroke-play event in world golf after the Masters, the US Open, the Open and the US PGA.
Sporting the acclaim of the game's fifth major, it's been in the interests of the PGA Tour to talk up the status of their flagship event. While there's a sizeable minority in who would argue the Players is already a more compelling test than, say, the PGA, it's debatable if the change of date from March to May has enhanced the tournament's standing on this side of the Atlantic.
When the Players filled the slot on the US Tour schedule a couple of weeks before the Masters, it would have been unthinkable for some of Europe's best players to omit the championship from their plans. This week, however, Lee Westwood, the world No 16, fellow Ryder Cup player Miguel Angel Jimenez and the big hitting Alvaros Quiros, 26th in the world, have all opted out of the trip to Ponte Vedra in Florida. Apart from the majors, Westwood isn't playing much in America this year and the European Tour will be pleased the Englishman has pencilled in three appearances relatively close to home in the British Isles later this month. Perhaps the increase in prize money here thanks to the introduction of the money-spinning Race to Dubai has made some European Tour members reluctant to criss-cross the Atlantic quite as often as they did in the past.
Jimenez, who finished 32nd at the Stadium course last spring, was blunt when asked to explain why he wasn't in Sawgrass. "It's not a major," he replied. "There's lots of money, lots of world ranking points and it's a very important tournament, but I want to concentrate on Europe and the majors. It doesn't count towards our Order of Merit, so I'm taking a week off. If I went, I'd have taken the following week off, but I want to play in the Irish Open."
The annual debate about whether or not the Players should embrace major status was once cleverly encapsulated by Sandy Lyle. The Scot, who has a home in Ponte Vedra, was asked by an American to explain what the difference was between the Open and the Players. "About 100 years," he replied.
As for Garcia, without a top ten finish since January, the Spaniard knows his season has yet to come to life and hopes a return to Sawgrass today may spark something in his game. "I think that there's obviously a couple of things missing," he said. "I am not feeling 100 per cent with my game at the moment and it shows. I'm just not having a great time on the course. I'm working on trying to change that and I think this is a good place.
"It's a tough course, but it's a good place for me to turn around and start going in the right direction. It's one of those stages in your life, in your career, that you've got to get through. Sometimes, unfortunately, it happens. But it will go by and it will be fine."
Still searching for his best form after a lengthy lay-off following knee surgery, even Tiger Woods might be surprised to recapture his glory days at Sawgrass. While the world No1 won the Players in 2001, he hasn't posted another top ten finish at the Stadium course since then.
"I have come into this event and for some reason haven't hit it well," Woods admitted. "The last year I played it, I did, but couldn't make a putt.
"I haven't really put all the pieces together, and you have to have that in order to win this tournament."
"It's very similar to a major championship. You have to have all the pieces. You can't hit the ball well and not putt well or vice-versa. You have to have everything going together at the same time."
Martin Laird, the first Scot to play regularly on the PGA Tour since Lyle, makes his debut in the Players today, but will have understandably modest expectations after a slow start to the season.
