The Players Championship, which is widely regarded as the men’s game’s fifth Major Championship, has been won by many of the game’s greatest-ever players, including the likes of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd.
Of course, the 2024 Players Championship will be without a number of star names, for five past champions are not eligible to tee it up at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, having joined breakaway circuit LIV Golf.
Here are the five former Players Championship winners who won’t be playing at TPC Sawgrass this week.
LIV Golfers To Win The Players Championship
Cameron Smith, 2022
Cameron Smith produced a sublime display two years ago, one-putting eight of his last nine holes. The Aussie led by two shots as he made his way to the world-famous par-3 17th, where an island green can cause even the world’s best players to doubt themselves and feel the nerves.
Smith remained aggressive, hitting his tee shot to four feet, from where he tidied up for his record-equalling 10th birdie of the round. It turned out to be a crucial two, for a bogey down the 18th, where he punched out from the pine straw straight into the water, made for a tight finish. He beat Anirban Lahiri, also now a LIV Golf player, by a single stroke, for the second of three victories in 2022. Smith had won the Sentry at the start of the year and the Claret Jug would follow in July.
Shortly after his victory at St Andrews, Smith joined LIV Golf – and his reserved parking spot at TPC properties was removed.
Martin Kaymer, 2014
The former World No.1 has proved himself as a player for the big occasion. His 11 victories on the DP World Tour include two Major Championships and a World Golf Championships. Together with his Ryder Cup heroics and Players Championship victory, Kaymer can boast one very impressive resume.
A decade ago, the German clinging on to his twenties, he produced a gutsy display to get the job done at Sawgrass. Where others may have succumbed to the mounting pressure – he double-bogeyed 15 and made five at the par-5 16th – Kaymer dug deep into his reserves and pulled a rabbit out of the bag.
After staying dry by the narrowest of margins on 17, Kaymer’s short game deserted him, and he was left with a near 30-footer for par. Memorable scenes followed when he made unexpected three, and he held his nerve to complete the job. A month later, an inspired Kaymer won the US Open by eight shots
Henrik Stenson, 2009
Alex Cejka started the final round with a five-shot lead at 11-under. However, when the German started to struggle, it opened the door for the rest of the field – and it was a ball-striking machine from Sweden who took full advantage.
His final-round 66 contained six birdies and not a single bogey, something nobody else managed on Sunday. That takes some going at TPC Sawgrass. It was 33-year-old Stenson’s biggest victory at the time, his victory at The Open, another iron play exhibition, came seven years later.
Sergio Garcia, 2008
It’s not just the fans that will miss seeing their favorite players tackle Pete Dye’s famous course this week. Sergio Garcia, who triumphed at TPC Sawgrass in 2008, ranks the Florida track as his second favorite place to play, only behind Valderrama in Spain.
The Spaniard was forced to go through the mill that year. If he was going to get his hands on such a huge title, he was going to have to earn it via a nerve-shredding playoff… on the par-3 17th. Paul Goydos would have felt sick as his ball disappeared into the water. Garcia went in for the kill and made a safe par.
Phil Mickelson 2007
Somehow it just wouldn’t have been right had Lefty never got his name on the Players Championship trophy, a title that had eluded him in 13 attempts going into the 2007 showdown.
Would he swap it for a US Open, the only Major Championship that he has failed to win? Maybe, but winning at TPC Sawgrass is also a very special achievement, and Mickelson wanted this one badly. With a closing round of 69, the American got to 11-under to hold off Garcia (the Spaniard’s time would come, of course).
