As the golfing calendar kicks into full swing, the PGA Tour heads to TPC Sawgrass for the Players Championships. The tournament is the Tour's headline event, attracting the best field and the highest purse of the year.
Played at TPC Sawgrass, the course is located in Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville on Florida's northern border with Georgia. About a two-hour drive north of Orlando, Sawgrass has a somewhat recent history compared to other historic courses.
After the PGA Tour's second-ever commissioner, Deane Beman purchased the land on which TPC Sawgrass now stands for just $1 back in 1979, legendary course designer Pete Dye was hired to form a stadium course fit to host the PGA Tour's flagship event
The Stadium Course, in its entirety, opened in 1980 and its first time hosting The Players was in 1982. As well as playing host to the Tour's marquee event, it is also the site of the PGA Tour headquarters which are situated onsite at Sawgrass.
Sawgrass was also the original course in the TPC network. TPC stands for 'Tournament Players Club' and is used to signify courses that uphold the PGA Tour's highest standards in terms of being technically challenging but also staggeringly beautiful.
Several TPC courses, from TPC Colorado to TPC Scottsdale and TPC Wisconsin continue to host other big events on the PGA Tour.
Sawgrass is one of four courses in Florida which hosts high-profile Tour events at this point in the year. Known as the 'Florida Swing', players also tee it up at PGA National (Cognizant Classic), Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer Invitational) and Innisbrook (Valspar Championship) during their spell in the Sunshine State.
