Welcome
PLAYERS: Sawgrass Uncovered
You’ve got one of the world’s best-known courses – how has it changed over the years?
This course, which was built in the late 1970s and opened in the 80s, was very inconsistent. It was grown up but it wasn’t playing consistent.
This was a swamp and when we built this facility, we dug those ponds and muck came up in mounds. We let it drain out, put it back down and laid the fairways. Well, some of that was sandy-based and some of it wasn’t.
Before we did more work (every fairway was renovated for 2007) you could hit a tee shot and, because they had watered the fairway that morning, your ball could hit in a piece of the old swamp mud and might get mud on it and not go anywhere.
But you could hit it the same distance, maybe five yards away, and it might hit the ground and carry forward another 20 yards. So it wasn’t consistent.
In 2007 the Players moved from March to May – how big was that for the tournament?
This was a swamp and when we built this facility, we dug those ponds and muck came up in mounds. We let it drain out, put it back down and laid the fairways. Well, some of that was sandy-based and some of it wasn’t.
Before we did more work (every fairway was renovated for 2007) you could hit a tee shot and, because they had watered the fairway that morning, your ball could hit in a piece of the old swamp mud and might get mud on it and not go anywhere.
But you could hit it the same distance, maybe five yards away, and it might hit the ground and carry forward another 20 yards. So it wasn’t consistent.
In 2007 the Players moved from March to May – how big was that for the tournament?
What we’ve been able to do is get away from hearing how this event is a tune-up for the Masters.
And the other thing is that unfortunately March is a time of year that’s become very competitive in the US because of the basketball. It’s a big deal here in the United States so when you open up the paper, the sports pages are all about the Final Four.
So we think with the date change that we’re not going to have that competition and now in Detroit or New Orleans or in California or New York City the sports story is going to be the Players Championship.
How much is all of this about working towards getting Major status?
It is for us to try to put on an event that we feel is worthy of our headquarters. The golf course sits about 100 yards from where the commissioner Tim Finchem sits every day. I don’t know where you can go with the Major status to be honest.
Probably we are a Major championship, just because of who the event is and what we are.
However, I just don’t see it really ever becoming a Major. The reason I say that is because of history and tradition.
Right now you have Tiger Woods chasing Jack Nicklaus and he played in four Majors every year. If you start letting Tiger play for five Majors every year then the records wouldn’t work.
Given the popularity and standing the Players has, does it really matter? Whether we’re a Major or not, because it depends on who you talk to, I think that the event stands on its own. Maybe it doesn’t have a Major title but I tell you, they know they’ve probably done better than if they’d won the Masters because they’re beating 144 of the best guys out there.
At Augusta they might have 65 guys that realistically have a chance of winning.
At the Players, all of them here could win it. Around the world there are more than 60 guys capable of winning an event on any single week.
I certainly would think that it deserves it but I think I also understand the sport and the media and everyone else enough to know that it’s not fitting.
Do you think you deserve a Major because the USGA, R&A and USPGA each have one – but not the PGA Tour?
And the other thing is that unfortunately March is a time of year that’s become very competitive in the US because of the basketball. It’s a big deal here in the United States so when you open up the paper, the sports pages are all about the Final Four.
So we think with the date change that we’re not going to have that competition and now in Detroit or New Orleans or in California or New York City the sports story is going to be the Players Championship.
How much is all of this about working towards getting Major status?
It is for us to try to put on an event that we feel is worthy of our headquarters. The golf course sits about 100 yards from where the commissioner Tim Finchem sits every day. I don’t know where you can go with the Major status to be honest.
Probably we are a Major championship, just because of who the event is and what we are.
However, I just don’t see it really ever becoming a Major. The reason I say that is because of history and tradition.
Right now you have Tiger Woods chasing Jack Nicklaus and he played in four Majors every year. If you start letting Tiger play for five Majors every year then the records wouldn’t work.
Given the popularity and standing the Players has, does it really matter? Whether we’re a Major or not, because it depends on who you talk to, I think that the event stands on its own. Maybe it doesn’t have a Major title but I tell you, they know they’ve probably done better than if they’d won the Masters because they’re beating 144 of the best guys out there.
At Augusta they might have 65 guys that realistically have a chance of winning.
At the Players, all of them here could win it. Around the world there are more than 60 guys capable of winning an event on any single week.
I certainly would think that it deserves it but I think I also understand the sport and the media and everyone else enough to know that it’s not fitting.
Do you think you deserve a Major because the USGA, R&A and USPGA each have one – but not the PGA Tour?
Yes, but if you think about it, the PGA Tour split off from the PGA so the Major that we actually started off is the PGA Championship.
It’s hard to really say that we deserve one.
I think if you took all the measurements that say what makes a Major we would be in the category of every one of those.
What sort of player does the course suit?
This golf course is so funny. Fred Funk, the shortest guy in terms of hitting the ball probably out there, wins one year and then you go and you have a Tiger Woods and Davis Love III, two long-ball hitters, and they’ve won here.
Whoever wins doesn’t do it by accident. Whoever hits his tee-shot the best, hits his irons the best - and on this course you play every club in your bag. The players always talk about that.
You can’t say you’re just going to hit two iron all day. The par threes are all in different directions so the wind plays a role on every one of them. They are also all different yardages.
They’re fun and great viewing holes, every one of them.”
With such a relatively short history how do you promote the championship?
First of all, when you go through the names of the guys that have won this event it’s pretty amazing. Nicklaus won here, Raymond Floyd, Lee Trevino, Tom Kite and they all won when they were at their peak.
When they were winning Majors, they were winning here at the Players Championship. Sandy Lyle won here and two weeks later won the Masters. We want to show all that, moments, shots, history. The caddies take you through it when you play the course by saying ‘this is where Love did this’ or ‘Vijay Singh putted from here’ and we want to show those kinds of moments when fans come here too.
We’ve got to celebrate our champions because realistically all of our champions have in their own right done something unique and special.
Even Craig Perks. Craig Perks had that shining moment that he just beat everybody’s butt on a hard golf course.
One putt on the last three holes to win. One putt. He chips in on 16, makes a birdie on 17 and he chips in for par on 18.
Three under over 16, 17, 18. To try and play those holes in par is amazing.”
Then two years later, in 2005, you almost had a player losing the tournament rather than someone grabbing the opportunity, didn’t you?
It’s hard to really say that we deserve one.
I think if you took all the measurements that say what makes a Major we would be in the category of every one of those.
What sort of player does the course suit?
This golf course is so funny. Fred Funk, the shortest guy in terms of hitting the ball probably out there, wins one year and then you go and you have a Tiger Woods and Davis Love III, two long-ball hitters, and they’ve won here.
Whoever wins doesn’t do it by accident. Whoever hits his tee-shot the best, hits his irons the best - and on this course you play every club in your bag. The players always talk about that.
You can’t say you’re just going to hit two iron all day. The par threes are all in different directions so the wind plays a role on every one of them. They are also all different yardages.
They’re fun and great viewing holes, every one of them.”
With such a relatively short history how do you promote the championship?
First of all, when you go through the names of the guys that have won this event it’s pretty amazing. Nicklaus won here, Raymond Floyd, Lee Trevino, Tom Kite and they all won when they were at their peak.
When they were winning Majors, they were winning here at the Players Championship. Sandy Lyle won here and two weeks later won the Masters. We want to show all that, moments, shots, history. The caddies take you through it when you play the course by saying ‘this is where Love did this’ or ‘Vijay Singh putted from here’ and we want to show those kinds of moments when fans come here too.
We’ve got to celebrate our champions because realistically all of our champions have in their own right done something unique and special.
Even Craig Perks. Craig Perks had that shining moment that he just beat everybody’s butt on a hard golf course.
One putt on the last three holes to win. One putt. He chips in on 16, makes a birdie on 17 and he chips in for par on 18.
Three under over 16, 17, 18. To try and play those holes in par is amazing.”
Then two years later, in 2005, you almost had a player losing the tournament rather than someone grabbing the opportunity, didn’t you?
Adam Scott has a two-shot lead and I’ve got the guy from Waterford Crystal in the scoring trailer with the trophy. He’s lying in the middle of the fairway and the guy’s going ‘I’d like to start on this Adam Scott engraving’.
I’ve got NBC in there with the camera and this guy wants to start at about the 17th tee and I’m going ‘I don’t think so’.
I keep going ‘no, no, no’ but, finally, he’s on the 18th fairway, with the two-shot lead and if he knocks it up by the green he can chip it up and two-putt and I feel pretty comfortable. ‘Go ahead and start‚‘ I say.
He starts engraving and sure enough he yanks that ball left into the water. I’m yelling ‘Stop! Stop!’ but it’s too late. He’s actually got Adam Scott’s name on that trophy.
They’re showing this on television and the guy at NBC’s saying ‘I hope they have an eraser’.
Luckily for me, Adam chipped up and one-putted but I told him afterwards ‘you were happy with that putt, weren’t you’? And he said ‘yeah’ and I said ‘not half as happy as me'.
I’ve got NBC in there with the camera and this guy wants to start at about the 17th tee and I’m going ‘I don’t think so’.
I keep going ‘no, no, no’ but, finally, he’s on the 18th fairway, with the two-shot lead and if he knocks it up by the green he can chip it up and two-putt and I feel pretty comfortable. ‘Go ahead and start‚‘ I say.
He starts engraving and sure enough he yanks that ball left into the water. I’m yelling ‘Stop! Stop!’ but it’s too late. He’s actually got Adam Scott’s name on that trophy.
They’re showing this on television and the guy at NBC’s saying ‘I hope they have an eraser’.
Luckily for me, Adam chipped up and one-putted but I told him afterwards ‘you were happy with that putt, weren’t you’? And he said ‘yeah’ and I said ‘not half as happy as me'.
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Brian Goin worked as the executive director of the Players for 10 years until July of last year. He now oversees operations for five tournaments including the Barclays and Tour Championship.
