TBO.com - Live in the moment

GOLF COLUMN

Sawgrass Gets Extreme Makeover

By MICK ELLIOTT

Published: May 8, 2007

This is the week architects of the PGA Tour's Players Championship have been waiting on for years.

Since TPC Sawgrass opened in 1982, golf's self-proclaimed "fifth major" has longed for a captive audience. Finally, no longer handicapped by a March date that made it a steppingstone to the Masters, The Players now has the stage to itself.

There will be plenty to show off.

In the little more than 13 months since Stephen Ames won the last Players, the Ponte Vedra Beach site has undergone a massive $60 million renovation that is expected to drastically alter how the course plays.

All of the fairways were stripped of 6 inches of organic matter build-up, new drain tile was installed throughout each fairway and filled with 16 football fields worth of sand.

New drainage was installed, as well as a SubAir System for every green. SubAir is a system of pipes and tunnels below the greens that can pull moisture down through the grass or push oxygen up through the root zone, depending on which is needed.

The greens were re-grassed with a new Bermuda called Miniverdi.

A new irrigation system was installed.

Greenside bunkers were deepened.

Holes 1, 8, 11, 14, 16 and 18 were moderately lengthened (122 yards in all) by moving the championship tees back so that the course will play 7,215 yards.

The 12th green was rebuilt entirely and raised 2 1/2 feet.

Three pot-style fairway bunkers were added along the right side of the seventh fairway.

New cart paths (necessitating 370 truckloads of concrete) were built.

New bridges were installed and many of the course's trademark spectator mounds were reshaped and leveled off at the top to better accommodate the installation of sky boxes.

There is also a new, massive clubhouse that will provide the most striking visual change.

The main attractions, however, will be 49 of the top 50 players on the world golf rankings playing for a winner's check of $1.44 million.

Leading the way will be No. 1 Tiger Woods, who won his 57th PGA Tour event Sunday at the Wachovia Championship. Woods' lone Players Championship victory came in 2001.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said last month he was eager for this week to arrive, given the buildup to the tournament with all of its changes.

"There was a lot of stress involved in this," he said. "There's a part of all of us who wants to get the balls in the air and play and get this behind us."

CHANGE IN STRATEGY: Teenager Michelle Wie will concentrate on playing in LPGA tournaments and give up competing against men for the time being, according to teacher David Leadbetter.

"She's going to commit herself to the LPGA and play a number of events, and next year she'll probably take up membership," Leadbetter said. "She just needs to get her confidence going and just go play. Now is the time to establish herself.

"My feelings are that if she plays week in and week out on the LPGA, she would win eight or nine times a year. She has the potential to be that good, so why not, if you want to fulfill your potential."

NOTES: The Florida State Golf Association will host 17 local qualifiers for players hoping to advance to June's U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. Innisbrook Resort (Wednesday) Hunters Green (Monday) and Brooksville's Southern Hills (May 21) are local sites. The USGA has accepted 8,544 entries nationally with 1,204 from Florida. …

Pebble Creek head professional Shawn Gordon advanced to the semifinal round of the North Florida PGA Match Play Championship before losing to eventual winner Matt Payne of DeLand. …

The U.S. Kids Golf Tampa Tour begins May 31 with five-one day events scheduled for boys and girls 12 and under. The schedule begins at Belleview Biltmore Golf Club in Clearwater and continues with weekly events at The Meadows Country Club in Sarasota, Beacon Woods Golf and Country Club in Bayonet Point, Plantation Palms Golf Club in Land O' Lakes and Fox Hollow Golf Club in New Port Richey. Players can register for events by going to uskidsgolf.com and clicking on tournaments.