Inside THE PLAYERS Championship: the PGA TOUR's Home Game

For a sports fan the idea of taking the mound at Yankee Stadium a month before the World Series or unleashing a forehand on the All England Tennis Club’s green lawns in the lead up to Wimbledon is equally enticing, and equally unrealistic. That’s part of what makes golf so unique. At a venue like TPC Sawgrass, which hosts the PGA TOUR‘s flagship event THE PLAYERS Championship annually, the public is welcome up until three weeks before the tournament. That’s what made getting to play the iconic 17th hole for the first time all the more special.

As we drove up the 4th hole on the Stadium Course with a representative from The TOUR, whose headquarters are just next door, we discussed how one might explain THE PLAYERS to a layman. Outside of the Masters which is played at Augusta National Golf Club, THE PLAYERS is the biggest golf tournament that returns every year to the same course. And that creates a familiarity where viewers are invited to recall past moments of greatness like Tiger’s ‘better than most’ putt, Hal Sutton’s 6 iron or a young Adam Scott’s breakout win. Many of us grew up playing Sawgrass in those Tiger Woods PGA Tour video games, and there are a lot of iconic golf venues out there, but none of them say “golf” quite like the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

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Stan Badz/Fred Vuich/Getty Images

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Stan Badz/Fred Vuich/Getty Images

Even having prior familiarity with the layout, it’s impossible to fully understand a golf course until you’ve seen it in person. Many say that the elevation changes at Augusta will catch a newcomer by surprise. TPC Sawgrass is mostly flat, yet it’s one of the most visually interesting courses you can find anywhere. The grass is impossibly green, the result of a process called overseeding. The fairways and approach areas are meticulously mown with geometric patterns, a controlled precision that contrasts with the untouched natural surroundings.

But despite having one of the most universally recognized courses in the world as its host, THE PLAYERS Championship has undergone a shifting identity throughout its 50-year history. For the first 30 years the tournament was held in March, the month before the first major of the season. In 2007 it changed to May, taking place on Mother’s Day weekend, and then in 2019 it moved back to March once more.

While THE PLAYERS doesn’t count as one of the four major championships, it has historically enjoyed a similar status, with the TOUR touting the tournament as having the strongest field in golf. Former champions and amateurs can qualify for the Masters, US Open and Open Championship, and teaching professionals can make their way into the PGA Championship, but THE PLAYERS’ field features only the PGA TOUR elite. So while St Andrews makes a far better case for being the spiritual home of golf, TPC Sawgrass feels more like the sport’s competitive nerve center.

However, after the splinter league LIV Golf poached many of the PGA TOUR’s top talents, the world’s best golfers now only truly come together four times a year for the majors. Where does that leave THE PLAYERS? As the WM Phoenix Open and the Ryder Cup have proven, golf tournaments can be much more than just sporting events in 2024. They can be parties, festivals, cultural celebrations and somewhere in between. After finishing up our round at the Stadium Course, we spoke with THE PLAYERS Championship’s new executive director Lee Smith to find out how the tournament is partnering with apparel companies and putting fan experience first to expand its audience.

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Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

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Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

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Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Hypegolf: This year Eastside Golf and Malbon are doing exclusive collections for THE PLAYERS. What’s the goal of introducing these brands to the tournament?

Lee Smith: We certainly think it reaches an audience that traditional golf retail doesn’t reach on site. Along with that it certainly provides us a larger audience to coordinate with those vendors and those influencers to drive different people into the fan shop. We want the core fan to come and root for golf, but we don’t want that to be a requirement to attend the tournament.

You’re also hosting a community day in the run up to the tournament with Eastside Golf for the first time, tell us about that.

We’re super excited about partnering with Eastside to put that event on. Brentwood Golf Course is a nine hole course in Jacksonville proper. And again it’s an opportunity to diversify our audience and to reach folks that may not always have the opportunity to come to THE PLAYERS.

Eastside has such a tremendous story and mission. They’ve created a great community around the game of golf and Earl and Olajuwon are to be credited with that. To partner with them to put together a community event is something that we look forward to this year and we look forward to making it bigger and better in the years to come.

Eastside Golf

This year’s WM Phoenix Open made a lot of headlines due to the cutting off of alcohol sales and a lot of other viral moments that went around on social media. How do you attract new fans while maintaining the heritage aspect of golf?

I would tell you it’s not easy. But we are very confident in the respect, education and knowledge of our fans here at TPC Sawgrass and THE PLAYERS Championship, and that they are going to act accordingly. We certainly have criteria in place to take care of those things when they arise.

What’s the goal for this year and beyond?

Our goal is to continue to grow the tournament and the profile of the tournament nationally and even globally this year. We’re going to have 15 different international broadcast partners on site, which will be the most we’ve ever had.

We’re bringing international influencers from some of those countries who coordinate with a lot of our athletes in Sweden and Norway that have rarely been a part of this tournament, but now they have an athlete to follow. And so we’re excited about how the profile continues to grow.