In it's 25th year at TPC Sawgrass, the PLAYERS Championship will host a laundry list of top PGA Tour players. Dubbed the "unofficial" 5th Major of the year, and with a purse of $8,000,000 - $1,000,000 more than the Masters - it's easy to see why the top players make room on their schedule. Thursday marks the first PLAYERS Championship to be played on a newly renovated TPC Sawgrass and Stephen Ames will tee it up as the 2006 defending champion. If the Pete Dye course wasn't hard enough, a new SubAir system on all the greens and better fairway irrigation, will lead to fast and firm conditions on the course no matter what Mother Nature throws their way.

Can Stephen Ames, the 2006 champion, successfully defend his title? It seems like the golfing gods may be against him. No player has won the tournament back to back and only 5 players have won the tournament more than once. Stephen shot 4 rounds below par last year to win by 6 strokes. His 5 birdies and 1 eagle on Sunday secured only his 2nd and largest Tour win. Ames spoke in March about the course changes and his chances of winning the PLAYERS this year. When asked if he could win this year he said, "Obviously this is the biggest event on Tour you want to play well, so we're going to prepare ourselves for that when the times comes, but no, I can't predict that. If I could I wouldn't be here; I would be home playing the lottery every week." Tiger Woods remains a focus of attention riding into TPC Sawgrass after a convincing win at the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow.  When Woods was asked about the difficulty of The PLAYERS Championship relative to the other majors, Woods said, "Yeah, definitely. This is probably - as everyone says, it's the fifth major, so it's certainly up there, yes."

What everyone unanimously agrees upon is the strength of field in the The PLAYERS Championship. With 48 of the top 50 players in the world testing their abilities against one of the toughest courses on tour, the caliber of players in this year's field makes this a must see event. With undoubtedly the 3 toughest finishing holes on tour combined with the firm conditions via the SubAir system, this years event should be an exciting one. And if you don't have a plane ticket to Ponte Vedra Beach for the tournament, check out the virtual tour of the course on Google Earth from EyeSpyGolf.com. You'll need Google Earth to view the hole-by-hole tour and you can download it here. It's not as good as being there in person, but it gives you a good idea of the changes made to the course this year and you won't have to fear the water surrounding the 17th hole.