Don't believe The Players Championship is golf's fifth major? Try playing in it
At the ripe old age of 42, I'm new to this social media stuff. I feel like a caveman holding fire for the first time. It's confusing and scary. Talking to total strangers on the Internet seems like magic to me. But recently, in an effort to catch up to the 21st century, I joined Twitter and made my very own page. I've been trying to figure it out, but I still don't know what the hell a hashtag is.
Anyway, I was checking my page yesterday and saw a chat about The Players Championship and the validity of its claim to being the fifth major. I put in my two cents, and soon I was chatting with a fella who said that it shouldn't be considered a major. He said the winners of the Players aren't up to snuff with the winners of the four traditional majors, and I strongly disagreed. After all, Woods, Mickelson, Nicklaus, Norman and many other greats have won it. I tried to have a civil discussion about it, but when he didn't listen I had to pull rank on him.
"How many Players Championships have you played in?" I asked.
No answer.
"Trust me," I said, "when you are in the tournament, it feels like a major."
Let me explain.
Back in 2000 — the year Hal Sutton beat a Tiger Woods in his prime — there was a great tournament going on about six shots behind those guys. It was a battle to see who finished third. In the hunt was a 27-year-old me. I tried not to look at the scoreboards, but they were everywhere, and when my birdie putt on 16 went in, I had third place in my sights. On the walk to 17, nerves started kicking in.
When you're a professional golfer near the lead of a tournament, there are two kinds of nervousness. The first kind, where you're excited, alert and full of adrenaline, is a good nervous. The kind you can really play well with if it's harnessed properly. I was the other kind of nervous — shaky, sweaty and scared to death. The only other times I could recall feeling this way was the first time I golfed with Arnold Palmer (understandable to anyone who's had the pleasure of teeing off with him) and at my first Bay Hill Invitational (I grew up there and credit the tournament with giving me the desire to play on the PGA Tour).
So there I stood, looking at the most iconic par-3 in golf, and the green seemed to be shrinking. In the practice rounds, it was a piece of cake to hit the middle of the green. It was only a 9-iron, after all. But in this situation, it looked like a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. To make matters worse, the group in front of us was just arriving at the green, so I had loads of time to contemplate all the horrible mistakes I could make and the hundreds of thousands of dollars this hole could cost me. (Don't believe any golfer who says he doesn't play for the money. When is the last time you saw a Tour player give all his money away?) I turned my back to the green and tried to talk to the gallery. Anything to distract my mind from the demons that were telling me all the ways I could screw this up.
Finally, it was my turn to hit. Keep in mind that I had been playing really well and was generally full of confidence until this moment. I got over the shot and then backed off because I reminded myself I may chunk it in the water. After going through my routine again — this time with the ball way back in my stance to avoid laying the sod over it — I looked down, and just before my takeaway and I swear I could see only white. No shapes or colors.
Through sheer instinct I hit the ball. A second later, a wave of relief came over me because I knew the ball would hit the green. It was a horrible shot, mind you. Front left of the green to a back right pin, but I didn't care. It was dry.
"But I lost," I reminded her.
"Doesn't matter," she said. "It's just so exciting to see your name on the leaderboard of such a big tournament."
And that's my point: This tournament is a big deal to anyone playing in it.
It features by far the best field in golf, and if you are a PGA Tour player, it's your tournament. The Stadium Course is every bit as good as that of any major I've played in, and the $10,000,000 purse is easily the biggest. In my 10 years on Tour, I played in exactly zero Masters, three U.S. Opens, one British Open and four PGA Championships. And if you ask me about my highest finish in a major or about my greatest golf accomplishments, I'll tell you about my third place in The Players Championship.
Here I am in the 2006 TPC, one of 10 times I played in the tournament.
If you get to play in it, you know it's a major. No doubt about it.
Former PGA Tour pro Robert Damron is a regular contributor to FOXSports.com's golf coverage. Follow him on Twitter @RobertDDamron.
