Privilege to be part of very special week for one of golf’s great events

◆ First Sawgrass visit for The Players Championship in its 50th anniversary year adds to an exciting 12 months for The Scotsman’s golf correspondent Martin Dempster

With a 60th birthday on the horizon and a daughter also getting married this year, 2024 was already going to be a big one for this correspondent before it became even more exciting.

This week marks my first visit to The Players Championship – and talk about good timing.

It’s the 50th anniversary of the PGA Tour’s “flagship event” and, simply put, it’s an honour and privilege to be part of the golden jubilee celebrations at TPC Sawgrass at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida. As was the case when The Open marked its 150th edition at St Andrews in 2022.

Like most golf-daft Scottish youngsters, I grew up feeling excited about one US event in particular and I’m referring, of course, to The Masters as there was always something special about being allowed to stay up late on a Sunday in April to watch the final round unfold at Augusta National.

It was a memorable night in particular when Sandy Lyle conjured up his brilliant blow from a fairway bunker at the 72nd hole to become the first British player to claim a Green Jacket in 1988, and what an absolute treat it’s been to have covered the season’s opening major on-site for the past decade or so.

I also count myself lucky to have attended four Ryder Cups on American soil, as well as a PGA Championship and not forgetting a couple of PGA Cups, but – with all due respect to the US Open – the one event still on my bucket list in the men’s game on the other side of the Atlantic has been The Players Championship.

It’s the prestige, which is illustrated by past winners including some of the game’s greatest players.

Jack Nicklaus triumphed in it a record three times, while other names engraved on the trophy include Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory Mcilroy. Six of the past ten winners have at one time or another been world number one.

It’s the course, which became its home in 1982 after it had been designed by leading American architect

Pete Dye, who created a test that is challenging at best and sometimes penal, a combination of which is why this event can be every bit as gripping to the bitter end as The Masters with its famed Amen Corner and tough finish.

It’s the world-renowned island green at the 17th hole, where American Jerry Pate played it 2-2-2 en route to his victory in 1982, but lots of others, including Scot Russell Knox as he ran up a sixtuplebogey 9 in 2016, have ended up in watery graves as a consequence of failing to find the putting surface with an initial attempt, and then feeling the green has suddenly shrunk with subsequent swipes.

That big birthday and wedding can wait for now!