PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP DELIVERS TRUEST TEST IN THE GAME

With the smell of baseball in the air and the warmth of tropical spring navigating its way north, March is arguably the most transitional month in the eastern part of the United States.

-  Jim McCabe

In March, winter sports still command the stage, but summer games are waiting in the wings.

Ah, but then there's golf, which is a game for all seasons and nowhere does that jump out at you than when THE PLAYERS Championship steps into the spotlight in mid-March. More than the PGA TOUR'S showcase event, THE PLAYERS Championship is a gathering of the world's finest golfers and can be viewed as the unofficial starting point of the year's elite competition.

Everything before THE PLAYERS is lovely in its own right - Hawaii paradise followed by historic courses in California (Pebble Beach, Riviera, Torrey Pines) - but when it gets to Florida and just about every elite player in the world tees it up at TPC Sawgrass, well, things get turned up a few notches. Were you to circle as good news the fact that the world's top 10 players will be represented in commanding fashion, you'd have to put an asterisk there and note the bad news for them. Which is: The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass has historically confounded top 10 talents. Want proof? Stroll back to the glory days of four-time major winner and one-time world No. 1 Ernie Els. No matter when THE PLAYERS Championship rolled around it was March early in his career, then May, then back to March - the big South African concedes he got an upset stomach.

"I haven't treated this course very well, and it hasn't treated me very well in the past," Els once said. "This course has had its way with me." How rough was TPC Sawgrass on Els? He never won there and he placed top 10 just four times in 24 starts. For the first 73 rounds of career there, his scoring average was 74.164.