Players Championship A Good Prep For Masters Big Purse Draws Big Names, But Most Have Sights On Augusta

There are two ways to look at The Players Championship. Either it has the best field and largest purse of the year. Or it comes too close to the Masters to really matter.

Actually, both are true.

Of the top 50 players in the world, 46 are at the Stadium Course for today’s first round in the pursuit of the $720,000 first prize.

And of those missing, only Brian Watts - an American who plays on the Japan tour - stayed away voluntarily. Defending champion Steve Elkington, Mark McNulty and Bill Glasson are out because of injury or illness.

But the really scary number - at least for top contenders like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie - is this: No one has won The Players Championship and the Masters in the same year.

There is absolutely no doubt that all those with a shot to win on Sunday will go at it tooth and nail. But there is also no getting around the fact that many players are casting wary glimpses two weeks down the road to Augusta National Golf Club.

“I think it is great for us to have this tournament right before the first major of the year,” Woods said on Wednesday after a nine-hole practice round.

“It’s a great way to compare ourselves and see where we need improvement,” Woods said. “How we are going along? Are we ready for the Masters and the rest of the year?”

Woods was able to give insight into the state of his game before the first ball was struck in anger.

“You can feel it in your preparation,” Woods said about trying to have his game peak at the right time. “It is like a boxer, you can feel yourself getting ready and sometimes you don’t peak that week.”

Asked if he had that feeling going into The Players Championship, Woods said: “No, I am not there yet.”

Which is not to say that Woods is not good enough to win when he is not playing his best golf. He has proved he can.

While Woods, whose only victory since last July was in Thailand in January, seemed to have Georgia on his mind, Montgomerie wouldn’t at all mind taking home the biggest paycheck on the PGA Tour.

“Any one would give me enormous pleasure,” Montgomerie said when asked if he wanted to save his first American victory for the Masters. “I’m getting to the stage where I can’t be choosy.”

Montgomerie, who will play a dozen times on the U.S. Tour this year - his most by far - missed the cut at Doral after a grueling flight from Dubai by way of London, then was third at the Honda and eighth at Bay Hill.

“The more I knock on the door, the more top 10s I have, eventually one of those top 10s will be a first,” he said.

This would be a likely place for that to happen. The Stadium Course seems to fit Montgomerie’s game and he has finished ninth, 14th, second and seventh here the last four years.

Els, who seems to be taking golf more seriously than he ever has, is the hottest golfer in the world right now. In five tournaments overseas, he has a first, two seconds and two thirds.