One of the biggest events of the year is the PGA Tour’s flagship event The Players Championship, often regarded as the unofficial fifth men’s Major.
A big reason for that is the world-class venue the tournament comes from each year, TPC Sawgrass in Florida’s Ponte Vedra Beach, but who owns the famous course? Here are the details.
The idea of finding a permanent home for The Players Championship, which began in 1974 and remains the only PGA Tour event fully owned and operated by the circuit, came from its second commissioner, Deane Beman, who in the late 1970s envisioned a venue for the event that would be owned and controlled by the PGA Tour for the benefit of its players.
At first, Beman attempted to acquire the nearby Sawgrass Country Club, but when that was rebuffed, he eventually brokered a deal with local landowners to sell 415 acres to the PGA Tour for $1. That allowed Beman to make good on his vision of a Stadium Course for the event as part of a broader plan for the PGA Tour to own its courses.
In 1980, the first part of that plan came to fruition with the creation of the Tournament Players Club (TPC) when the Pete Dye-designed course opened. The TPC was established to create courses designed to meet professional tournament standards. Over time, the concept expanded to the TPC Network, a collection of courses either owned or run by the PGA Tour, in keeping with Beman's vision.
By that time, the foundations had been put in place for TPC Sawgrass, which began hosting The Players Championship two years after it opened, to be the PGA Tour's home. That's because, in 1978, the decision was taken to move its headquarters from Washington DC to Ponte Vedra Beach, and it relocated the year after, with a new building opening there in 2021.
As a result, TPC Sawgrass remains the permanent base of the PGA Tour, while it has been owned and operated by the circuit from its inception, making Beman's dream a reality.
