The TOUR Insider: THE PLAYERS Championship

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You won't see Phil Mickelson much before THE PLAYERS Championship begins Thursday at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Phil Mickelson (Getty Images)

Power Rankings

Dave Shedloski's top five players heading into THE PLAYERS:

1. Phil Mickelson. Theres never been a repeat winner of THE PLAYERS. There also had never been a lefty, until last year. 2. Adam Scott. A dangerous man these days with a golf club in his hands. Three top-10s in six starts includes the 2004 PLAYERS title. 3. Vijay Singh. Local resident is running out of chances to fill this gaping hole in his record. 4. Brandt Snedeker. Learned a lot about performing in big events with his Masters run. Tied for 12th in PLAYERS debut, so course suits him. 5. Anthony Kim. Missed the cut in his PLAYERS debut last year, which we have to ask, so what? Hot players can play well on any track.

It isn't that the No. 2 player in the world and defending champion doesn't have a keen interest in becoming the first man to win THE PLAYERS in consecutive years. Far from it.

But he's got this routine, you see, before big tournaments.

"It will be the same as ... other majors for me," Mickelson said of his preparation for THE PLAYERS, which offers the game's richest purse, $9 million and 27,500 FedExCup points, same as the four major championships. "I'll usually take Monday off of a major, I'll play a practice round early Tuesday, and Wednesday I'll go off site and get work done on areas of my game that need improvement. It will be the same as I treat other majors.

"I have already done my normal major championship preparation work that I do for Augusta," Mickelson added. "I've done it now for TPC Sawgrass, so I don't feel as though I have to spend an inordinate amount of time getting ready to know the golf course."

The whole world knows TPC Sawgrass, one of the most famous layouts on the planet. The Pete Dye-designed course, par 72, 7,215 yards, hosts THE PLAYERS for the 27th time in the tournament's 35-year history.

Nevertheless, when the 144-man field gets a look at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course this year, they'll certainly recognize it by sight, but not necessarily by fight.

The course was renovated in 2006 in preparation for the tournament's move to May last year, with mostly subtle design changes but a major upgrade in the drainage and grass surfaces to promote a faster track. Nevertheless, tournament officials assumed a conservative disposition in setting up the layout, a good move given the windy conditions that prevailed for the opening two rounds.

Not so this year.

THE PLAYERS Stadium Course is supposed to play firmer with faster greens and a bit more rough accenting the target areas. The rough will exceed the two inches of last year, thick enough to make approaches into the small greens a harrowing and less predictable endeavor, but no so thick as to prevent anyone from advancing the ball.

"We didn't want the course, with all the changes, to go over the edge," Fred Klauk, the longtime course superintendent who is retiring this year, said. "But we feel confident that we can challenge them a little more this year."

"The whole point of moving the tournament back into May was to have firmer, faster conditions and not have as thick rough around the greens where you couldn't recover with short game shots as in years past," Mickelson noted. "But I thought last year it played terrific. I loved the changes. The greens were terrific, too, going to a different grass. Not only did they putt great but they were more challenging to get the ball close to the hole, given that they were able to make them firmer."

Another source of unpredictability comes from the course's design heritage, according to NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller.

"It's a good test. I can't say it's not a good test because it's fair all the way around and has a lot of dimensions to it," Miller said. "But there's something about Pete Dye courses, they seem to mess with guys. You could play well, and you could miss the cut, and you could be playing great the week before and miss the cut.

"Whenever you see a Pete Dye course you see a lot of the top players, including Tiger Woods, really struggle. Pete Dye courses are awkward. There's something about them. It makes the leaderboards very entertaining."

Which is sort of the point, no?

FedExCup pointers:

• Phil Mickelson, who never has shied away from club tinkering, has altered his putter in recent weeks, switching from a 33½-inch to a 35-inch model to ease stress on his back. Mickelson claims he has actually grown slightly in recent years thanks to a new stretching regimen.

• Mickelson and Stewart Cink, currently second and third, respectively, in the 2008 FedExCup standings, were the only two players last year to record top-five finishes at the Wachovia Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship. They come in this year having finished 12th and eighth, respectively, at Wachovia.

• Fourteen players among the field of 144 are making their debuts in THE PLAYERS. Sixty players in the field have played in the event three or fewer times.

• Nine of the last 24 winners of THE PLAYERS have been ranked at the top in greens in regulation for the week, including three of the last four (Mickelson ranked 24th in the category.) With No. 1 Tiger Woods sidelined after his knee surgery, the leaders (after Woods) in greens hit coming into the week are: Robert Allenby (2), K.J. Choi (3), Vijay Singh (4) and Hunter Mahan (5).

• British Open champion Padraig Harrington, a two-time runner-up at TPC Sawgrass, intends to skip next month's European PGA Championship at Wentworth, the European Tour's flagship event, so that he can prepare for the U.S. Open. Harrington, 36, likes to play a major in the third week of a competitive run, as he did last year in winning at Carnoustie, Scotland. He skipped the World Golf Championship-CA Championship at Doral ahead of this year's Masters, where he tied for fifth. PLAYERS is his first U.S. start since then.

• Fred Couples, twice winner of THE PLAYERS, was the last man in the field after Will Mackenzie withdrew because of a bad knee that requires surgery. Couples, 48, still holds a share of the course record 63 at the TPC Sawgrass with Greg Norman. He also is one of three men in the field with two PLAYERS titles, joining Davis Love III and Steve Elkington.

• Elkington is one of seven international players to win at TPC Sawgrass. Americans have won all but eight times in tournament history, but three of the last six have been split.

• Peter Lonard withdrew during the second rounds at the Wachovia Championship, citing a back injury, but is expected to tee it up Thursday. The next man on the alternate list should Lonard or someone else not make it to the first tee is PGA TOUR rookie Dustin Johnson.

• The windy opening rounds last year produced scoring averages of 75.413 and 73.389, even with the more benign setup, but when the winds dropped, the easier conditions allowed some record scoring that isn't likely to be repeated. With favorable tees and hole locations, the field averaged under par each of the last two days -- 71.061 on Saturday and 71.266 Sunday. Last year marked only the second time in which the final round scoring average was below par.