2006 Players Championship

Golf tournament

TPC Sawgrass

Location in the United States

Show map of the United States

TPC Sawgrass

Location in Florida

Show map of Florida

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The 2006 Players Championship was a golf tournament in Florida on the PGA Tour, held March 23–26 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, southeast of Jacksonville. It was the 33rd Players Championship.

Tournament summary

Stephen Ames shot a final round 67 and completed the biggest win of his career by a comfortable margin, six strokes ahead of runner-up Retief Goosen.^[2]^[3] Ames was the 54-hole leader by a stroke over Sergio García and Vijay Singh.^[4]

A month earlier at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Ames lasted only ten holes in the first round, falling to Tiger Woods 9&8.^[5]

Defending champion Fred Funk finished thirteen strokes back, in a tie for sixteenth place.

This was the final Players held in March until 2019; it moved to mid-May in 2007. The Players was moved back to March starting 2019 as the PGA Championship moves from August to May from 2019 onwards.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

Venue

This was the 25th Players Championship held at the TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course; five yards were added this year and its length was 7,098 yards (6,490 m).^[1]

Eligibility requirements

Winners of PGA Tour co-sponsored or approved tournaments, whose victories are considered official, since the previous year's Players Championship.

Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Peter Lonard, Vijay Singh, Tim Petrovic, Ted Purdy, Justin Leonard, Bart Bryant, Sergio García, Michael Campbell, Pádraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Sean O'Hair, Jason Bohn, Ben Crane, Retief Goosen, Vaughn Taylor, Brad Faxon, Olin Browne, Mark Calcavecchia, Jason Gore, Robert Gamez, K. J. Choi, Wes Short Jr., Lucas Glover, Carl Pettersson, Heath Slocum, Stuart Appleby, David Toms, Chad Campbell, J. B. Holmes, Arron Oberholser, Rory Sabbatini, Geoff Ogilvy, Kirk Triplett, Luke Donald, Rod Pampling

The top 125 finishers on the 2005 Official PGA Tour money list.^[10]

Fred Funk, Davis Love III, Adam Scott, Scott Verplank, Tim Clark, Billy Mayfair, Brandt Jobe, Tim Herron, Charles Howell III, Shigeki Maruyama, Joe Ogilvie, Fred Couples, Zach Johnson, José María Olazábal, John Daly, Stewart Cink, Tom Lehman, Ernie Els, Tom Pernice Jr., Bo Van Pelt, Darren Clarke, Jonathan Kaye, Justin Rose, Mike Weir, Greg Owen, Jerry Kelly, Mark Hensby, Ryan Palmer, Jeff Brehaut, Pat Perez, Robert Allenby, Woody Austin, Billy Andrade, Kevin Na, Jeff Sluman, Bob Tway, Joey Sindelar, Dudley Hart, Joe Durant, J. L. Lewis, Carlos Franco, Charles Warren, Aaron Baddeley, Harrison Frazar, Brett Quigley, Scott McCarron, Arjun Atwal, Stephen Ames, Bernhard Langer, Steve Lowery, Ian Poulter, J. J. Henry, Daniel Chopra, Tag Ridings, Bob Estes, Loren Roberts, Steve Flesch, Freddie Jacobson, John Senden, Brian Davis, John Rollins, James Driscoll, Kevin Sutherland, Dean Wilson, D. J. Trahan, Hank Kuehne, Stephen Leaney, Jeff Maggert, Robert Damron, Corey Pavin, Jesper Parnevik, Doug Barron, Jonathan Byrd, Craig Barlow, Rich Beem, Rocco Mediate, Brian Gay, Richard S. Johnson, Hidemichi Tanaka, Patrick Sheehan, Todd Fischer, John Huston, Ryuji Imada, Tommy Armour III, Kent Jones, Craig Parry, Nick Price

For the duration of their exemption, PGA Tour members who earned a Tournament Winner exemption prior to March 1, 2004.

Winners of the Players Championship, Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship from the 1996 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2005. Beginning with 1998, winners will be eligible for five years.

Nick Faldo, Steve Jones, Mark Brooks, Craig Perks, Shaun Micheel, David Duval, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton

Winners of the NEC World Series in the last years 10 years (1996–1997).

Winners of the Tour Championship in the last three years (2003–2005).

Winners of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in the last years (2004–2006).

Winners of the WGC-NEC Invitational and WGC-American Express Championship in the last three years (2003–2005).

Any player(s), not otherwise eligible, among the top 50 leaders from the Official World Golf Ranking through the Bay Hill Invitational.

Colin Montgomerie, David Howell, Henrik Stenson, Ángel Cabrera, Nick O'Hern, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjørn, Lee Westwood, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Shingo Katayama

Any player(s), not otherwise eligible, among the top 10 leaders from the 2006 Official PGA Tour Money List through the Bay Hill Invitational.

If necessary to complete a field of 144 players, PGA Tour members from the 2006 Official PGA Tour Money List below 10th position through the Bay Hill Invitational, in order of their positions on such list.^[10]

Camilo Villegas, Nathan Green

Sources:^[11]

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Jim Furyk	65	−7
T1	Davis Love III	65	−7
T3	Robert Allenby	67	−5
	Miguel Ángel Jiménez
	Bernhard Langer
T6	Ben Crane	68	−4
	Arron Oberholser
	José María Olazábal
	John Rollins
	Vijay Singh
	Bo Van Pelt

Source:^[12]

Second round

Friday, March 24, 2006

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jim Furyk	65-71=136	−8
T2	Stephen Ames	71-66=137	−7
T2	Adam Scott	70-67=137	−7
T4	K. J. Choi	69-69=138	−6
	Sergio García	70-68=138
	Vijay Singh	68-70=138
T7	Brad Faxon	70-69=139	−5
	Steve Flesch	69-70=139
	Fred Funk	69-70=139
	Arron Oberholser	68-71=139
	José María Olazábal	68-71=139
	Greg Owen	71-68=139
	John Rollins	68-71=139
	Bo Van Pelt	68-71=139

Source:^[13]^[14]

Third round

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Stephen Ames	71-66-70=207	−9
T2	Sergio García	70-68-70=208	−8
T2	Vijay Singh	68-70-70=208	−8
T4	Henrik Stenson	69-71-70=210	−6
T4	Mike Weir	71-71-68=210	−6
T6	Jim Furyk	65-71-75=211	−5
	Retief Goosen	69-71-71=211
	Tom Pernice Jr.	70-70-71=211
	Carl Pettersson	71-70-70=211
	John Rollins	68-71-72=211
	Bo Van Pelt	68-71-72=211

Source:^[15]

Final round

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Champion

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Stephen Ames	71-66-70-67=274	−14	1,440,000
2	Retief Goosen	69-71-71-69=280	−8	864,000
T3	Jim Furyk	65-71-75-72=283	−5	384,000
	Pat Perez	71-72-69-71=283
	Henrik Stenson	69-71-70-73=283
	Camilo Villegas	74-70-68-71=283
7	José María Olazábal	68-71-74-71=284	−4	268,000
T8	Ernie Els	72-70-72-71=285	−3	208,000
	Carl Pettersson	71-70-70-74=285
	John Rollins	68-71-72-74=285
	Vijay Singh	68-70-70-77=285
	Vaughn Taylor	73-71-68-73=285
	Bo Van Pelt	68-71-72-74=285

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T14	Sergio García	70-68-70-78=286	−2	148,000
T14	Phil Mickelson	70-73-69-74=286	−2	148,000
T16	K. J. Choi	69-69-77-72=287	−1	124,000
	Brad Faxon	70-69-79-69=287
	Fred Funk (c)	70-69-74-74=287
	Charles Warren	73-71-72-71=287
T20	Darren Clarke	73-70-72-73=288	E	100,000
T20	Brian Davis	70-73-73-72=288	E	100,000
T22	Freddie Jacobson	69-72-74-74=289	+1	76,800
	Greg Owen	71-68-77-73=289
	Craig Parry	70-73-70-76=289
	Mike Weir	71-71-68-79=289
	Tiger Woods (c)	72-69-73-75=289
T27	Jason Bohn	71-72-72-75=290	+2	53,250
	James Driscoll	71-72-70-77=290
	Todd Fischer	73-68-72-77=290
	Richard S. Johnson	72-70-75-73=290
	Tom Lehman	71-71-70-78=290
	Tom Pernice Jr.	70-70-71-79=290
	Ian Poulter	72-68-75-75=290
	Nick Price (c)	72-71-74-73=290
35	Fred Couples (c)	69-73-75-74=291	+3	43,200
T36	Ben Crane	68-74-77-73=292	+4	40,200
T36	Joe Durant	69-72-75-76=292	+4	40,200
T38	Robert Allenby	67-73-78-75=293	+5	32,800
	J. B. Holmes	71-73-76-73=293
	David Howell	71-71-81-70=293
	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	67-74-82-70=293
	Jesper Parnevik	72-72-72-77=293
	Tim Petrovic	73-69-80-71=293
	Lee Westwood	70-73-73-77=293
T45	John Daly	70-73-74-77=294	+6	22,020
	Carlos Franco	71-71-75-77=294
	Dudley Hart	73-70-75-76=294
	J. J. Henry	71-73-77-73=294
	Peter Lonard	71-73-74-76=294
	Jeff Maggert	73-69-78-74=294
	Arron Oberholser	68-71-74-81=294
	Jeff Sluman	70-73-75-76=294
T53	Robert Gamez	71-72-78-74=295	+7	18,613
	Charles Howell III	71-73-76-75=295
	Adam Scott (c)	70-67-82-76=295
T56	Bart Bryant	73-71-74-78=296	+8	18,160
T56	Steve Lowery	73-70-78-75=296	+8	18,160
T58	Zach Johnson	71-73-74-79=297	+9	17,600
	Bernhard Langer	67-75-79-76=297
	Rocco Mediate	69-74-77-77=297
	Sean O'Hair	73-71-75-78=297
	Joey Sindelar	71-73-80-73=297
T63	Steve Flesch	69-70-75-84=298	+10	16,960
	Harrison Frazar	70-74-76-78=298
	Kirk Triplett	70-71-76-81=298
T66	Rich Beem	71-72-71-85=299	+11	16,480
	Olin Browne	69-75-76-79=299
	Nathan Green	72-72-75-80=299
69	Thomas Bjørn	69-73-80-78=300	+12	16,160
T70	Chad Campbell	70-72-79-80=301	+13	15,920
T70	Shingo Katayama	70-73-77-81=301	+13	15,920
72	Mark Calcavecchia	69-73-81-79=302	+14	15,680
73	Woody Austin	73-69-83-79=304	+16	15,520
74	Mark Hensby	71-73-79-83=306	+18	15,360
CUT	Stuart Appleby	73-72=145	+1
	Tommy Armour III	73-72=145
	Mark Brooks	71-74=145
	Ángel Cabrera	72-73=145
	Michael Campbell	72-73=145
	Stewart Cink	73-72=145
	Ryuji Imada	73-72=145
	Justin Leonard (c)	75-70=145
	Nick O'Hern	71-74=145
	Tag Ridings	70-75=145
	John Senden	73-72=145
	Patrick Sheehan	71-74=145
	Wes Short Jr.	76-69=145
	Dean Wilson	71-74=145
	Doug Barron	72-74=146	+2
	Pádraig Harrington	73-73=146
	Shaun Micheel	75-71=146
	Heath Slocum	72-74=146
	Billy Andrade	69-78=147	+3
	Jeff Brehaut	71-76=147
	Luke Donald	73-74=147
	Brian Gay	75-72=147
	Ted Purdy	77-70=147
	Brett Quigley	73-74=147
	John Huston	73-75=148	+4
	Jonathan Kaye	77-71=148
	Davis Love III (c)	65-83=148
	Colin Montgomerie	72-76=148
	Kevin Na	74-74=148
	Joe Ogilvie	80-68=148
	Scott Verplank	75-73=148
	Jonathan Byrd	72-77=149	+5
	Daniel Chopra	70-79=149
	Tim Clark	77-72=149
	Robert Damron	71-78=149
	Bob Estes	74-75=149
	Tim Herron	72-77=149
	Brandt Jobe	75-74=149
	Loren Roberts	75-74=149
	Kent Jones	76-74=150	+6
	Paul McGinley	77-73=150
	Rod Pampling	74-76=150
	Justin Rose	78-72=150
	David Toms	73-77=150
	Arjun Atwal	76-75=151	+7
	David Duval (c)	71-80=151
	Lucas Glover	76-75=151
	Stephen Leaney	72-79=151
	Billy Mayfair	76-75=151
	Kevin Sutherland	74-77=151
	J. L. Lewis	76-76=152	+8
	Hidemichi Tanaka	75-77=152	+8
	Aaron Baddeley	77-76=153	+9
	Craig Barlow	80-73=153
	Ben Curtis	73-80=153
	Todd Hamilton	75-78=153
	Rory Sabbatini	72-81=153
	Bob Tway	74-79=153
	Jerry Kelly	72-82=154	+10
	Ryan Palmer	75-79=154
	Corey Pavin	74-80=154
	Nick Faldo	76-79=155	+11
	Geoff Ogilvy	78-77=155
	Craig Perks (c)	79-76=155
Steve Jones	73-84=157	+13
Jason Gore	77-81=158	+14
Scott McCarron	82-76=158	+14
D. J. Trahan	76-83=159	+15
Hank Kuehne	80-80=160	+16
WD	Shigeki Maruyama	78	+6

Source:^[16]

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5	3	4	4	4	4	3	5	4	5	4	3	4	4	5	3	4
Ames	−9	−10	−10	−10	−10	−11	−11	−11	−11	−9	−10	−10	−11	−11	−12	−14	−14	−14
Goosen	−6	−7	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−7	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8
Furyk	−5	−5	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5
Perez	−5	−6	−6	−6	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5
Stenson	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5
Villegas	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−5	−5	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5
Singh	−7	−7	−7	−6	−5	−5	−5	−5	−3	−3	−4	−3	−3	−2	−2	−3	−3	−3
García	−8	−7	−6	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	-4	−3	−3	-3	-3	−2	−3	−3	−3	−2
Weir	−6	−6	−5	−2	−1	−1	−2	−2	−3	E	E	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	+1	+1

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Triple bogey+

References

^ ^a ^b "Players Championship". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). March 27, 2006. p. D4.
^ Harig, Bob (March 27, 2006). "In a rout, Ames tells world he's a Player". St. Petersburg Times. (Florida). p. 1C.
^ Ferguson, Doug (March 27, 2006). "Ames tames Sawgrass". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. p. C3.
^ "Ames takes over at TPC, takes aim at tourney win". Sunday Star-News. (Wilmington, North Carolina). Associated Press. March 26, 2006. p. 3C.
^ "Woods torches foe at Match Play". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). February 23, 2006. p. C2.
^ Harig, Bob (August 10, 2017). "PGA Championship to move from August date to May in 2019". ESPN. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
^ Shedloski, Dave (August 7, 2017). "The PGA Championship is moving to May and players are on board". Golf Digest. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^ "P.G.A. Championship Will Move from August to May in 2019". The New York Times. Reuters. August 8, 2017. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
^ Herrington, Ryan (August 7, 2017). "The PGA Championship will be moving to May, sources say". Golf Digest. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
^ ^a ^b "Official Money – 2005". PGA Tour. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
^ "2006 PGA Tour Media Guide" (PDF). PGA Tour. p. 3-31.
^ "Golf: Players Championship". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. March 24, 2006. p. C4.
^ "Love becomes spectator". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. March 25, 2006. p. B6.
^ "Golf: Players Championship". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. May 25, 2006. p. C4.
^ "Ames escapes as Sawgrass mows down field". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. March 26, 2006. p. D8.
^ "Past Results 1974 – present". PGA Tour. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved March 1, 2020.