"You lose a lot more in golf than you win. So when you do win, you have to enjoy it. I'm going to go back home and enjoy it with my friends and enjoy it with my family and, yeah, I love being from Northern Ireland. I tell everyone how great it is. For me, it's the best place on earth. I'm obviously biased, but I love it back there and I love the people."

Kevin Na may not have history on his side today. The third-round leader/co-leader has won THE PLAYERS only 16 out of 38 times. The last time it happened was in 2006 when Stephen Ames won the event. 

The last time there were second round co-leaders at THE PLAYERS was 2005, when Luke Donald, Joe Durant, Tim Herron and Lee Westwood shared the lead. Coming from behind has been where the eventual winner is determined at the event. The second-round leader/co-leader has won THE PLAYERS only nine of 38 times. The most recent time was Phil Mickelson back in 2007. 

Since Tiger Woods’ PGA TOUR-record streak of 142 consecutive made cuts ended at the 2005 HP Byron Nelson Championship, no player has made 50 in a row. With his sixth-place finish last week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Steve Stricker entered the week with 49 consecutive cuts, with his last weekend off being the 2009 PGA Championship. Stricker’s streak was snapped this week after rounds of 76-74. Matt Kuchar now owns the longest consecutive cuts made st

Zach Johnson carded a 6-under 66 on Friday to move to 8-under 136 through two rounds of THE PLAYERS Championship, sharing the lead with Kevin Na and Matt Kuchar. It fell one shy of his best round at the event, a 7-under 65 in his first-ever round at the event in 2005. He also posted a 6-under 66 in the final round a year ago. All three of Johnson’s previous first-round lead/co-leads came during the 2004 season, eventually winning the BellSouth Classic, finishing T11 at the Shell Houston Open and T3 at the Buick Championship. Johnson is making his eighth start at THE PLAYERS, with a T8 in his inaugural start in 2005 his only top-10 finish. He now owns seven made cuts at the event, missing only in 2008. Johnson is making his 12th start of the season, with a runner-up finish at the RBC Heritage and a T8 at the Humana Challenge his lone top 10s. THE PLAYERS champions who have also won the Masters Tournament: Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Sandy Lyle, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson. 

The best players in the world have congregated at the TPC Sawgrass this week for The PLAYERS. They enjoy many benefits with playing on TOUR and one of those happens to be free golf balls. That comes in handy on a week like this when one particular hole has been known to consume more shots than fans might realize. The infamous par-3 17th hole is the signature hole and it challenges players despite measuring only 137 yards. In its brief history, the island hole has become one of the most renowned of its kind in the world. A small-maintained bunker protects the right side of it, which sometimes will be a relief to players who come up short of the green. Club selection on this hole is critically important; with the tricky winds of spring, the Championship could be won or lost here. 

Last year, a total of 40 shots over the four rounds found a watery grave. Since 2003, every round at THE PLAYERS has seen multiple shots go swimming with the fishes. During that time, according to ShotLink, 11.2% of all tee shots (3,940 tee shots) end up in the water on the 17th hole (almost 1 in every 10 tee shots during tournament play).

Dan Jenkins believes he knew the late, great Ben Hogan better than any other writer. It isn’t often, especially in today’s day and age, where a scribe has the chance to play with one of the very best o have ever played the game. Jenkins has and isn’t bashful about sharing some of his experiences with Hogan. 

“I played golf with him over 40 times all through the 1950s when he was at his peak. He called me up one day, I used to watch him practice. He'd say, let's go play. One day in 1956 he called me at the paper on the phone and said, I'm going to play an exhibition for the U.S. Olympic fund, and I want you in the foursome. And I said, Ben, there's got to be somebody better than me. He said, no. You're the one I want. We'll have a lot of fun. My brother will play, there will be four of us. So I go out there and I expected maybe a couple hundred people. There are 3,000 people lining the first fairway. I somehow got off the tee okay down the fairway without injuring myself or anybody else, and then I topped a 3‑wood, then I topped another 3‑wood, then I top scraped a 5‑iron, and all I wanted to do was dig a hole and disappear. I could hear giggles in the gallery. Who is this idiot? How did this guy get here? Then I realized Ben was walking beside me as I dropped my ball and he gave me the greatest golf tip at the time under those conditions I've ever had. This proves he had a sense of humor. He said, you can probably swing faster if you try hard enough,” Jenkins recalled. 

Peter Alliss has been around golf for more than six decades. He’s seen a few things in his day, to say the least, and golf has changed considerably since back in the day. So too has the world. But as they say, that’s progress. Or is it?

“You can't compare then and now. I only came into golf because my father was a golf professional, and I couldn't do anything else,” he began. “I left school when I was 15 and went as his assistant and followed on from there, and golf professionals or people in sport weren't idolized as they are today,” he continued. “Football, or soccer, we call it football, they were idolized because it was a game for the workers, and they used to get big teams, Everton, Liverpool, they used to get 60,000, 70,000 people, home games every two weeks, and the players were paid £8 a week, and they were performing to audiences of 70,000 or 80,000. They had to go to work on the bus and clean their own shoes,” he said.

Not that it was needed, but Dan Jenkins took it upon himself to justify his inclusion into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He is known for many things as he has chronicled the game over decades, which featured his sharp wit. But he also wasn’t afraid to rub shoulders with some of the best the game has ever known. “To justify my inclusion in this terrific society, I went back and looked at everybody who's in it and did some statistics,” Jenkins began. “It turns out that I have known 95 of these people when they were living. I've written stories about 73 of them. I've had cocktails and drinks with 47 of them, and I played golf with 24 of them,” he continued. “So I want somebody else to try and go up against that record,” he challenged.