Golf this week

PGA Tour

The Players Championship

Site: Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl
.Course: TPC Sawgrass, Players Stadium Course (7,215 yards, par 72).
Purse: $9.5 million. Winner’s share: $1.71 million.

Last year: South Africa’s Tim Clark won his first PGA Tour title, overcoming a seven-stroke deficit with weekend rounds of 66 and 67. Robert Allenby was second, a stroke back. Tiger Woods withdrew during the final round because of neck pain.

Notes: Woods, the 2001 winner, is returning to play after skipping the Wells Fargo because of a minor injury to his left knee from hitting a shot in the third round of the Masters. He won the first of his record three straight U.S. Amateur titles in 1994 on the Stadium Course. ... Phil Mickelson, the 2007 champion, is coming off a ninth-place tie last week at Quail Hollow. He won the Houston Open last month for his 39th PGA Tour title. ... Top-ranked Lee Westwood and No. 6 Rory McIlroy are skipping the tournament. ... Sweden’s Henrik Stenson won in 2009. ... Greg Norman set the tournament record in 1994, opening with a 63 and adding three 67s for a 24-under 264 total. ... Jack Nicklaus is the only three-time champion, winning in 1974 at Atlanta Country Club, 1976 at Inverrary and 1978 at Sawgrass Country Club. ... The tour will be in Texas the next two weeks for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in Fort Worth and the Byron Nelson Championship at TPC Four Seasons in Irving.

EUROPEAN Tour

Iberdrola Open

Site: Son Servera, Spain.
Course: Pula Golf Club (6,915 yards, par 70).
Purse: $1.44 million. Winner’s share: $239,810.

Last year: Sweden’s Peter Hanson shrugged off a one-shot penalty to beat Spain’s Alejandro Canizares in a playoff. A television replay showed Hanson struck his chip shot twice in the final round on No. 12.

Last week: South Africa’s Thomas Aiken won the Spanish Open for his first European Tour title, a victory he dedicated to late Spanish great Seve Ballesteros.

Notes: Jose Maria Olazabal redesigned the Pula course, the site of the Mallorca Classic from 2003-07. No. 18 is a 203-yard, par 3. ... Olazabal, the 2012 European Ryder Cup captain, is in the field along with Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley. Olazabal won in 2005 at Pula. ... The tour will complete its three-week Spanish swing next week with the Volvo World Match Play at Finca Cortesin.

LPGA, Nationwide and Champions tours all off this week


Bryan Angus also on twitter@mumbles