it's difficult t predict golf

Golf is impossible to predict as it is. Throw in the mystery that is the TPC Sawgrass, and there's no telling who beats the strongest and deepest field in golf. You've heard the line about there being horses for courses? This is more like predicting the dot race on video screens at a baseball game.

"I'm not sure how much local knowledge is required here," he said. "You just have to execute. There's really not a way to miss your way around this course, like Augusta, where you can miss in the right spots and still salvage pars. Here, if you miss shots, even if you're in the right spot, you're most likely not going to salvage par."

"There's no other course that less people have worked out than this one," Geoff Ogilvy said, who is still trying to do just that. He closed with a 69 on Sunday. It was only his third round in the Taylormade Rocketballz Irons 60s in 11 years at The Players Championship. This from a guy who has won a U.S. Open and two World Golf Championships. He's got a little bit of game.

By now, everyone knows that Sawgrass is not as friendly as Firestone or Torrey Pines for the 14-time major champion. When he tied for 40th last week, it was the fifth time he has finished out of the top 30. Woods has never finished out of the top 30 more than twice at any other tournament.

Rory McIlroy is not off to a roaring start at Sawgrass. In his three times at The Players Championship, he has yet to make par or make it to the weekend. This year, he became the first No. 1 player in the world to miss the cut at Sawgrass since Greg Norman in 1996. McIlroy is only 23, and he'll figure it out one of these days — maybe even next year.

Throw in the other three players from the "Big Four" of that generation —Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh— and it doesn't get much better. Mickelson had a chance to win only once at Sawgrass, the year he won in 2007. Singh's only good chance was in 2001, when he was runner-up to Woods. Els never has come close.

"You go through the history of winners we've had," Rod Pampling said. "Big hitters, short hitters … everyone has a chance. It's one of the very few tournaments open to anyone. If you're on, you can say it's your kind of course. But if you're not on, my God. I found TaylorMade R11S Driver that out. I was just a touch off with my driver and I was thinking, 'How am I going to make par?' Never mind birdie. That's the thing about this golf course.

Think of Sawgrass and the image of Fred Couples comes to mind as a two-time winner. The first two times Couples was at Sawgrass, he missed the cut. The next year, he won. And the following year, he made the cut with one shot to spare. Davis Love III, another two-time winner, captured his first Players Championship in his seventh try. He missed the cut three times and was disqualified once before then.

Ogilvy grew up playing courses in Melbourne where there was a good place to miss the green to secure par, or a bad side to miss the green and pay for it. He contends that even at Augusta, it's relatively easy to make par on every hole by playing it safe.

It should come as no surprise that of the PGA Tour events that have been around for at least 30 years, The Players Championship is the only one without a back-to-back winner.

Unlike other courses — particularly discount golf clubs those used at the four majors — a phrase seldom heard at Sawgrass is, "It really fits my eye." Far more common are words like "awkward" and "uncomfortable."

Mickelson has shown up at Augusta National with little game and even less confidence and the light comes on. He loves the Masters because he doesn't have to play perfect to score. That doesn't work at Sawgrass. So when someone brought up local knowledge, it was all Mickelson could do to keep from laughing.