In its relentless pursuit of major status, the PLAYERS championship has pulled out a considerable number of stops in the 14 months since Stephen Ames beat Vijay Singh by six shots to win the event’s 33rd edition.

The most significant change has been the shift in dates — from late March to early May — a sevenweek deferral that ensures the tournament no longer competes with college basketball for column inches or acts merely as a warm-up for Augusta. It also means the prospect of better weather. In recent years, a number of PLAYERS championships have been affected by rain, most notably in 2005 when 2.46 inches of the stuff fell, forcing five stoppages of play that resulted in a Monday finish, won by Fred Funk.

The clubhouse has also been modified. Well, modified in the sense that the venue’s slightly unsightly mini-Luxor structure (nicknamed the “Deane Dome” after Deane Beman, the former PGA Tour commissioner whose brainchild the tournament and venue were) was razed and rebuilt, at a cost of $40 million, in the form of a 77,000-square-foot Mediterranean Revival palace.

Then there’s the course itself, recently renamed the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Ridiculed for many years because of excessive contouring which Tom Weiskopf said made him feel like he was playing in a pinball machine, and poor drainage that Dye said made it play like a pin cushion, the course has been softened in recent years and, thanks to the latest set of improvements, will play more like the old-style links Dye always intended it to be.

The result of years of ryegrass overseeding, 24,000 tons of organic mulch was stripped from the fairways and 22 miles of underground drainage pipe laid. A sixinch cap of sand then went on top. A state-of-the-art air circulation system was installed beneath each of the putting surfaces allowing superintendent Fred Klauk to determine exactly how much heat and moisture the roots receive. Two hundred trees were planted, sand has replaced broken coquina shells in the waste bunkers, and six new back tees have extended the course to 7,215 yards from 7,093. The Bermuda turf on the tees and fairways was improved, and mixed with another strain of Bermuda for the rough.

Lastly, the putting surfaces have been made faster and smoother following the introduction of another Bermuda variety, MiniVerde Ultradwarf, which has no grain, fine blades and deep roots. It also keeps it dark green color year round and can be cut as low as bent grass.

Who this hard and fast layout will favor isn’t immediately clear, but then Sawgrass never did have an identikit winner. When Calvin Peete, Justin Leonard, Fred Funk, and Stephen Ames can win on the same course as Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, Davis Love, Fred Couples, and Adam Scott, it appears anyone could win here.

As Tiger alluded to on Tuesday, there really is no advantage in bombing it because of the fairways’ often severe angles and how ‘everything pitches in’. Everyone in the field basically drives to the same point, he said, and hopes to beat his partners into the hole from there.

With so many water hazards, waste areas, and bunkers, not to mention the knotty Bermuda rough, waiting for the ill-conceived drive, it’s possible we might even see Tiger revert to Hoylake mode. At the British Open last year, Woods hit one driver all week, relying mostly on his 2-iron to place the ball in the fairway. Sawgrass won’t play nearly as fast as that, but it is still fairly short by modern standards and taking a driver might just be inviting trouble.

No one will work out the demands of the “new” course better than Woods, one of the game’s greatest ever strategists as well as a supreme ball-striker. And with the rhythm and tempo his swing lacked at Augusta clearly back in place, he is obviously a good bet for a second win in a row (following a two-shot victory at the Wachovia last weekend), and fourth of the year.

Still, with 48 of the world’s top 50 golfers present, competition for the $1.44 million first prize will be intense. A ragged triple bogey on the 72nd hole in Charlotte led to a disappointing final round of 74 for Vijay Singh, but the Fijian has been looking sharp all season despite his 44 years and, as a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., will benefit from playing in his own backyard. Rory Sabbatini has had three top 3 finishes on the trot, including a tie for second at the Masters, and Masters champion Zach Johnson should feel comfortable on a course that will likely play much as Augusta did five weeks ago.

Then there’s Phil Mickelson. It’s still way too early to know if switching from Rick Smith to Butch Harmon in the hope of driving the ball better was the right move, but, remarkably, he managed a tie for third in the two tournaments he has played under Harmon’s watch. He still hit sufficiently few fairways (55.36% at Byron Nelson, 39.29% at Wachovia) and fell back on his exquisite short game too often (up and down from off the green 75% of the time at Nelson, 69.23% at Wachovia) to convince anyone that the alterations he was making – alterations he has been reluctant to talk about but which, one assumes, involve shortening his backswing and maintaining taller, straighter posture through the ball – were having an immediate impact, but he has been very upbeat about his relationship with Harmon and is clearly encouraged by the progress they have made.

It promises to be an exciting four days at the PLAYERS, but the question of major status still remains. In 1960, the world’s most influential player, Arnold Palmer, unwittingly established the present-day Grand Slam by listing the Masters, US Open, British Open, and PGA Championship as the game’s four most important tournaments. PGA Tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, would dearly love to add the PLAYERS, but it’s not his decision. Nor is it that of the press or the public. No one decides what is or isn’t a major and, to be honest, four is probably ample. But if today’s most influential player regarded the PLAYERS as a worthy addition to the “impregnable quadrilateral,” (would that make it the impregnable pentagon?), then the game might have to make room. So, what of it, Tiger?