Tournament Notebook

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -Jeff Klauk has mowed fairways, groomed greens and played about a thousand rounds at TPC Sawgrass. He's even worked as a standard bearer for The Players Championship.

His role this week is much different.

Klauk, the son of longtime course superintendent Fred Klauk, will make his Players debut Thursday. The 31-year-old Klauk earned his PGA Tour card by finishing third on the Nationwide Tour's money list in 2008 and got into the Players field as an alternate.

He hopes his home-course advantage will help him avoid any jitters that might come with playing a pressure-packed opening round in front of friends and family.

``It kind of feels the same as when I'm out there playing with my friends and stuff like that, which is the way I'm going to try to approach the week,'' he said. ``Just like I'm out there playing with my buddies and just try to play, because I play fine then. Obviously I'll be nervous, but it'll be a good type of nervous.''

Klauk first played the Stadium Course when he was 10 years old. He took at least three shots to find the green on No. 17, the famed island hole.

For years, the course was his spot for afternoon excursions, weekend adventures, practice rounds and tons of fun. That changed in high school. Klauk got a speeding ticket on his way back from a junior golf event in Hilton Head, S.C., and his father made him start working at the course the next weekend to pay off the fine.

``I worked from there on out to make some money,'' he said.

He kept playing, too.

Now, it could pay off big time.

``Familiarity-wise, I think I definitely have an advantage,'' he said. ``But I've never played it under these fast conditions, which they're going to be. My lines off the tee, I feel very familiar with where I'm going to hit it. But you know, this golf course changes so much. Even two weeks ago when I played it's changed a lot, and it's going to change a lot from yesterday to tomorrow. An advantage? Maybe a little bit. But experience-wise? No.''

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PRESIDENTIAL PRESENTATION: Former President George H.W. Bush visited The Players Championship for the second time in as many years Wednesday.

This one was more official than the last.

Bush became the ninth recipient of the PGA Tour's lifetime achievement award. He was honored on the 18th green as part of a military appreciation day.

Since the 41st president has a golf background - he served as honorary chairman of The Presidents Cup in 1996 and has worked with the PGA Tour on various endeavors - it was no surprise he shared a story about his game.

``If you get enough strokes, you can play with anybody,'' Bush said. ``But I find that some people are a little penurious about that, not as generous as they used to be. When I was president, you'd get out there and it was, 'That's good, sir. That's a good one. Put it in your pocket.' Now you get, 'Hole it out, George.' It's very different, very different.''

Bush also visited the event last year, watching six groups play the famed island green at No. 17.

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GOYDOS GIVES: The baseball cap Paul Goydos wore during his runner-up finish at The Players is still on display a year later.

His black and yellow Long Beach State hat was auctioned off for $4,000 before the final round last year. It's sitting in a display case, along with a tournament program, a glove and a ball, at a sports bar in Long Beach, Calif.

``Just a weird coincidence that the hat almost took on a life of its own,'' Goydos said. ``I guess people out here are used to seeing Taylor Made on somebody's hat and not Long Beach State. And that's just one of the freak things that happened that week. I wasn't really paying much attention to what hat I was wearing, I'll be honest with you, until Saturday. That's when they really made a big deal about it.''

It was an interesting subplot to Goydos' surprising week.

With his hat contract expired, Goydos stopped at an airport store a few days before the Players and bought a Long Beach State cap - he graduated from the school in 1987. The hat drew attention because just about everyone on Tour plays with sponsorship logos on each article of clothing.

The Long Beach State Athletic Foundation asked to have the hat for a fundraiser, and Goydos obliged.

Goydos now has a hat deal with Taylor Made.

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GARCIA REPEAT?: Sergio Garcia will try to do something this week no one has ever done at The Players: Repeat. In the 35 years of the tournament, no champion has won it back-to-back times.

Garcia will try to end the streak. But given the way he's played this year - he ranks 122nd on the money list - he's not counting on anything.

``I think there's obviously a couple of things missing,'' he said. ``I obviously am not feeling 100 percent with my game at the moment and it shows. I'm just not having a great time on the course. I'm working on trying to change that. I think this is a good place. It's a tough course, but it's a good place for me to hopefully turn around and start going in the right direction.''

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DIVOTS: Robert Karlsson's caddie, Garath Lord, won the closest-to-the-pin caddie contest at the par-3 17th on Wednesday. Lord's tee shot landed 6.1 feet from the pin. ... Champs Spikes has signed up about 65 players for its ``Pinks on the Links'' campaign at The Players Championship, in which players are wearing pink-and-white colored spikes to raise awareness of breast cancer. The company will be making a small donation in each players' name.