Players buzz not up to par

Florida Times-Union sports columnist Gene Frenette will be at The Players Championship all week and offers daily commentary for jacksonville.com This is his entry for Tuesday May 6.

It's not just Tiger Woods who is taking a pass on The Players Championship this year. So, too, are some of the people paid to chronicle his every move.
While it's still early in the week, seats inside the media center at The Players are definitely less full than normal and the expectation is that the trend will continue for the remainder of the tournament.
At press conferences Tuesday morning for European players Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood, only 10-12 credentialed media were in attendance. That's a smaller number than usual for this event, an indication of both Tiger's absence and that the move to May is less convenient for the international media to make the trip.
"Economically, we're struggling with costs," said veteran golf writer John Hopkins of the London Times, who has covered The Players for the past 30 years. "Looking at balance sheets and Tiger not being here, [many publications are choosing to] give The Players a miss."
Hopkins estimates that the normal European media contingent on Tuesday at The Players would be 12-15 journalists, but it's down to six or eight this year.
Before the tournament was moved from March to May last year, many European golf writers made The Players and Masters as part of one long trip. But now that the events are almost a month apart, it requires two trans-Atlantic flights. Coupled with the fact Woods isn't here because he's rehabilitating from knee surgery, the 2008 Players lacks the feel of a major inside the media center.
Come Sunday, there may be great drama at The Players, but definitely less of a media contingent to write how it all plays out.