The First Coast’s fortnight of golf begins in Atlantic Beach with 120 aspiring LPGA players and ends in Ponte Vedra with the deepest field on the PGA Tour chasing the biggest purse in worldwide pro golf.
Three events, all significant in their respective worlds, will begin on Thursday at the Atlantic Beach Country Club when the Epson Tour Atlantic Beach Classic comes to town.
While that event’s final round is being played on Saturday, the University of North Florida will host The Hayt for the 33rd time, its annual invitational at the Sawgrass Country Club that will feature 10 teams ranked among the top 50 on the NCAA Division I Scoreboard rankings.
The 11 days of high-level golf will end on March 16 with the final round of The Players Championship.
Here’s what to know:
Epson Tour Atlantic Beach Classic
Dates: March 6-8.
Site: Atlantic Beach Country Club.
Purse: $250,000 ($37,500 to the winner).
Defending champion: Briana Chacon.
Tickets: $10 per person. Visit atlanticbeachclassic.com.
Notable: Among the 120 players in the field are Bolles graduate Amelia Lewis, Jacksonville University graduate Jessica Welch and San Jose Country Club teaching professional Stephanie Connelly Eiswerth. … ABCC was designed by Erik Larsen and built on the site of the old Selva Marina Country Club, which hosted the last LPGA event to be played on the First Coast, the 1975 Jacksonville Ladies Open. … Chacon, a former University of Oregon player, birdied two of her last three holes to beat Jessica Porvasnik by one shot. … The top 15 on the Epson Tour points list at the end of the season earn LPGA Tour cards for 2026.
The Hayt
Dates: March 8-10.
Site: Sawgrass Country Club.
Defending champion: North Carolina.
Tickets: Admission is free.
Notable: The 33rd Hayt is named for long-time UNF benefactor John Hayt. … The Tar Heels beat Alabama by four shots. Virginia’s Devin Patel was the individual champion. … Ten of the 15 teams in the field are among the top 50 on the NCAA Division I Scoreboard Rankings, led by No. 5 Texas, No. 8 North Carolina and No. 9 Virginia. Also in the field with the host Ospreys are South Carolina (13), Alabana (20), Northwestern (27), Duke (28), South Florida (34), Charlotte (36) and Louisville (42). … Major champions Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson and Wyndham Clark have played in The Hayt, as have past FedEx Cup champions Scheffler, Billy Horschel, Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker. … UNF is coming off a 25-shot victory in the World Golf Collegiate. The most recent starting lineup was seniors Brett Schell, Jason Duff, junior Justin Ross, sophomore Filippo Serra and freshman Danny Erickson.
The Players Championship
Dates: March 11-12, practice rounds; March 13-16, competitive rounds.
Site: Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Purse: $25 million ($4.5 million and 750 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler.
Tickets: Visit theplayers.com/tickets.
Notable: Scheffler became the first to win back-to-back Players Championships last year and is trying to win a PGA Tour event for the third year in a row for the first time since Steve Stricker in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 John Deere Classic. … Scheffler tied the final-round score for a winner with a 64 last year, and posted a tie for the second-lowest 72-hole score in tournament history at 20-under 268. … Expectations are that as many as 48 of the top-50 players on the World Golf Rankings will be in the field. That list includes Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Epson Tour, The Hayt, Players Championship will be played in 11-day span
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