Matt Rapp, executive director of The Players Championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, thinks the annual event provides a great experience for fans.
But once the Ponte Vedra Beach tournament ends, he still looks for ways to improve the following year.
“We love coming up with new ideas for something to make it better,” Rapp said Wednesday during a Media Day news conference for this year’s Players Championship, which begins May 7.
“We are going to beat 2014,” he promised. “This is going to be by far the best.”
This year’s improvements include a new point-of-sale system that should speed up transactions at concessions stands.
“It’s supposed to be ten times faster” than the old system, Rapp said. “That should be a significant improvement.”
The tournament is also working with the MD Anderson Cancer Center, a new sponsor of the PGA Tour, to help fans avoid the danger of skin cancer in the Florida sun.
MD Anderson is sponsoring new shaded seating areas accessible to all fans to give them a chance to get out of the sun and will have sunscreen pumps and lip balm throughout the course for fans to use during the day.
For the last several years, The Players Championship has worked to expand the food options available for fans. Much of the food venues are the same as last year but with some improvements, like an expanded “Tacos on 12” area near the 12th hole run by Jacksonville Beach restaurant TacoLu.
“It was so popular (last year) that we’re going to double the size of the seating capacity,” Rapp said.
Parking and traffic flow at the tournament are still a work in progress. Parking passes must be purchased in advance, but you can print a voucher at home for free parking if you have four or more people in your car.
Rapp urged fans to consider carpooling, to get four people in a car, or taking advantage of a shuttle service from Downtown Jacksonville. That would help traffic flow into the parking lots located on Palm Valley Road, just west of Florida A1A.
Rapp said a recent survey found an average of 2.2 people per car heading into the lots at the tournament.
“If we can get closer to four people per car, we really won’t have much of an issue,” he said.
The Players Championship is expecting big crowds for the tournament, based on demand for tickets so far.
“Ticket sales are ahead of the game pretty substantially,” he said.
Total attendance was 179,001 last year. The Players Championship says its estimated annual economic impact on Northeast Florida is $151 million.
Rapp said it is important to continue improving the fan experience because TPC Sawgrass was originally designed more than 30 years ago to provide an enjoyable experience.
“It is set up for golf fans,” he said. “This is a golf fan’s nirvana.”
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