Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. ? The “Big Four” have been going their own direction for most of the year, two months of travels and trophies that lead them to The Players Championship.

Ernie Els was in Dubai when everyone else was at Doral. Phil Mickelson was skiing in Utah when the rest of the best were battling at Bay Hill. Tiger Woods was on his boat when he wasn’t playing, while Vijay Singh was on the range the two tournaments he skipped this year.

The one thing they have in common is winning.

“They all play well. They’re all at the top of their game. They’ve all won one or two tournaments,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday. “They’re joined by a lot of other players that are playing well. But Vijay, Tiger, Ernie and Phil have the opportunity this week to create some stories that could be pretty special.”

It doesn’t always work out that way at golf’s fifth major.

The Players Championship is the richest tournament in golf ($8 million) with the strongest and deepest field of the year, with 82 of the top 100 in the world rankings gathered on the TPC at Sawgrass, and all 146 of them capable of winning the $1.44 million prize.

The roll call of champions is worthy. In the 31-year history, only six champions have not won a major.

But the Big Four usually are a Big Flop at Sawgrass.

Woods and defending champion Adam Scott are the only players among the top 10 who have won The Players Championship, and Scott made it interesting last year by pulling a 6-iron into the water and having to salvage bogey with a testy up-and-down from 40 yards.

“Maybe I’ve run out of patience here in the last couple of years,” Els said. “So I think this week I’ve got to be really patient, sometimes just throttle back and put the ball in play — play it like a major.”

Els has only two top-10s in his 11 years at Sawgrass, and the others aren’t much better. Singh has just two top-10s, his only year in contention ending with a tee shot he hooked into the water on No. 14 in 2001 when he finished second to Woods. Mickelson’s best finish came last year, when he was four shots behind Scott.

Woods has no qualms with his record. Four years ago, he became the only guy to win The Players Championship and the Masters in the same year. He also was runner-up to Hal Sutton in 2000. And he won the first of his three U.S. Amateur titles at Sawgrass in 1994.