The world's top players, with one major exception -- Tiger Woods -- will gather in Florida Thursday to compete in golf's most lucrative tournament.

The Players Championship, which carries a total purse of $9.5 million and a first-place prize of $1.71 million, will open over the TPC-Stadium Course at Ponte Verde Beach that houses one of the sport's most famous challenges.

Absent, however, will be Woods, the longstanding No. 1 player in the game who is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. This will be the most significant tournament to be contested without Woods in the field since the 1996 PGA Championship, an event for which he was not eligible.

Without Woods, the attention will turn to a group of young players who have recently made a mark.

That crowd includes Adam Scott and Anthony Kim, who have won the last two stops on the PGA Tour. Scott holed a 45-foot putt on the third playoff hole to win the Byron Nelson Classic two weeks ago and Kim enjoyed his first triumph last Sunday at the Wachovia Championship.

The 144-man field will take on a course that features the famous island green at the par-3 17th hole.

Phil Mickelson won last year's tournament by two shots over Sergio Garcia. (c) UPI