PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Trevor Immelman awoke Monday morning in his Orlando home and found an invitation to the ball slipped under his door. When the current world rankings came out Monday, Immelman stood at 50th, which meant he had ducked inside the ropes of the Players Championship. The top 50 qualify, and Immelman had not met any other criteria. He's the last guy in the locker room.
"I got in right on the number," the 23-year-old South African said Wednesday behind the 18th green of the Stadium Course. "I've been right around 50 for the last couple of months. Unfortunately, I missed the cut at Bay Hill. I knew it was going to be tough. If I didn't get in I had a week off in Orlando. If I'm 50 after this week as well, it will get me into The Masters."
Immelman became the 147th golfer to qualify for the, uh, 144-man field. The PGA Tour plays 144-man fields during standard time, and expands to 156 once the clocks spring forward and there's an extra hour of daylight. In the case of the Players, whoever meets the requirements gets into the field, so there are three extra players.
This is important to Aaron Baddeley, the first alternate. Though Ernie Els pulled out Tuesday, and Ian Leggatt, also with a hand injury, on Wednesday, the first alternate doesn't get a tee time until the field dips below 144. Scott Hoch, whose left wrist has been rebelling ever since he won at Doral, said Wednesday there's a 50-50 chance that he will not tee it up at 8:10 a.m. Thursday.
For Baddeley, that's one down, one to go. Immelman has no such worries. He may be only 23, but Immelman already has "Coming Attractions" stamped on his forehead. He won the 1998 U.S. Public Links as an 18-year-old. After finishing 14th on the European Order of Merit, Immelman won the South African Airways Open in January. The Players is his third tournament stateside this year. He also lost a first-round match, 4 and 2, to Robert Allenby, at the Match Play Championship.
"He's very straight, a pretty long hitter," Allenby said. "He didn't make a lot of putts that day, but I know he's a good putter. He's a good player."
There's Trevor Immelman and Tim Clark, Shaun Micheel and John Senden, anonymous golfers who are waiting for their opportunity to ring the big bell. The Players, because the field is so comprehensive, gets more than its share of anonymity every year, considering that it would like to be known as the fifth major. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem wants it. The list of champions could serve as an amicus brief for its case.
On a related note, Butler hopes to win the NCAAs. Sterling Hitchcock would love to make the Yankees rotation. I plan to mow the lawn every week this summer. We all have goals.
Wishing, alas, does not make it so. The Players has the best field of golfers every year. As tests go, the Stadium Course makes the MCATs look like third-grade math. However, a curious part of the tournament's history, a part not shared by major championships, is the unknown contender.
When Perks won a year ago, he broke an 11-year streak in which every Players champion had also won or gone on to win a major championship. Perks fit the role of the anonymous golfer ready for his one week of fame. He just changed the script by winning, perhaps because he did so by beating another relative unknown. Last year's runner-up Stephen Ames has never finished higher than third in a Tour event before or since in his six years on Tour.
The Perks of 1999 was Scott Gump, who finished second to David Duval and lost his card the following year. The year before, Len Mattiace, who, to his credit, is no longer an unknown, contended until he got to the infamous 17th hole on Sunday.
"I was playing with Mattiace that day," Hoch said. "It helps to be more of a veteran and know how this course plays. Maybe that's why some of these guys are contenders until the last few holes. Holes 67 to 72 are a lot tougher when you're contending than they are when they're holes 31 to 36. It's only human nature."
The Masters rarely has unknown contenders because it doesn't allow them onto the first tee. In the U.S. Open, the unknowns are part of the Thursday charm but rarely part of the Sunday finish. At the Players, they seem to hang on until the back nine on Sunday.
Someday, Immelman will establish himself on the PGA Tour. Given the history of unknown contenders at the Players, he might consider waiting until after this week.
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.