Philip Reid talks to Paul McGinley, who is on the fast track in acquiring knowledge of the Sawgrass course.

The thing about a tournament returning to the same course year in and year out is that an element of familiarity develops. In Paul McGinley's case, however, no such know-how exists of the TPC at Sawgrass as his one and only appearance in the Players Championship, back in 2002, resulted in a missed cut.

And, until now, his world ranking has been such the intervening years have been spent watching on television a tournament that aspires to becoming the fifth major.

So, since his arrival here after a 27-hour journey from China, the Dubliner has been cramming to learn the course and its nuances in an effort to play catch-up on those more familiar with its searching examination.

"A huge amount of course knowledge is required here, and I am certainly at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the field. There is a huge learning curve, so I have a huge amount of golf course stuff to get to know," said McGinley, who decided to follow up his practice rounds with an additional walk of the layout.

Is it possible to fast track acquiring knowledge of Sawgrass? "Yes, I can. At this stage, I'm pretty good at that sort of thing. I've been doing all my research and have the pin positions from previous years from the guys, which is something I normally have myself because my caddie normally keeps the yardage books. I've still a bit of homework to do."

McGinley's absence - "very frustrating," he attested - from the Players since 2002 was due to being outside the world's top 50, something that has been addressed this past year by a significant improvement in his form that has seen him rise to a position of 27th in the rankings. Still, the fact that, as a Ryder Cup player, he missed out last year and the restrictions placed on international players makes him wonder about the tournament's right to be considered a "fifth" major.

The US Tour's plan is to move the Players to a new date in May next year to strengthen its claims to be considered a major, a status which currently applies to the US Masters, the US Open, the British Open and the US PGA.

But McGinley doesn't think a simple change in date should suffice to result in an upgrade, claiming: "Not until they change the qualification process. Look at the other majors, they are quite generous in terms of qualification. I think it is hard to call the Players a major when it is basically for the American players . . . if they want to call it a world event, they have got to be a bit more generous with the qualification process.

"I think it's wrong if they want to call it the fifth major and they don't let Ryder Cup players play. I mean, me and Monty (Colin Montgomerie) were the only ones who didn't play last year. Are they trying to say we were not among the top 150 players in the world? And yet we weren't exempt. Anyway, the bottom line is you have got to stay in the world's top 50 (to guarantee playing). You need history and tradition more than anything else, and it will just evolve."

McGinley - one of three Irish players in the field, along with Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke - heads into the tournament on the back of a string of 13 consecutive cuts made on the US Tour, which places him sixth on the list behind Ernie Els (28), Luke Donald (20), Chad Campbell (17), Carl Petersson (16) and Charles Howell (14).

And, despite his absence from the event in the past four years, McGinley is back as a better player than he was then. "I am a better player, there is no doubt about that. I have more control of the golf ball and more experience. I am a much better player, that's the bottom line."