"fifth major." It was a rare must-see moment for a divided sport that has spent the last few years with its best players spread around the world, rarely getting together to stage what professional sports are really about — the best facing the best to see who's actually the best.

Rory McIlroy continues to sit on the front page of the leaderboard, but TPC Sawgrass still finds ways to put its claws into him at The PLAYERS Championship.

Few have the experience of playing the Stadium Course as McIlroy and certainly not three of the players directly ahead of him on the leaderboard.