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By John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- In what other sport can you find a Fijian, a Swede and a guy named Bubba all playing nicely together?

The PGA TOUR only has one Fijian, but it does have two Bubbas.

Zach Johnson (WireImage)

As for the Swedes, we have a full compliment. We have two guys with the same last name -- one from India, and one from Fiji. We have two other guys with the same last name, with a slightly different spelling. One is Australian. The other is as American as apple pie and macro-economics.

Of course, it is the Aussie who is the reigning U.S. Open champion. Go figure.

For years, THE PLAYERS Championship was dominated by Americans. The greatest champion of all time, Jack Nicklaus, won three of the first five.

And then, something happened in the 1990s. Two foreign-born players in a row won the annual event that boasts the best field in professional golf.

In a five-year stretch, Nick Price, Greg Norman and Steve Elkington won THE PLAYERS. Nick and Greg still talk with a hint of an accent, but let's face it, they are Floridians now.

Last year, Steven Ames won THE PLAYERS Championship. He doesn't even have a house in the U.S. He lives in Canada of all places. Heck, even the Canadian Tour players don't live in Canada. They have migrated to warmer climates with no income tax. Steven started in a warmer climate, Trinidad and Tobago, only to move to Calgary.

So for the last year, THE PLAYERS Championship trophy hasn't even been in the U.S. That hasn't happened since Sandy Lyle won back in 1987.

But fear not, all of you who imagine that Uncle Sam is a scratch player with hickory shafts and a feathery. It is the Americans' turn again.

Since 2000, we have been alternating victories with the world at THE PLAYERS Championship. What most people don't know is that this is by design. An edict came down from the powers that be insisting that we have to let the international players win every couple of years.

It is one of the best-kept secrets in sports.

How else can you explain Tiger Woods going five consecutive events without winning THE PLAYERS? I mean, he was defending when Craig Perks caught lightning in a bottle.

But this year the winner won't be Tiger. No, it will be an unlikely foil once again. The one thing that you can count on is that he will be an American-born player.

(WireImage)

You see, when the edict came down the condition on the victories was that the winner maintain an American mailing address. Ames slipped through because at the time, the U.S. was considering buying Canada.

Surely you remember that meeting 14 months ago. In case you forgot, the summit was to be held in Montreal. When some of our delegation got off the plane they couldn't understand the people at the airport and assumed that Air Force One had made a wrong turn and ended up in Paris. They kept the whole thing pretty well under wraps.

The end result was that the Canadian Purchase Act fell through, but Steven Ames got to keep the trophy. This year look for someone like Jerry Kelly or Zach Johnson to win THE PLAYERS. They are middle-Americans from North of the square states.

Their popularity spans accents and traditional regional separations in the U.S. Jerry and Zach are just as popular in Mobile as they are Seattle. They would make perfect PLAYERS champions.

Do you think that it is a coincidence that they are both playing with Aussies in the first two rounds?

No, the government is not thinking about buying Australia.

The PGA TOUR is.