PLAYERS rookies: 15 making their first start

Editor's note: There are 145 players scheduled to tee it up Friday at TPC Sawgrass when THE PLAYERS Championship gets under way. Here's a look at the 15 first-timers at this season's event.

Bradley

Keegan Bradley
Bradley, 24, earned his PGA TOUR card for 2011 by finishing 14th on the 2010 Nationwide Tour money list. The Woodstock, Vt. native was an all-state ski racer in his home state and is the nephew of LPGA great and World Golf Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley. He attended St. Johns University, where he earned a degree in Sports Management.

"When I first came here, it seemed like a dream," Bradley said. "Here I am in the same field with guys who are my heroes, like Tiger and Phil and some other guys."

Kevin Chappell
Got into THE PLAYERS field when Jeff Maggert withdrew Wednesday. Former UCLA standout had a victory and seven top 10s last year on the Nationwide Tour en route to earning a 2011 PGA TOUR card. Also added a tie for 11th at the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open Presented by Planters on the Dye's Valley course at TPC Sawgrass. Chappell was a runner-up to fellow graduate Brendan Steele last month at the Valero Texas Open -- his only top-10 finish on TOUR. He has three top 25s in 18 career starts on TOUR.

Michael Connell
Connell has recorded one top-25 finish this season. He entered 2010 having not played on the PGA TOUR or Nationwide Tour since 2006 and had two top-10 finishes during the season. The 35-year-old Houston resident was a two-time All-American at Mississippi State, where he graduated with a degree in Banking and Finance. He won seven collegiate tournaments and was named the 1997 SEC Player of the Year.

"I'm familiar with Pete Dye since my home course, Stonebridge Country Club (in McKinney, Texas) is a Dye design," Connell said. "So I feel like I knew this course when I stepped on it."

Gainey

Tommy Gainey
Gainey, 35, has earned two career-best third-place finishes this year on the PGA TOUR, at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and The Heritage. He goes by the nickname "Two Gloves" for wearing two golf gloves when he plays, a habit developed playing baseball as a kid. The self-taught player said his golf swing is "a lot of a baseball swing converted to a golf swing." He attended Central Carolina Technical College after high school and worked as an assembly line worker in rural South Carolina before deciding to give professional golf a shot.

"When I look at this golf course, I see Hilton Head and Harbour Town," Gainey said. "On the edge of every fairway there's trees, bushes or water. The key is going to be keeping the ball in play."

Hunter Haas
The 34-year-old Texan finished T3 at the 2011 Puerto Rico Open, two shots out of the Michael Bradley-Troy Matteson playoff. His only other top 10 on TOUR came at the 2005 BellSouth Classic (T10). Haas experienced TPC Sawgrass long before any of the other first-timers as he was a 17-year-old participant in the 1994 U.S. Amateur here. He failed to make match play after 36 holes of medal-play qualifying.

"You've got to be patient here," he said. "When you are on the course, always think about what to do next. You've also got to realize that you're going to get in trouble. Just don't make it any worse."

Peter Hanson
The 33-year-old Swede lost by one stroke to Paul Casey at the Volvo Golf Champions tournament in Europe earlier this year. In 2010, despite a penalty stroke for a double hit, won the Iberdrola Open Cala Millor Mallorca in a playoff with Alejandro Canizares for his third European Tour victory. He picked up his second European Tour title of the season when he won the Czech Open in August and qualified for the European Ryder Cup team for the first time. He compiled a 1-2-0 record during the Europeans' win.

Kirk

Chris Kirk
The 26-year-old St. Simons Island, Ga., resident and University of Georgia graduate finished T7 at the Bob Hope Classic for his first PGA TOUR top 10 in his 11th career start. He shot a career-low 64 in the third round. He followed that with four rounds in the 60s to claim his career-best TOUR finish with a T2 at the Shell Houston Open.

"Since I live so close by (St. Simons Island, Ga.), I've played here a lot over the last three or four years," Kirk said. "But this week is a bit different because it's the tournament and the course is in perfect shape condition wise."

Matteo Manassero
Manassero, at age 18, is the youngest participant in the history of THE PLAYERS. The Verona, Italy, resident picked up his second European Tour victory earlier this year when he came from behind on the final day to win the Maybank Malaysian Open. The victory came two days short of his 18th birthday, making him the second-youngest winner in Tour history. His victory a year earlier in Spain made him the Tour's youngest.

"This course sets up nicely for me," Manassero said. "Keep the ball in play. You don't have to hit the ball 320 yards off the tee to do well."

Molinari

Edoardo Molinari
Molinari, 30, has recorded three top-25 finishes in six PGA TOUR starts this year. His best career PGA TOUR finish was a T2 at the 2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Molinari made his name in the United States when he won the 2005 U.S. Amateur at Merion. He played in the 2006 Masters, with younger brother Francesco as his caddie, the U.S. Open and British Open as a result of the U.S. Amateur win. He turned professional in the summer of 2006 after finishing his engineering degree at the University of Torino. Franceso made his PLAYERS Championship debut in 2010.

"The 17th hole looks a lot different on TV," he said. "It looks like the green is so small. There is much more room there. Still, you have to hit it."

Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen began his season by winning the Africa Open in a playoff. It was his eighth professional victory. The South African won his first career major championship at the 2010 British Open, lapping the field by seven strokes. He was a member of the Ernie Els Foundation in his homeland from 2000-02. and earned additional financial assistance to pursue golf as a career.

"Getting into golf is very expensive," he said. "My dad is a farmer, and in the early years things weren't going that great on the farm. But when I was 17, I managed to become a member of Ernie's Foundation in South Africa, and it was unbelievable what he did for me, helping with expenses and things like that."

Michael Sim
The 2009 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year had a solid 2010 season on the PGA TOUR, finishing 65th on the FedExCup points list despite taking some time off with an injury. He has struggled so far in 2011, missing seven cuts in nine starts. The 26-year-old Australian was born in Scotland but moved Down Under when he was 5. He emulated hero Greg Norman, who shares THE PLAYERS Stadium Course record of 63, as a junior by wearing a similar white, broad-brimmed hat.

"The course is tighter than it looks on TV," Sim said. "And the greens are smaller than they appear on TV."

Steele

Brendan Steele
In the 12th start of his rookie season, at the Valero Texas Open, Steele made a 5-foot par putt on the 72nd hole to claim his first career TOUR win by a stroke over Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell. With the win, he became 16th first-time winner of the Valero Texas Open. His uncle, Anthony Geary, plays Luke on the soap opera, "General Hospital." Steele grew up in a small town, Hemet, Calif., that didn't have a golf course or a driving range.

"The 18th hole was really different for me," Steele said. "I thought I could carry it over the water for a long way. I ripped one and it ended 20 yards short of land. It's a lot different in person. You've got to play around the water instead of over it there."

Josh Teater
The 32-year-old Kentuckian has two top-25 finishes in 15 starts this year after claming two top-10s in 2010, his rookie year on TOUR. His best career finish (T3) came at the 2010 Turning Stone Resort Championship. The Morehead State graduate works with Kentucky-based instructor Matt Killen, who also works with Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes.

Vegas

Jhonatthan Vegas
Vegas, 26, has developed into a rising star this year, winning the Bob Hope Classic in a playoff with Gary Woodland, and becoming the first PGA TOUR member from Venezuela. Vegas picked up the game by playing with a broomstick and a rock and eventually began playing at a nine-hole course near his home built for oil-camp employees. His coach, Franci Betancourt, was an a three-time World Cup participant for Venezuela. Vegas knew very little English when he initially arrived in Houston from Venezuela to pursue a junior golf career, but learned the language quickly and played collegiately at the University of Texas before making it on the Nationwide Tour.

"I've got to play my golf game here," he said. "I hit the ball a long way, so I plan to still hit drivers and take advantage of my length."

Gary Woodland
Woodland, 26, converted an 11-foot par putt on the 72nd hole to card a final round 4-under-par 67 and win the Transitions Championship earlier this year by one stroke over Webb Simpson to earn his first PGA TOUR title. Woodland was an all-state basketball player in high school in Topeka, Kansas and went on to hometown Washburn University to play college basketball for the Ichabods (wearing No. 23, the same number as hero Michael Jordan). During his one season there, they visited Allen Fieldhouse to play Kansas. Woodland transferred to Kansas to play golf the next season.

"I'm going to scale down a little bit for this course," Woodland said. "There are a lot of right-to-left holes out here. So I'll use a strong 3-wood, which I can hit about 300 yards. I'll hit driver only about three times each round, probably on Nos. 5, 11 and 14."