Players Excess?

players_header_logo.gifOver at golf.com, they're making sure to take in all of the conspicuous consumption in Ponte Vedra. Alan Shipnuck first:

For starters, it appears that having a flossed-out BMW is as standard for Tour players as a significant other who looks like a cocktail waitress. Vaughn Taylor, Stuart Appleby, Richard S. Johnson, J.B. Holmes, Ian Poulter and Chris DiMarco are among those driving Beemers, with all but Taylor's being souped-up Motorsport editions. Bonus points to Poulter for his sweet M5 with chrome rims and an IAN P vanity plate.

Another popular genre is the macho truck. Vijay Singh drives a hulking black Dodge SRT-10, Hunter Mahan a Ford that looks like the spawn of Big Foot and Peter Lonard a slammed Lincoln Blackwood. The choice of SUVs is also revealing: Camillo Villegas a sleek Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Frank Lickliter a beefy, politically incorrect Hummer H2, Luke Donald a vanilla Escalade.

Best car in the lot? That's easy: Nick Faldo's Maybach.

As for Tiger and Phil, they toed the company line, rolling SUVs from Buick and Ford, respectively. I guess when you've made tens of millions of dollars endorsing car companies, you don't have to show off.

And Michael Bamberger, writing about the perks as well as the cost to stay and play at Sawgrass: 
It's a public course, in a manner of speaking. Not this week - what with the Players Championship clogging up the place - but any other week you can stay at the Ponte Vedra Marriott and play the Stadium Course for $350, which includes your cart, and, get this, your caddie. Tres chic.

The whole thing is about getting the private-club treatment at a semi-public resort course. The new clubhouse is so mammoth that it blocks out the fierce wind for anyone sitting on the veranda. Take the White House, add a few West Wings, top it off with a massive, Spanish, red-tile roof, and you have the new clubhouse. Spiffy.

In the dining room, there's a large fireplace stuffed with faux wood, and above it, an oil painting featuring a scorecard, virgin tees and a bottle of 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon bearing the name Commissioners Private Reserve. There's that word again, private. No half-crushed cans of Miller Lite spoiling this still life.

The Commissioners Private Reserve?  Why haven't I gotten my bottle yet Mr. Commissioner?