SAWGRASS. Open champion Ernie Els believes he has a chance to improve his poor record at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, in Florida, United States, which started on Thursday.Els is one of seven South Africans, who teed up in the USPGA Tour event – the unofficial ‘fifth Major’ – and fresh off a second place in Asia last week, the Big Easy could be due for a big win."My long game feels in good shape, and if I can get the putter going we might set the record straight this week. That would be nice,” Els said on his website.The 43-year-old hoped to challenge for the title this week, after a number of years of average finishes at the event."I’m back on the PGA Tour for The Players Championship, which is about as big as it gets outside of a Major or WGC event,” he said."I can hardly believe it but this will be my 20th appearance in this event and I have only four top-10s to show for it. It’s hard to put my finger on a reason for that.”History suggests the bigger hitters are not necessarily at an advantage on the course, with current world No 1 Tiger Woods victorious in just one of 15 attempts.The other South Africans in the field include 2010 champion Tim Clark, who has seen an improvement in form in 2013, and was the top placed SA player in the Masters, at Augusta, last month.Two time US Open champion Retief Goosen is down to play after withdrawing from last week’s Wells Fargo Championship with a bad hip.Charl Schwartzel, Rory Sabbatini, Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen make up the rest of the South African contingent.