T.J.'s Take: The five biggest surprises at THE PLAYERS

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Alex Cejka and Tiger Woods were paired in the final group on Sunday, but neither took home THE PLAYERS title.

Here are the five things that surprised me most about last week's PLAYERS Championship:

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1. Under the category of, "Things I least expected to see at TPC Sawgrass," last week, "Alex Cejka taking a five-shot lead into the final round," was right up there with, "Michael Campbell birdies all 18 holes for an opening round of 18-under 54."

The latter didn't happen. Turns out Campbell withdrew due to injury just nine holes into the tournament, a stretch he played in 9-over 45.

But as for Cejka's five-shot, 54-hole lead? Where did that come from? Unbelievable. Incredible. Remarkable. And... well... tragic in the end, which brings us to No. 2...

2. ... Cejka shoots a 7-over 79 in the final round and winds up in a tie for ninth, eight shots behind winner Henrik Stenson.

Don't get me wrong, winning THE PLAYERS is far from an easy task. It's one of the most difficult tournaments to win on one of the most demanding courses in the world. Making the situation all the more uncomfortable is the fact that Cejka found himself in the final pairing with Tiger Woods.

While the Tiger rally never came to fruition, Cejka's 6-over 42 on the front nine wasn't pretty. Until Sunday, the German had played the front side in 5-under par.

Only one man -- Craig Perks -- made THE PLAYERS Championship his first PGA TOUR win. So, history certainly wasn't on the winless Cejka's side, but a 79 in the final round of any tournament just isn't going to get the job done.

3. Tiger's eighth-place finish. Is it surprising that he didn't win? Not so much. The world's No. 1 player doesn't have a great record at THE PLAYERS. This was just his fourth top 10 in 12 starts, highlighted by his lone win in 2001.

What was amazing, however, was the fact that Tiger was even in contention to win. Trust me, that last sentence was just as strange to read as it was to write. Once again, Tiger was all over the lot off the tee at TPC Sawgrass, hitting just a shade over half of his fairways, which tied for 62nd in the field.

His recoveries were incredible -- particularly that pitch out from against a tree trunk on the 11th hole in the third round, where Tiger hit the ball left-handed, with the face of the club flipped upside down.

Tiger's three sub-par rounds at TPC Sawgrass before Sunday marked the first time since his win in 2001 that he'd accomplished such a feat at THE PLAYERS. While outstanding, even those sub-par rounds weren't pretty based on the way he drove the ball. Sunday's 1-over 73 was just a frustrating end to a frustrating week.

4. The low scores throughout the week at TPC Sawgrass. Masters champ Angel Cabrera and Daniel Chopra each carded rounds of 7-under 65. A bunch of players recorded a 6-under 66 over the course of the week, including Stenson's sizzling 66 on Sunday.

Low scores aren't easy to come by at TPC Sawgrass, but plenty were had last week. Chalk it up to the lower cut of rough and ideal scoring conditions. For the week, there were 146 sub-par rounds, including 61 sub-70 rounds.

That's something you don't see every year at THE PLAYERS.

5. Sean O'Hair's missed cut. This wasn't what I expected from the man who claimed his third TOUR victory -- and most impressive to date -- one week before at the Quail Hollow Championship.

O'Hair was in the hunt throughout the 2007 PLAYERS Championship, before hitting some bad luck at the 17th hole in the final round and eventually finishing 11th. He had a great line after that tournament, when he was asked if he would think about the difference in money from 11th place to second place, roughly $750,000.

"I'll make plenty of money in my career," he said. "I want the crystal."

Now that's something a champion would say. And not only did O'Hair say it, but he's gone out and done it, too, winning twice since that '07 PLAYERS and contending on several other occasions.

He's quickly become one of those players I expect to see in the mix at the big events. Missing the cut at THE PLAYERS just a few days removed from a huge win caught me off guard.

Maybe it was fatigue.

While the bigger names weren't necessarily in the hunt from start to finish, we got what we always hope for at THE PLAYERS -- a dramatic final round in an elite event that's every bit as prestigious as it is unpredictable.

T.J. Auclair is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.