The PGA Tour’s flagship event is almost upon us as 120 of the world’s best players head to TPC Sawgrass for the Players Championship.
Rory McIlroy is the defending champion after his play-off win over JJ Spaun last year, taking his second Players Championship title and looks well placed for another tilt.
One of the toughest tests on the PGA Tour, TPC Sawgrass features all the hallmarks of a Pete Dye course; strategically placed bunkers, water hazards, risk-rewards holes, and lines that favour aggression but punish recklessness.
Water comes into play on around nine holes, with some water hazards more prominent than others…
The nature of the course means that driver is often left in the bag, with players opting for placement over power. Wind also needs to be factored into shot-making, with Sawgrass located just two miles inland of the Atlantic Ocean.
Owing to the dormant Bermudagrass at this time of year, Sawgrass greens are overseeded with Poa trivialis, as often seen in Florida. Greens are pacey and undulating and the areas around the greens are typically difficult to scramble from.
One of golf’s ultimate tests, the volatility of the Players means that only Jack Nicklaus won the event more than twice, with event Tiger Woods limited to just two wins.
Take a look at our Power Rankings for this week's Players Championship.
5 - Si Woo Kim
After a brilliant end to last season and start to this, Si Woo Kim has done just about everything but win.
Starting his season T11-T6-T2-T3, Kim’s old putting woes reared their ugly head at Pebble Beach and Riviera, finishing T45 and T34, but despite losing strokes with the flat stick again last week at Bay Hill, Kim finished T13 and was eighth for SG:T2G.
The South Korean was a shock winner of the Players in 2017 after his T23 on debut, and while he’s never come close to repeating the feat, Kim has made the cut in eight out of eight appearances at Sawgrass with the exception of his 2022 withdrawal.
Kim is playing the best golf of his life right now and ranks second in the field for SG:T2G across the last eight tournaments as per Golf Betting System. If he can get a few more putts to drop, a second Players title is within his grasp.
4 - Ludvig Aberg
One swallow does not make a summer, but Ludvig Aberg is showing signs of regaining some form.
After an absolute disaster at the Farmers Insurance Open, Aberg was T37 at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and an improved T20 at the Genesis Invitational, at a course which better allows him to flex his muscles.
Across his last 25 holes at Bay Hill, Aberg was seven-under-par, shooting a superb 67 on Sunday.
The super Swede shot three 67s on debut at Sawgrass in 2023 with only a disappointing 73 on Friday seeing him finish eighth. He's shown he can get around the track, and is showing he's returning to a level where he can contend for tournaments again.
3 - Collin Morikawa
Considering the nature of the test, it’s surprising that Collin Morikawa has such an indifferent record at TPC Sawgrass. His record in five events reads T41-MC-T13-T45-T10.
Morikawa got that long overdue win at Pebble Beach a few weeks ago and followed up with an impressive T7 at Riviera before a similarly impressive fifth place at Bay Hill last week.
Bay Hill is a long course that can’t be overpowered, nowadays favouring straighter hitters. TPC Sawgrass certainly favours straighter hitters, though Morikawa has started adding more distance, ranking 24th for driving distance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
One of the game’s form players right now, if Morikawa can get to grips with Sawgrass’s greens, he should have every chance.
2 - Rory McIlroy
One of the big questions coming into this week is how Rory McIlroy actually is. The defending champion was playing nicely at Bay Hill last week before withdrawing after round two with injury, and although there are no suggestions it was anything to worry about, a WD is a WD.
But assuming he’s fit and firing, McIlroy will absolutely be targeting a third Players Championship. The Northern Irishman has started the season well, finishing T14 and T2 on his two stateside starts, and the T14 at Pebble Beach was actually better than it looks.
Sawgrass is an extremely volatile course and course history counts for little. Justin Thomas’s best finish in four Sawgrass outings since his win is T33. Scottie Scheffler was MC-T51 in the two years before he went back-to-back. In between his two wins, McIlroy went MC-T33-MC-T19 at Sawgrass.
But it is a venue he’s comfortable at. His driving accuracy was poor last year, ranking 67th in the field, but his approach play more than made up for it.
In form and the defending champion, McIlroy will fancy his chances this week.
1 - Scottie Scheffler
How much longer can we keep the faith with Scottie Scheffler? His play had been a long way below his usual level, but that was still higher than most of his contemporaries. It felt like that changed at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, however, where Scheffler was a distant T24 after blowing up late on Sunday, with two double bogeys and a bogey six in his final five holes.
Of course, the greens at Bay Hill bordered on unplayable, but three-putting from 20 feet is not what we’ve become accustomed to with Scheffler, who since moving to a mallet putter, has genuinely been one of the best in the world with the flat stick.
There are absolutely concerns about Scheffler’s all-round game at the moment, but he stormed to a five-shot victory here in 2023 and managed to win when looking like he was going to withdraw due to an injured neck the following year.
It’s a big week for Scheffler with doubters mounting, but his body of work over the last two years means he’s still the world’s best player.
