Players’ Championship Odds and Preview – Golf Betting May 11-14

Garcia game is well suited to Sawgrass

Sergio Garcia (Spain)
Sergio Garcia (Spain) © GEPA pictures

The world’s top two players, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, have been grouped together for the opening two rounds of The Players Championship at the new-look TPC Sawgrass this week.

McIlroy is returning to action for the first time since the Masters last month and it is also his first appearance since he married long-time girlfriend Erica Stoll in Ireland a fortnight ago. Johnson finished a shot behind Brian Harman at the Wells Fargo Championship at the weekend in his first outing since a freak back injury forced him to pull out of the Masters just minutes before he was due to tee off at Augusta National.

Johnson is 15/2 with 888sport at Sawgrass this week and they are also best odds on Jordan Spieth (14/1), Masters champion Sergio Garcia (20/1) and Rickie Fowler (25/1) – McIlroy is available at 11/1 in several places.

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Sawgrass is a stadium course, built especially for tournament play. But you have to get there early to find a place next to the iconic ‘Island Green’. The famous 17th hole is not actually an island but is surrounded on three sides by water and has been the downfall of many leading players down the years.

The Players Championship is the PGA Tour’s unofficial fifth major, though you have to whisper that around golfing purists. The prize money – $10.5 million, with nearly $2 million going to the winner – is no longer the most lucrative in golf with news of the US Open is upping its prize pool to $12 million, but it’s still more than the other majors.

The tournament features 48 of the world’s top 50 players and is taken very seriously by all of those involved. This will be the first time this year that the world’s top five have been in action at the same time – add defending champion Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama to Johnson, McIlroy and Spieth.

SERGIO GARCIA won the Players’ Championship back in 2008 having finished runner-up to Phil Mickelson 12 months previously. He also tied for second, behind Fowler, in 2015 and the Spaniard will be a threat to all if recapturing the form he showed at Augusta. Henrik Stenson is another previous winner and is attractively priced at 40/1 with Betfred but this has not been a great tournament in the past for Johnson and McIlroy.

  1. Sergio Garcia (20/1 with 888sport)
  2. Rickie Fowler (22/1 with 888sport)
  3. Henrik Stenson (40/1 with Betfred)

Players’ Championship Current Best Odds

Dustin Johnson (15/2), Rory McIlroy (11/1), Jordan Spieth (14/1), Sergio Garcia (20/1), Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm (22/1), Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day (25/1), Justin Rose (30/1), Justin Thomas (33/1), Henrik Stenson and Brooks Koepka (40/1), Adam Scott (45/1), Paul Casey (50/1), Kevin Chappell (55/1), Kevin Kisner, Francesco Molinari, Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar (66/1), Martin Kaymer (70/1), Russell Henley and Patrick Reed (80/1), Daniel Berger and Jason Dufner (90/1)