It’s not without good reason that he Players Championship, staged at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, is often referred to as golf’s ‘fifth major’.
Very few tournaments worldwide feature a similar depth of talent among the strong 144-player field. Two-time champion Tiger Woods is back in action just in time for the US Masters and has been grouped with defending champion Webb Simpson and reigning Masters champion Patrick Reed for the opening two rounds of The Players Championship. Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy head the British challenge and it’s worth pointing out that, among the 38 previous winners, 26 were Major winners – this is a big tournament on the US PGA Tour without any doubt.
Player Championship Winners and Runner’s Up Since 2000
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2000 Hal Sutton 278 Tiger Woods 279 2001 Tiger Woods 274 Vijay Singh 275 2002 Craig Perks 280 Stephen Ames 282 2003 Davis Love III 271 Jay Haas 277 Padraig Harrington 277 2004 Adam Scott 276 Padraig Harrington 277 2005 Fred Funk 279 Luke Donald 280 Tom Lehman 280 Scott Verplank 280 2006 Stephen Ames 274 Retief Goosen 280 2007 Phil Mickelson 277 Sergio Garcia 279 2008 Sergio Garcia 283 Paul Goydos 283 2009 Henrik Stenson 276 Ian Poulter 280 2010 Tim Clark 272 Robert Allenby 273 2011 K.J. Choi 275 David Toms 275 2012 Matt Kuchar 275 Ben Curtis 277 Rickie Fowler 277 Zach Johnson 277 Martin Laird 277 2013 Tiger Woods 275 David Lingmerth 277 Jeff Maggert 277 Kevin Streelman 277 2014 Martin Kaymer 275 Jim Furyk 276 2015 Rickie Fowler 276 Sergio Garcia 276 Kevin Kisner 276 2016 Jason Day 273 Kevin Chappell 277 2017 Si Woo Kim 278 Louis Oosthuizen 281 Ian Poulter 281 2018 Webb Simpson 270 Xander Schauffele 274 Charl Schwartzel 274 Jimmy Walker 274
The Players Championship has been held annually in May as part of the PGA Tour schedule. First staged in 1974 at the Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia. A year later, the tournament moved to the Colonial Country club in Texas before switching to the Inverrary Country Club in Fort Lauderdale in 1976. Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida hosted the event in 1977 until it arrived at the Sawgrass Country Club’s Oceanside Course. In 1982, it finally found its way to TPC Sawgrass, the Stadium Course, where it’s been staged ever since.
The Players Championship – TPC Sawgrass
The TPC Stadium Course is currently ranked the number one golf course in the State of Florida. It’s always standing-room only at the famous Island Hole, the 17th hole making or breaking many a round down the years. The Championship tees stretch the Stadium Course to 7,215 yards but it’s fairly compact nature means that it generates an atmosphere not found at any other Championship course. In 2007, a record fifty balls found the water at the 17th, a record in tournament play. Ocean breezes can also make life difficult over the 18 holes, which is why this event is so popular with spectators.
Tiger Woods was a late withdrawal from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, an event he had won a record eight times, due to a neck strain. We’re not complaining as Francesco Molinari did this column a massive favour in that tournament but the challenges at Sawgrass couldn’t be more different. Woods (a general 25/1) has finished in the top 10 in three of his past five PGA Tour starts and a third win in the Players Championship would tie the record held by the great Jack Nicklaus, though his second victory in the tournament came six years ago.
Molinari is 25/1 with Unibet to follow up his win at the Arnold Palmer while defending champion Webb Simpson is a general 50/1 to take the lion’s share of the $12.5 million prize money, the biggest overall purse in world golf. Tommy Fleetwood had a good run at Bay Hill last week before just falling short over the final 18 holes and the Englishman is a general 28/1 this week.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE tied for second place last year, equalling or bettering 68 in three of his four round, and is currently in the form of his life. The Californian has already won the HSBC Champions and the Sentry Tournament of Champions in 2019 and tops the Fedex Cup rankings. It’s amazing that 888sport still consider him to be a 30/1 chance at the Players Championship given he has not finished outside of the top 25 in any of his last seven tournaments on the US PGA Tour.
The other suggestion in this very classy field is HIDEKI MATSUYAMA at a general 40/1. Japan’s number one has enjoyed top 10 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and the Genesis Open this season and tied for seventh in this tournament in 2016. He put in three solid rounds the following year to finish in the top 25 but nothing went right in the first round last year and the 27-year-old missed the cut. Matsuyama will be keen to make amends for that rare blemish and have the game to thrive around Sawgrass if everything falls in to place.
Players Championship 2019 Current Best Odds
Dustin Johnson 12/1
Rory McIlroy 14/1
Justin Thomas 16/1
Justin Rose 22/1
Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari, Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka 25/1
Tommy Fleetwood 28/1
Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm 33/1
Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia 33/1
Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day 40/1
Adam Scott and Patrick Cantlay 45/1
Paul Casey and Webb Simpson 50/1
Marc Leishman, Ian Poulter and Rafael Cabrera Bello 55/1
Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau 60/1
Gary Woodland, Henryk Stenson, Jordan Spieth and Luca Glover 66/1
Patrick Reed 70/1
Phil Mickelson, Charles Howell III and Bubba Watson 80/1
Matthew Fitzpatrick, Si Woo Kim, Louis Oosthuizen, Keegan Bradley, Cameron Smith and Billy Horschel 90/1
Byeong Hun An, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Wallace 100/1
125/1 and Uwards Others
(Odd correct at 11.45am March 12)
