The Players is dubbed the unofficial fifth major in golf because it is that big of a deal. The famous old tournament and it is now into its 45th edition is hosted at the TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. There is a whopping prize fund of over $10 million up for grabs with the winner getting just under two of those millions. One of the most famous holes in course will be contested during the event and that is the 17th “Island Green” which is a par-3 nightmare for players to deal with.
This is a tough competition to try and tame and Jordan Spieth said this week in the build-up that it is harder to win than any Major. So this is one of those events where you are generally looking towards past performers because delivering well constantly at TPC Sawgrass is no fluke. Producing just the four solid days of golf is no fluke either. Incidentally Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are lining up for the first time in 17 years together in an opening group.
That should be a nice friendly rivalry between these two. Both of them are former winners with Tiger Woods winning in 2001 and 2013, being just one of six players to have won it more than one occasion. Phil Mickelson won the title in 2007 and Woods is at 35/1 and Mickelson is at 33/1 odds* (betting odds taken on May 9th, 2018 at 6:53 p.m.) to win the 2018 edition.
Reigning Champion
South Korea’s Kim Si-woo took the title last year with a ten-under-par finish for the event. That put him three shots clear of Louis Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter who were tied for second. Kim Si-woo had opened with a round of 69 before carding par in the second round. Then on the weekend he rattled his way to a 68 and a 69 to get his hands on the title and a just 21 years of age he became the youngest ever winner of the tournament.
The Players Championship Betting 2018 Odds*
Rory McIlroy 14/1, Jason Day 14/1, Jordan Spieth 16/1, Justin Thomas 16/1, Dustin Johnson 18/1, Rickie Fowler 20/1, Jon Rahm 25/1, Henrik Stenson 28/1, Justin Rose 28/1, Patrick Reed 33/1, Phil Mickelson 33/1, Sergio Garcia 35/1, Tiger Woods 35/1, bar 40/1* (betting odds taken on May 9th, 2018 at 6:53 p.m.)
The Main Contenders
Jason Day roared back with some style with a win at the Wells Fargo which has raised his stock ahead of the Players Championship. He looked a superb horse for the course last week and duly went out and delivered. He is back in form at the moment and throw in his win at the Farmers and his second at the AT&T is has been a season of success for him. He is a former winner of The Players as he took the title in 2016 after that astounding 63 in the first round, equalling the best ever round in the tournament and setting a record for 36 holes. He should be a threat again.
Rory McIlroy does have pretty decent history at TPC Sawgrass with four top-12 finishers in his last five attempts at the tournamet. That’s no shoddy record and you get the feeling that it is building up to something bigger. It should be anyway. It hasn’t been a bad season for McIlroy back on the circuit but there have been a couple of notable misses, one of them as recently as the Wells Fargo where he put in a poor second round. The other was his final day of action at The Masters.
Henrik Stenson is in some pretty handy form at the moment and he is a previous winner of The Players as well so has that going for him. The thing about TPC that you aren’t going to find a particular style of player which is better suited to the course really. Stenson is great at mixing it up and pulling things together and he isn’t a bad each way punt for the tournament at all. He has finished in the top 20 in four of his last six attempts at The Players and at 28/1 odds* (betting odds taken on May 9th, 2018 at 6:53 p.m.) does appeal in the each way zone. Jordan Spieth perhaps hasn’t done enough to warrant a lot of backing and he has missed the cut in each of his last three appearances at The Players.
Justin Thomas is currently sitting in the top 10 on the PGA for strokes gained and that is one of the few important stats that you can lean on for the unpredictability of The Players. So he fits the bill in that regard and just a couple of years ago he showed that he is more than capable of taming Sawgrass with a round of 65 on Sunday. There is no reason why he couldn’t be hovering around the top ten on Sunday for a good showing.
Sergio Garcia is the all-time money leader at TPC Sawgrass but he hasn’t been going all that well this season to be fair. It will be just worth watching to see what kind of form he churns out in the first round and go from there, he is third in strokes gained on approach shots. He certainly has the craft to compete, but is the form there? He has the third-best scoring average in the last five years at The Players (from a minimum of ten rounds).
Rickie Fowler has been producing very well lately and he has form at The Players as well, having taken two previous top-five finishes, one of those being his epic win in 2015 via a play off against Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. One name who could be a good fit is Jon Rahm because of how he thrives in pulling out the unconventional. He is happy enough going out and just producing and dealing with whatever is in front of him, regardless of the type of course. He has that special touch of versatility and is a wonderfully appealing 25/1 odds price at bet365* (betting odds taken on May 9th, 2018 at 6:53 p.m.).
Predictions
This is just so much harder to predict than the regular Majors. The course is so tough and it needs players to think outside of the box at times and not everyone is comfortable doing that and going against the natural grain of their own game. With that in mind, Jon Rahm looks a good fit because he can just invent shots to put him in the picture so he gets our not. To contrast that longer priced option, Rory McIlroy has to be building up to something special at TPC Sawgrass so consider him too as one of the front-runners.
