No man has ever retained The Players Championship but world number one Scottie Scheffler is the hot favourite to buck that trend when he tees off in the PGA Tour's flagship event at TPC Sawgrass this week.
Scheffler, an emphatic five-shot winner in Ponte Vedra Beach a year ago, found form on the greens last week to win by the same margin at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a similar putting display would make the 27-year-old very hard to beat.
However, while The Players has lost some of its sheen in the absence of the LIV Golf stars, this is still an ultra-strong PGA Tour field and a host of challengers, including Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, are lining up to challenge the champ.
TPC Sawgrass, a Pete Dye-designed masterpiece famed for its island-green 17th hole, is not the sort of course that favours any one type of player but the 2019 switch from May to March has effectively lengthened the track and it could pay to focus on longer hitters.
- Justin Thomas to win and each-way
- Max Homa to win and each-way
- Min Woo Lee to win and each-way
Thomas Brings Florida Credentials
Scheffler's claims are clear cut and the Texas-based star will take some stopping if he putts as well as he did at Bay Hill. But one swallow does not make a summer and there are no guarantees that he'll continue in the same vein at Sawgrass.
McIlroy, winner of this title in 2019, is Scheffler's closest rival in betting terms but another former champion looks a better alternative with 2021 Sawgrass hero Justin Thomas taken to double up in this event.
Florida-based Thomas has emphatically emerged from a slump in recent months, chalking up form figures of 12-5-4-3-3-6-12-MC-12 from his last nine worldwide events, and he knows he can contend at Sawgrass having produced a magnificent long-game performance in the 2021 Players.
The Kentucky man has been striking the ball well all year and his scrambling - an important asset at the Stadium Course - is underrated.
JUSTIN THOMAS TO WIN & EACH-WAY
Homa Has The Tools
Max Homa was disappointed with his performance in the West Coast Swing but the six-time PGA Tour winner found some form when 16th at the Genesis Invitational and he was waxing lyrical about the state of his game after an eight-placed finish at Bay Hill on Sunday.
The popular Californian has shown he has all the tools to contend for this title, finishing 13th from the wrong side of a significant draw bias in the 2022 event and then sixth last season.
Impressive Aussie To Contend Again
While Scheffler eventually proved superior to the rest of the field last season, Min Woo Lee caught the eye with his performance over the first three days, carding 68, 70 and 66 before a final-round 76 saw him drop to sixth place.
That was a phenomenal Sawgrass debut from the Aussie, who has since bagged a PGA Tour card, and he was a runner-up at the Cognizant Classic two weeks ago. He looks an excellent bet at healthy each-way odds.
