This week will mark the 50th anniversary of The Players Championship–the showcase event on the PGA Tour. From Jack Nicklaus (winner in ‘74, ‘76, and ‘78), to Greg Norman (’94), to Tiger Woods (’01 and ’13) to Rory McIlroy (’19) and Scottie Scheffler (reigning champion), The Players has been a magnificent stage for the greats of the game to display their immense talent.
Rory is still at the top of his game if he holes a few putts (ranked No. 2 in the world), and Scottie Scheffler is on fire as the hands down favorite this week (No. 1 in the world, 2023 Players champ, and fresh off a dominating 5 shot victory at Bay Hill last week), but the field is extremely deep with a host of major champions and talented young stars, so the odds are good that a new name will be etched on the 2024 Players Championship trophy.
Preview
Wyndham Clark, the reigning U.S. Open Champion, is coming off a breakout season in 2023 where he recorded 8 Top Ten’s including 2 wins, and missed only 3 cuts. Thus far in ’24 he has made 5 of 6 cuts with a win at Pebble Beach in February and a runner-up last week at Bay Hill. Clark crushes it from the tee, so if he’s finding fairways this week you will likely see him among the last groups to go off on Sunday afternoon.
Will Zalatoris, one of the premier ball-strikers in golf, is making only his sixth start following back surgery that cost him the bulk of the 2023 season. Not only did Will miss nine months of competitive golf, he was forced to make a major swing change to reduce the stress on his back. Recipe for a tough comeback year, right? Nope–in fact with his new putting approach (Broomstick Putter), he may be better than ever.
Zalatoris heads into the Players following a runner-up at the Genesis in LA and a T5 last week at Bay Hill—this may be the week when all that hard work delivers the ultimate payoff.
Xander Schauffele has not missed a cut since the 2022 Masters (40 consecutive events). And while he didn’t win in 2023, and hasn’t had a win yet this year, Schauffele has recorded 15 Top 10’s in his last 29 events—a level of performance only surpassed by Scottie Scheffler (22 Top 10’s).
One thing’s for sure—Xander is due (but will the putter cooperate down the stretch?). Speaking of players that are due, Victor Hoveland has made the cut in all four events he’s played this year without recording a Top 10. Considering his 2023 season included 9 Top 10’s and 3 wins, you have to believe a big week is looming (plus one of Victor’s Top 10’s last year was a T3 at the Players).
After a disastrous 2023 campaign, Justin Thomas has righted the ship with a T3, a T6 and two T12’s in 5 events this year. With a pair of major championships under his belt and a win at the Players in 2021, don’t be surprised if Justin is lurking on the leaderboard come Sunday. There are quite a few young players to keep an eye on as well, including Sahith Theegala, Ludvig Aberg, Jake Knapp and Nick Dunlap.
Theegala has made 6 of 7 cuts this year including 3 Top-10’s, on top of 8 Top-10’s with a win in 2023. Ludwig Aberg, the long hitting Texas A&M standout from Sweden, has made the cut in all 6 of his starts this year including 2 Top-10’s. Jake Knapp recorded a win at the Mexico Open in February, and has made 6 of 7 cuts with 3 Top 10’s. Twenty-year old Nick Dunlap bested the field at The American Express in January while still a student at Alabama, the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil won the Northern Telecom Open all the way back in 1991.
Dunlap is a long shot for sure, particularly because experience goes a long way at TPC Sawgrass, but he has the power and precision—so maybe he’ll deliver an all-time shocker (he already did it once this year).
The Betting Line (FanDuel March 12)
Scheffler: +550
McIlroy: +1200
Schauffele: +2000
Thomas: +2500
Hoveland: +2500
Homa: +2500
Cantlay: +2800
Morikawa: +3000
Zalatoris: +3300
Spieth: +3500
Aberg: +3500
Matsuyama: +4000
Clark: +5500
Theegala: +7000
Knapp: +17000
Dunlap: +50000
History
In the early 1970’s, former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman wanted to create a championship that would showcase the talent and power of professional golf in America, and shine a bright light on the PGA Tour—home to the greatest golfers in the world.
Initially called “The Tournament Players Championship,” Beman’s vision immediately gained momentum as Jack won the inaugural event in 1974, and three of the first five. The next step was to build a permanent venue that could stand with the four majors, demanding championship golf at the highest level—and so Pete Dye was brought aboard. Not only did Beman want a course that would be a stiff test of golf, he also wanted breathtaking visual appeal and viewing areas that would maximize the experience for fans.
Pete Dye delivered precisely what was ordered, and then he added icing on the cake with classically positioned risk and reward holes to build maximum excitement and drama—thus creating a treasure trove of moments to be remembered and discussed year after year.
The Stadium Course at TPC at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL is perennially ranked by Golf Digest among the top 100 golf facilities in the U.S., and is one of Pete Dye’s crowning achievements. And to guarantee the field is maintained at a major championship level, the PGA Tour has continuously raised the purse over the years, making The Players the richest golf event in the world by a wide margin (this year the purse stands at $25 million).
Memorable Moments: Be The Right Club Today
Most everybody has seen the clip of Hal Sutton intently staring down an approach shot, saying “Be the right club…be the right club today!” 2000 Players Championship, eighteenth hole, eyeball to eyeball with Tiger Woods at the very top of his game.
Tiger was in the process of sculpting a record-breaking season, and had already recorded three wins going into The Players, including Bay Hill the previous week (and would go on to win nine times in 2000, including three of the four majors).
Sutton was the leader going into the fourth round, with a one-shot advantage over Woods as they played together in the final pairing. Needless to say, everyone believed that a Tiger victory was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Hal was a solid veteran with eleven tour victories, including the 1983 PGA Championship and the 1983 Players Championship, and he had recorded 3 wins in the previous two seasons—but his biggest victories were a long way back. Hal Sutton is pure bulldog though, and he wouldn’t let Tiger shake free as he kept grinding, holding onto his one-shot advantage as they walked to the 18th hole (and Tiger had just made eagle at sixteen to get back within one).
Holding the honor, Tiger ripped a long iron stinger right down the middle and applied maximum pressure. Sutton then took driver, and with nothing but water all the way down the left side, trouble on the right, and a sliver of fairway in between, striped a perfect drive that scooted past Tiger’s ball and left him 179 yards to a back pin.
Tiger hit first, missing the green, but leaving a straight forward up and down for par. Hal knew that a birdie would be a tall order, even for Tiger, and so par would likely give him the victory. Long on his approach, however, would be dead, and short could catch the slope and wander away, leaving him a long and difficult two-putt (not to mention the water lurking ominously on the left).
He pulled a six iron, flushing it with a gentle draw, and as the ball flew toward the center of the green, TV microphones caught his words as he stared the shot down; “Be the right club. Be the right club today…Yes!” as the ball settled some fifteen feet below the hole.
When Tiger missed his birdie chip, Hal two putted for par and his second Players championship. It was indeed the “right club,” and became one of the moments that Deane Beman and Pete Dye had worked so hard to create.
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Coverage
Coverage
Thursday and Friday
7.30AM-1.00PM: ESPN+
1PM-7.00PM: Golf Channel/peacock
Saturday
8.00AM-2.00PM: ESPN+
2.00PM-7.00PM: NBC/peacock
Sunday
7.30AM-1.00PM: ESPN+ 1PM-6.00PM: NBC/peacock