2019-03-13

Players Championship Betting Tips

The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass - Florida - Par 72, 7,189 Yards

The PGA Tour heads to TPC Sawgrass this week for golf’s unofficial fifth major and one of the most exciting and unpredictable events on the calendar. Having been the first event to have been cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid outbreak, it was a welcome return of golf.

The Stadium course is home to the PGA Tour, and their flagship event always attracts the biggest and best players from around the world, all arriving with the hope of taking home one of the biggest crowns in golf.

Sawgrass is characterised by tiny greens, fast undulating fairways, and several doglegs, all of which serve to remove some of the Tours’ bigger hitters’ advantages. This has been evidenced in a somewhat erratic trend of winners, from big bombers like Rickie Fowler and Jason Day to the likes of Tim Clark and Fred Funk, who have managed to manoeuvre their way around this delightful Pete Dye creation.

The front nine at Sawgrass is relatively unremarkable. Still, the backside is some of the most entertaining holes you will see anywhere on a golf course, culminating in the famous island green that faces the players on the treacherous par-three 17th.

Recent Winners

Year	Winner	Score
2022	Cameron Smith	-13
2021	Justin Thomas	-14
2020	Cancelled	-
2019	Rory Mcilroy	-16
2018	Webb Simpson	-18
2017	Si-Woo Kim	-10
2016	Jason Day	-15

Players Championship Betting Tips

The PGA Tour heads to one of its most famous destinations next week, the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, Pete Dye's iconic Florida layout, which has played host to the Players Championship since 1982.

Sawgrass is best known for its signature island green 17th, where many in the field will meet a watery grave from Thursday onwards, but there is more to the 7,256-yard par-72 Stadium Course than one shot.

Dye's masterpiece tests every area of a golfer's game, and winners have varied in playing style in recent years. Cameron Smith, who is unable to defend following his move to LIV Golf, won the 2022 event thanks to a superb mix of accurate approaches and putting.

Jon Rahm leads the betting and has shown glimpses of his best at Sawgrass in the past, but the Spaniard is still yet to crack the top eight in the Players, and he's opposable at the odds.

The same can be said of Rory McIlroy, who won this title in 2019 but has also missed the cut twice in the last four editions. The best bet of the top three could be Scottie Scheffler, who seems to enjoy Florida golf, but at slightly bigger odds, the eye is drawn to Justin Thomas.

Thomas would readily admit that he's not been at his best so far this year, but the Kentucky star, who is based down Florida's east coast in Jupiter, is the reigning PGA champion, and he won the Players in 2021 thanks to a stellar tee-to-green display.

While he hasn't quite been firing on all cylinders, Thomas had finished no worse than 25th in four starts this season heading into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and when he did find top form with his long game, he finished fourth in the Phoenix Open.

The two-time Major champion then found his touch on the greens at the Genesis Invitational, and those two performances suggest he's not far away from putting it all together.

Two more former champions appeal at bigger prices, with Jason Day and Rickie Fowler both capable of contending, having rediscovered their form over the last few months.

Day won the 2016 Players by four shots before finishing in the top eight on two subsequent visits to Ponte Vedra Beach, and the Australian has been in fine form in 2023, chalking up form figures of 18-7-5-9 heading into the Arnold Palmer.

At 35, it's eminently possible that more top-tier success is on the cards for Day if he remains healthy, and Sawgrass, the scene of one of his greatest victories, is the ideal place for him to signal his return to the elite.

Fowler emerged triumphant from a thrilling playoff against Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner in 2015, and after a spell in the doldrums, the popular Californian is edging back to his best, having rekindled his partnership with coach Butch Harmon.

The 34-year-old has finished sixth in the Fortinet Championship, runner-up in Japan's Zozo Championship, 11th in the Farmers Insurance Open and tenth in Phoenix this season, all performances which suggest a first title since 2019 could be just around the corner.

Best bets: