THE PLAYERS Championship
This might not be a major championship, but this is the most important week of the year for the majority of one-and-done Leagues. Why, you say? THE PLAYERS Championship features the largest purse of any single event on the PGA Tour at $25 million. Picking this week's winner would net you a cool $4.5 million to move you up the standings, or at least solidify your status near the top.
It won't be easy for anyone, as TPC Sawgrass is tough to peg. Even the best players have scattered course history around this place. Scoring is extremely volatile, and you can play very good golf and miss the cut with just one or two bad swings thanks to all the water out there. This is also the deepest field of the year, and only the top 65 and ties will make the weekend in this elite 123-man field.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course (7,352 yards, par 72)
- Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
- Purse: $25 million -- $4.5 million to winner
- Defending Champion: Rory McIlroy (-12)
- 2025 Scoring Average: 72.39
- Average Winning Score Last 5 Years: -15.2
TPC Sawgrass is a place where birdies and eagles can come in bunches, but bogeys or worse are not that far away with just one poor shot. Those who are in control of the golf ball from tee to green are going to give themselves a lot of opportunities, while those who are a little off with their swing will feel like this is one of the hardest courses they've ever played.
Some of the biggest keys will be quite similar to each of the first two tests on the Florida Swing at PGA National and Bay Hill. You need to find the fairways, control you distances with the irons and be sharp around the greens. The rough both off the fairways and around the greens is not where you want to be hitting your next shot from. It has gotten thicker in recent years and has become very tough to control.
Weather has seemingly been a factor every year since this event was pushed back to March back in 2019. This year it should have its impact as well. While early in the week the course is as burnt-out as most can remember, rain is expected to fall throughout the event. The highest chance will be Thursday afternoon. We are also expected to get three different winds over the course of the four tournament rounds. Winds should consistently be in the 12-18 mph range, with gusts at times higher than that. Players will certainly be on their toes on some holes -- most notably the island that is No. 17 -- to try and flight their approaches and avoid the conditions.
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RotoWire One and Done Tools
THE PLAYERS Championship: One and Done Picks
Aberg's results have gotten better every tournament he's played this season: WD-MC-T37-T20-T3. Of course, there's not much higher he can go than last week's podium showing at Bay Hill. After a dicey 2025, Aberg clearly is playing better this season. He's in plus territory in every Strokes Gained metric and is borderline top-50 in driving accuracy, a key metric this week. He's not doing any one thing elite, but that's not necessarily a bad thing at Sawgrass. --Len Hochberg
I don't love going with what will be a very popular play, but Morikawa just feels like the right pick. He's been locked in since Pebble Beach, finishing no worse than T7 in his past three starts. I was wondering if his play would fall off after his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he has fared very well in both appearances since -- both with loaded fields. He might be chosen by about 40 percent of participants, but Sawgrass is a ball-striker's course, and Morikawa is as good as anyone with the irons when he's on. --Greg Vara
He's the best player in the world vying for the largest purse of the season. It's really that simple. Let others worry about the slow starts and iron play. Hopefully that drives down the selections as folks look to save him for the majors. Scheffler is still at an elite level with the driver, in the short game and with the putter. He's been the best iron player in the five years by a wide margin. It's going to click at some point, and why not at a course where he has already won twice? --Ryan Andrade
Following a modest start to the year, Young has elevated his play with back-to-back top-10s in Signature Events. He is starting to show glimpses of the breakout year many were expecting. He led the field in SG: Off-the-Tee at Bay Hill in his T3 result, and his combination of length and improved accuracy should suit him well around TPC Sawgrass. Young doesn't have a great track record here, finishing MC-T51-T54-T61, but he was fifth in SG: Approach two years ago, and J.J. Spaun lost in a playoff last year despite some dreadful course history. I think Young will be a popular choice based on his recent form, but not overly chalky based on the prior results here. --Ryan Pohle
Morikawa brings the right skill set to Sawgrass. The irons have been elite, the putter is trending up, and he's kept the momentum rolling since winning at Pebble with a T7 and solo fifth. He ranks second among the field in SG: Approach this year, a key metric given nine of the last 11 champions here finished top 10 in that category. Coming off a T10 at THE PLAYERS in 2025, Morikawa looks primed for contention this week. --Lauren Jump
Lee's season-long approach metrics aren't anything special on the surface due to an especially lousy SG: APP performance at The Genesis Invitational, but he spiked with his irons at both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he ranked fourth in fairway proximity. Lee paces the entire PGA Tour in total driving this season, and he's gained a collective 14.3 strokes on the greens at TPC Sawgrass through three career PLAYERS Championship outings. I'm comfortable targeting someone that might be considered inconsistent in exchange for upside on a volatile track. --Bryce Danielson
I've had Scheffler earmarked for this spot for months, but he has been off his game just enough that I'm saving him. I don't want to go too far down the board in a tournament with this purse size, so I'm turning to Morikawa.
After recording only one top-10 from last year's Masters through this year's WM Phoenix Open, Morikawa has now ripped off three straight. No golfer is faring better over his last 12 rounds that Morikawa, who ranks first in SG: Total, Tee-to-Green, Approach and ball striking over that stretch. He has not been as dialed in up close, but if he beats everyone else to the green it may not matter.
Morikawa has played TPC Sawgrass five times and has made four cuts. Last year's T10 was his best finish, but that's enough of a track record to point his direction in pursuit of the $4.5 million first-place prize. --Kevin O'Brien
THE PLAYERS Championship: One and Done Fades
Kim is off to a fantastic start to the season. His iron play has been elite. But he has slipped a bit his last three starts, not cracking the top-10. He was T13 last week at Bay Hill. Kim is the No. 7 choice in DraftKings DFS and the golfer with the fourth-shortest odds at the DK Sportsbook, and that all seems a bit much. Call it a fade if you must. Just saying Kim won't match those very lofty expectations. --Len Hochberg
Yeah, I'm taking the easy way out this week. McIlroy won here this past year and his form prior to this past week was fine, so in a perfect world, he'd be a good pick this week, but can you really use him this week? Your one chance to use the second-best chip you have, when he's having back issues? I'd feel much more comfortable placing a win wager on him than using him in a OAD format because disaster could be right around the corner. Back issues are weird, sometimes they linger for weeks and sometimes they disappear and you're suddenly 100%, but this is the largest purse of the season, you can't take a chance on a guy who might not be able to finish. --Greg Vara
It's not often you are able to win a tournament, especially at a course like Bay Hill, losing strokes ball striking, but that's exactly what Bhatia did a week ago. That just goes to show you how unbelievable his putting and short game was. It will be a lot harder to get away with that at TPC Sawgrass, however. A lot of his missed fairways at Bay Hill will end up being water balls and double-bogeys here. Despite the hot stretch that he's in and the T3 last year at TPC Sawgrass, I'd be a little careful of getting back on the train for THE PLAYERS. Lightning usually doesn't strike twice, or at least in back-to-back weeks. --Ryan Andrade
Fleetwood is coming off a disappointing showing at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he bested just one golfer of those that made the cut as he lost strokes off the tee and on approach. TPC Sawgrass isn't a place you want to go to with multiple aspects of your game in question. I want to save elite players like Fleetwood for when they are in better form, even if he does have a couple top-10s here. --Ryan Pohle
The defending PLAYERS champ is overdue for his first win of the season and has performed extremely well at TPC Sawgrass. But the back issue that forced him out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week is tough to overlook. Even if McIlroy plays, I'm not taking that chance in OAD. --Lauren Jump
The market has overrated Fleetwood on a fairly weekly basis throughout his PGA Tour career, with his lone win finally arriving last year against only 29 other entrants at East Lake. Among this week's PLAYERS Championship field, he's just 120th of 123 in overall proximity, 105th in GIR percentage and 76th in SG: Approach through 12 measured rounds this season. Fleetwood has been carried by his around-the-green game over his first three starts of 2026, and although I don't care much about course history here, he's gone five consecutive TPC Sawgrass appearances without a top-10 result while we're shooting for ceiling outcomes in OAD. He's a fine, safe click in other formats where floor is rewarded. --Bryce Danielson
Rose finds himself fifth in the OWGR, but since winning the Farmers Insurance Open he has gone T37-MC-MC, which is hardly the direction you want to be moving heading into THE PLAYERS. Rose ranks a woeful 125th in driving accuracy this season and an even worse 160th in SG:Around-the Green, so things could get dicey on a tough track. He has had some quality results at Sawgrass, but he missed the cut in his last two trips and three of the last four, so there are plenty of reasons to stay away. --Kevin O'Brien
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
