THE PLAYERS Championship – Preview & Picks

March 8, 2022

1242

What a wild Sunday at Bay Hill, Scottie Scheffler captures his second win on the PGA Tour. He shot a 72 on Sunday to finish 5 under and narrowly edge out Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, and Billy Horschel who all finished one shot back.

We didn’t end up cashing any outright winners but, we did end up hitting all three of out Top 20 bets (Homa +240, Kirk +240, Bez +240). On the week we ended up +1.48 Units moving our total to +26.64 Units in the past five weeks.

The “fifth major” takes place this week as we head to TPC Sawgrass for THE PLAYERS Championship. It should be another tough test for some of the worlds best golfers. This Pete Dye designed course features water on 17 of 18 holes which will force players to weigh the risk vs reward. Justin Thomas will look to defend his title which is something no one has been able to do since 1982.

Tournament Information:

Dates: March 10th, 2022- March 13th, 2022
Location: Ponte Verda Beach, Florida, United States
Course: TPC Sawgrass
Course Type: Florida/ Southeast
Par: 72 (4x 3’s / 10x 4’s / 4x 5’s)
Length: 7,256 yards
Format: 72 hole stroke play
Field/ Cut: 144 Players | Top 65 and Ties after 36 Holes
Greens: TifEagle Bermuda overseeded with Poa Trivialis and Velvet Bentgrass
Fairways: Celebration Bermudagrass overseeded with Ryegrass and Fine Fescue
Rough: Celebration Bermudagrass overseeded with Ryegrass and Fine Fescue 2.5″
Stimpmeter: 12.5 ft. (Above Average)
Purse: $20,000,000 / Winner $3.6 Million
FedEx Cup Points: 600
Bunkers: 88
Water Hazards: – (In-Play on 17 Holes)
Average Green Size: 5,500 sq. ft.
Scoring Average:
- 2021: 72.42 (+042), Rank 16 of 51
- 2019: 71.51 (-0.49), Rank 23 of 49
- 2018: 71.41 (-0.59), Rank 29 of 51
- 2017: 73.29 (+1.29), Rank 5 of 50

Course Architect/ Comparable Courses:

Course Architect: Pete Dye (1979)
Renovations: Steve Wenzloff (2016)
Comparable Courses:
- PGA National – The Honda Classic (Results)
- Harbour Town – RBC Heritage (Results)
- TPC River Highlands – Travelers Championship (Results)
- TPC Scottsdale – WM Phoenix Open (Results)

TV Information:

Round 1: Thursday, March 10th, 2022
- Golf Channel – 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Round 2: Friday, March 11th, 2022
- Golf Channel – 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Round 3: Saturday, March 12th, 2022
- NBC – 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Round 4: Sunday, March 13th, 2022
- NBC – 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Weather:

Thursday: Thunderstorms 71 F, 12 mp/h SW, 83% Humidity, 80% Chance of Rain
Friday: Thunderstorms 71 F, 12 mp/h S, 83% Humidity, 70% Chance of Rain
Saturday: Showers 53 F, 20 mp/h W, 64% Humidity, 70% Chance of Rain
Sunday: Sunny 51 F, 14 mp/h N, 46% Humidity, 0% Chance of Rain

Course/ Tournament History:

THE PLAYERS Championship was first held in 1974 and was conceived by then PGA Tour commissioner, Deane Beman. It was held at Atlanta Country Club in Atlanta, Georgia and took place in early September. Over the next two years it was held at different locations including the Colonial Country Club in 1975 and at the Inverrary Country Club in 1976. From 1977 to 1982 the event was held at Sawgrass Country Club which is very close to it’s current location, TPC Sawgrass. Since 1982, the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass has hosted this event.

From 2007-2017 THE PLAYERS Championship took place in May. However in 2018, the event returned to March where it has been held since.

Unlike other tournaments that feature a sudden death playoff format, THE PLAYERS has a three-hole aggregate format that started in 2014. This tournament has only gone to extra hole’s once since this format change and that was back in 2015 where Rickie Fowler won.

The purse was increased to $20 million dollars this year, which is $5 million more than was offered in 2021. With the additional purse money, the winners share is also increased to $3,600,000 from last years $2,700,000.

Jack Nicklaus holds the record for most wins at this event with 3; 1974, 1976, 1978

To read more about the history of TPC Sawgrass, you can click the following link.

Course Guide/ Scorecard:

The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass measures just over 7200 yards. This is one of the toughest courses on Tour as it has played over par in two of the past four years.

There’s trouble everywhere on this course with the most water danger holes on Tour and the ninth most bunkers. Given the layout of this course, it puts emphasis on players approach and short games. Most of the holes are dog legs which limits the players club selection off the tee preventing them from playing driver.

The greens are on the smaller size when compared to the tour average and run pretty quick. However, the forecast is calling for a ton of rain which should soften them up allowing players to attack the pin a little more.

To see the hole by hole strokes average last year, you can click the following link.

For a hole by hole overview of the course, you can click the following link.

Key Statistics:

Strokes Gained: Tee to Green
Strokes Gained: Around The Green
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
Strokes Gained: Approach
Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermuda)
Greens in Regulation %
Scrambling
Bogey Avoidance

The Field/ Odds:

THE PLAYERS features one of the best fields we’ll see all year with pretty much every top-100 player in the world scheduled to play. Given the $20 Million dollar purse offered this week, it’s not a shock that anyone who has qualified would willingly miss this event.

Jon Rahm leads the field in terms of odds, currently listed at 12-1. He finished 9th at TPC Sawgrass last year and has been playing some great golf as of late but just can’t seem to capture a win. Rahm’s putting continues to be his downfall as he’s lost strokes putting in his past three tournaments.

2021 Players Champion, Justin Thomas is listed around 14-1. In Thomas’ last five starts he’s finished 5-5-20-8-6 so he looks to be in great form as he tries to defend his title. No one has been able to achieve this feat of successfully winning The Players in back to back years since 1982.

Next up is Collin Morikawa, who’s also currently listed around 14-1. Collin is coming off a T2 at The Genesis Invitational where he made a late push Sunday but was unable to best Joaquin Niemann who went wire to wire. He made his tournament debut last year and finished 41st. He’s an elite ball striker which gives him an advantage here as approach play is crucial especially given the predicted forecast.

The last favorite at The Players is Rory McIlroy who’s currently listed anywhere from 16-1 to 22-1. Rory led the Arnold Palmer Invitational after the first round last week and looked like he was going to run away with it but struggled in the following days to end up finishing T13. Rory won his event back in 2019 and has finished inside the top-20 in his last five tournaments.

Other previous winners in the field include Si Woo Kim (’17), Jason Day (’16), Matt Kuchar (’12) , Henrik Stenson (’09), Sergio Garcia (’08), and Adam Scott (’04).

Click the link, to see the most up to date odds.

Click the link, to find out how everyone in the field has qualified.

Previous Winners Scores & Prices: