2024 Players Championship: Top 10 power rankings at TPC Sawgrass
A power ranking of the top 10 golfers set to compete at the 2024 Players Championship, a PGA Tour event at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
The PGA Tour’s crown jewel event has arrived.
This week brings the Players Championship, an event dating back to 1974. After bouncing around different locations, it’s settled at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass since 1982.
This event annually attracts top-notch fields looking to haul in their share of one of golf’s biggest purses. This year it checks in at $25 million with $4.5 million to the winner.
There’s a 144-player field with top 65 and ties advancing to the weekend.
The Stadium Course is a Pete and Alice Dye design. It once started out as a scruffy, more natural-looking course built on swamp land. Now, it’s awash in green overseeded turf with few superficial blemishes.
TPC Sawgrass is most known for its 17th hole par-3 island green that coaxes drama down the stretch, even if the leader is ahead by multiple shots.
Pete Dye is regarded as an architect who challenges players with blind shots and difficult decisions.
TPC Sawgrass is no longer overly long by today’s distance standards. Less than driver off the tee is the play on several par-4s and par-5s. That’s because finding the fairway and playing the angles is imperative to scoring well here. Good course management, good iron play, and a tidy short game tend to be paramount to success.
It’s tough to fake it here, which means current form can trump course history. Not many players have streamlined success at the Players Championship. Almost every big name has had a bad week or two (or more) here. Just ask the likes of Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, or even Tiger Woods, who have all been flummoxed at this tournament.
Weather for this week in north Florida forecasts pleasantly for the practice rounds and on day one of tournament play, but rain and possible storms could be looming on the weekend. Temperatures will be in the 60s-70s Fahrenheit and winds could climb into the teens miles per hour.
It’ll be interesting to see what the big names have left in the tank after a grueling test last week down the road at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
It’s time to dig in to see which 10 players have the best shot at success at the Players: