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The Player's Championship
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TPC SAWGRASS STADIUM COURSE
Mar 13-16 2025
Venue: THE PLAYERS STADIUM COURSE at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Course: Par 72 | 7,352 yards
Format: Stroke play
Current Champion: Scottie Scheffler
Purse: $25 million
The Weather
At the time of writing, the forecast is perfect for golf across the first two days. With very light, if any wind and no rain. Therefore there doesn’t appear to be an advantage to either early or late starters on either of the first two days.
The wind is expected to pick up over the weekend with moderate winds of up to 30kmh each day. There is light rain forecast for late on Sunday, this doesn't appear likely to have much bearing on this event however.
The Course
The TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course is a globally recognized golf course, most famous for hosting THE PLAYERS Championship. Here's a summary of its key features:
Designed by Pete and Alice Dye, it was built specifically to host THE PLAYERS Championship. It employs a "stadium" concept, with raised mounds for spectator viewing.
On bermuda grass, greens overseeded with poa trivialis. The design is known for its strategic challenges, favoring no particular playing style. Golfers will be punished for not being accurate off the tee, with narrow fairways, water hazards, and strategically placed bunkers. The 17th hole, the "Island Green," is one of the most iconic and challenging holes in golf. It's a par-3 with a green almost entirely surrounded by water.
FANTASY PICKS - in association with Fanteam.com
Tier 1/Stars | €19.5m+
The PGA tour season is well under way now and this week we have arguably the biggest event outside of the majors.
In this group we look at those that will be at the top end of the price bracket
World number 1, Scottie Scheffler (25.6) returns to the Ponte Vedra Beach track hoping to make this a 3-peat, having won the past two renewals of this event. This is Scottie's 4th event of the season, with 3 X top 10 finishes and a T25 to his name he remains in good form despite yet get out of second gear in 2025.
A player who has a win to his name this year is Rory McIlroy (23.0). He comfortably leads the field in SG from the Tee & Tee to green this season and an elite performance at Pebble Beach putting the field to the sword, after a decent showing in Dubai, put a marker down for the rest of his PGA Tour colleagues. However he failed to back that up next time out at the Genesis, finishing in a T17, 9 shots back of Ryder cup teammate Ludvig Aberg (20.4).
The Swede who finished 8th in this last year, his debut in the event, is growing from strength to strength since his breakout season in 2023. He has started off this year strongly, finishing 6th at the Hero World Challenge and T5 at the Sentry. Succumbed to illness the next couple of weeks with a T42 and WD, the latter massively skewing his stats and I’m looking at it as an anomaly, and bounced back ominously to claim the Genesis.
Justin Thomas (20.2) is a past winner of this event and is close to the top of the field in a number of key metrics including SG Total, SG Approach and Putting average. His game is coming back week by week and it won't be long before we see him finishing a tournament atop of the leaderboard on a Sunday evening.
Another player who's game looks like it's almost there is Tommy Fleetwood (19.6). Who's approach game has gone to another level in 2025. Leading the field for SG on approach and proximity, 4th SG tee to green. We all know that putter is the nemesis, but there have been shoots of improvement of late and a T22 and T8 this season are fair finishes and at Sawgrass in 2024 his putter got hot, his approach game let him down. If he has found the key to those poa trivialis overseeded bermuda greens and continues with his approach game, we expect him to put on a top showing this week.
Hideki Matsuyama (19.8) may not show up in the models of many a statto due to his recent SG OTT performance, but he has made up for it in other areas. As a result he has started the season strongly, making cuts in all his starts and a win to his name too. It would be folly to discount him this week. He has shown up well in the last two renewals of this event finishing inside the top 10 on both occasions.
Tier 2/balanced team picks | €14-19.5m
Shane Lowry (18.2), performs well in all key metrics and in terms of his leaderboard finishes week on week in recent years, including at Sawgrass. Likely to be a solid pick again.
Korean Si Woo Kim (16.4), who’s poor form late in 2024/early 2025 seems to be behind him nowis of consideration. arguably has the form at the Players stadium course over the past 4 years to suggest his price is reasonable this week. He is performing well in almost all of the key statistics metrics for 2025 thus far particularly T2G of late.
Another player who takes my eye at a similar price is Sepp Straka (17.2), he had a bad week at Torrey Pines, but if we can put that result to the side for now, this is a man on form in 2025. Also with a win to his name. Performing consistently well in all key metrics and has shown he can play well around the stadium course in recent years.
Canadian Corey Connors (15.8) is also gaining in those categories this year, with only one missed cut and a strong showing last week his game might just be in the right place having a strong record in this event.
Aaron Rai (14.2) shows up well in the data this week, two starts and two reasonable finishes at Sawgrass in his career so far. Only one missed cut in 2025 and gaining strokes T2G in his last couple of starts off the back of a decent T11 at the API.
Tier 3/Scrubs & Underdog Contenders | <€14m
Brice Garnett (10.2) is a consideration if you’re needing to scrape the barrel, no missed cuts in 2025. Has played in this event 5 times since 2018, making the cut in 4 of those appearances. Generally playing well TTG this year so far.
One man who has kicked on this season under the radar, missing only one cut, is Alex Smalley 10.8, all facets of his game are showing up nicely. Other than the missed cut, his worst finish has been a T21 from his other 5 starts.
Doug Ghim’s (11.2) putter has been ice cold in 2025, but only one missed cut and is showing up well amongst the top ball strikers on tour. He missed the cut here in 2023, but in his other 3 starts has fared well including a T6 last year, gaining plenty of strokes OTT and a nice T11 finish last time out at the Cognizant.
Last but by no means least, is a player in stellar form for the past 12 months, since returning to the DP World Tour from Liv Golf. Laurie Canter 12.0 seems to gain strokes with every shot type he plays even when compared against this field, he shows up 4th overall if you look at total SG only. He’s new to this tour, but in this company he still puts in decent enough performances having played in 6 majors, and only one missed cut.
Prices in this article will reflect the prices of the players on Fanteam.com Weekly PGA tour game for The Players Championship 2025.
