The Players Championship 2025: Course and current form stats

• Longer hitters have benefited since change of date in 2019

• Aberg [18/1] ready to take next step towards greatness

• Veteran Rose [125/1] might be worth an each-way shout

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Tournament Notes

With the first major championship of the season just five weeks away, the action switches to TPC Sawgrass and the 52nd staging of The Players Championship.

The countdown to the US Masters is underway with Scottie Scheffler heading to Ponte Vedra chasing a third straight Players Championship title. Twelve months ago he became the first golfer to win this event back-to-back.

First played in 1974, the Players Championship is being hosted by the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass for the 43rd time. Laid out just one mile from the Atlantic Ocean, the Stadium Course first staged this event in 1982.

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Course Notes

Pete Dye, who is the course architect, was instructed by the PGA Tour to design a layout that would not suit any one particular type of golfer.

Its putting surfaces are slightly smaller than the Tour average, along with narrower than normal fairways. Since changes were made to the course in 2016, water realistically comes into play on 15 holes, although the hazards vary in size considerably.

Between 1982 and 2006 the Championship was contested during March, before moving to May for 12 straight years. However, it returned to March in 2019 and, to accommodate this new date, and take into account different seasonal weather conditions, organisers decided to over-seed the greens, tees, fairways and rough.

Switching back to March meant conditions favoured the bigger hitters, and Rory McIlroy duly obliged. Suddenly there was less run on the fairways, and the ball didn't travel as far through the colder air.

However, on the plus side, the softer putting surfaces became much more receptive to approach shots. But one aspect which hasn't changed is the need to remain deadly accurate from tee-to-green.

After playing last week's event at Bay Hill where the greens, on average, measure a sizeable 7,500 square feet, those at the Stadium Course are around 2,000 sq ft smaller.

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Market Leaders

As expected, the top two golfers in Betfair's Sportsbook market for this week's mini-major are world No 1 Scottie Scheffler 9/25.50 and Rory McIlroy 8/19.00.

Although the defending champion Scheffler has been a little slow out of the blocks in 2025, probably not helped by a hand injury, he has remained close to the top of the leaderboard in the four tournaments he has contested so far.

He has had one podium finish (Torrey Pines), and was tied-11th at Bay Hill on Sunday, so another Sawgrass victory this week remains well within his grasp.

McIlroy, meanwhile, has already won this year, posting a victory in the PGA Tour's Signature Event at Pebble Beach.

He too is a former champion at TPC Sawgrass, and he finished one stroke behind Scheffler at Bay Hill over the weekend.

Six To Watch

Two players to have tasted success already this year on the PGA Tour are Ludvig Aberg 18/119.00 and Hideki Matsuyama 25/126.00.

In each of his last two visits to this event, Matsuyama has posted top-six finishes, while Aberg tied-eighth on his Sawgrass debut 12 months ago.

A couple of former major champions, who are playing pretty well right now, are Jason Day 40/141.00 and Justin Rose 125/1126.00.

Day tasted glory at TPC Sawgrass nine years ago and, earlier this season, stood on the podium at The American Express tournament in California. He tied-eighth at Bay Hill on Sunday.

As for Rose, he has a best Sawgrass finish of tied-fourth, and the 44-year-old has played 'sneakingly' well in recent weeks.

Two of his last three starts, which were all Signature Events, yielded top-10 finishes.

While Rose is an unlikely champion in such a strong field, he would certainly be a strong each-way candidate.

Finally, two other e/w options are the improving Max Greyserman 100/1101.00 and Michael Kim 80/181.00.

The 29-year-old Greyserman is in his third year on the PGA Tour and has so far finished runner-up three times. He makes his Sawgrass debut this week.

Korean-born American, Kim, is a one-time winner on Tour and has opened his 2025 campaign strongly.

In his last five starts there has been a trio of top-six finishes and he's currently a career-high No 52 in the world.

Stroke Averages

Lowest 12 At TPC Sawgrass (2018-24)
Average .... (Rounds)
69.57: Scottie Scheffler (14)
70.06: Hideki Matsuyama (16)
70.23: Tommy Fleetwood (22)
70.32: Jason Day (22)
70.33: Christiaan Bezuidenhout (12)
70.44: Xander Schauffele (18)
70.55: Brian Harman (22)
70.55: Justin Thomas (22)
70.62: Si Woo Kim (21)
70.63: Justin Rose (16)
70.64: Shane Lowry (22)
70.67: Joel Dahmen (18)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

No Tournament at TPC Sawgrass in 2020 due to Covid pandemic

Read the Punter's Players Championship preview