The PLAYERS: SB Nation’s Taking part in By workers predicts winners

The marquee occasion on the PGA Tour returns to TPC Sawgrass, the house of The PLAYERS Championship.

Final 12 months, Scottie Scheffler ran away with the title, capturing a 7-under 65 on Saturday and a 3-under 69 on Sunday to win by 5 pictures over Tyrrell Hatton.

After all, Scheffler gained final week at Bay Hill. His triumph on the Arnold Palmer Invitational marked his first victory since The PLAYERS a season in the past and his seventh profession PGA Tour victory total.

However no participant has ever repeated at TPC Sawgrass, which speaks to the unpredictable nature of this course. Water comes into play on virtually each gap, hassle lurks in every single place, and an array of shot shapes is required to win.

With that in thoughts, allow us to get to our workers picks:

Picture by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs

Kendall Capps – Senior Editor

I’m again on the Justin Thomas practice.

Selecting in opposition to Scottie Scheffler after what he did final week—and final 12 months on this course—is perhaps infantile.

Nevertheless, I’m not completely satisfied that his placing woes have subsided.

In the meantime, Thomas has quietly performed glorious golf since final 12 months’s Ryder Cup. Exterior of lacking the minimize on the Genesis Invitational, Thomas has tied for third, sixth, twelfth, and twelfth up to now in 2024.

He has made a birdie or higher 29% of the time this season, rating fourth on the PGA Tour in that metric. When you can put your self in place at TPC Sawgrass, birdie alternatives current themselves, and fortuitously for Thomas, he has accomplished simply that up to now this season.

Thomas is eighth on tour in Strokes Gained: Tee to Inexperienced in 2024, and barring a troublesome again 9 final week at Bay Hill, he might have put extra stress on Scheffler.

Alas, Thomas has by no means missed the minimize at TPC Sawgrass. He has additionally gained right here earlier than—in 2021—and can achieve this once more this week.

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Jack Milko – Employees Author

With the ultimate spherical of The PLAYERS Championship falling on Choice Sunday, I really feel obligated to make use of an NCAA Event time period to make my decide.

I’m going all chalk.

Scottie Scheffler is enjoying in a league of his personal, and I can not decide in opposition to him.

He leads the tour in scoring common, strokes gained total, and strokes gained off the tee. He has hit 78% of his greens in regulation, additionally rating on the prime of the PGA Tour.

His latest play resembles prime Tiger Woods, and Scheffler will obtain one thing that not even Woods has accomplished this week: repeat at TPC Sawgrass.

Final 12 months, Scheffler gained a preposterous 17.274 whole strokes, with solely 0.107 of these approaching the greens. He performed with a blade putter then, and Scheffler is at the moment one-for-one together with his new mallet putter.

The 2022 Masters champion gained 4.347 strokes on the greens final week, rating fifth on the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Along with his superior play tee-to-green, it’s no shock that he gained convincingly.

As such, I like his scorching putter to proceed flexing its muscular tissues at TPC Sawgrass, the place Scheffler will turn into the primary participant to win back-to-back PLAYERS Championships.

Picture by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs

Savannah Leigh Richardson – Employees Author

Like Jack, my decide this week can be Scottie Scheffler.

I believe Scheffler goes back-to-back at TPC Sawgrass, coming into himself into his personal sphere amongst PGA Tour legends.

Now that he has gotten a scorching putter, it might get ugly for the remainder of the sector.

“I discovered a putter that I line up very properly,” Scheffler defined Tuesday.

“I wasn’t utilizing it as making an attempt to hit it completely every time or utilizing it in the rest aside from to attempt to assist myself line up.”

Scheffler additionally eliminated the road from his ball forward of final week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, which additionally paid dividends.

“It’s so much simpler to say, ‘Hey, it doesn’t actually matter should you miss or make it, however on the finish of the day, it issues a heck of so much to me whether or not that putt goes in or not,’” Scheffler added.

“Nevertheless it’s about sticking to my course of and controlling what I can management. That’s having a superb perspective and hitting a superb putt, and never utilizing the road has helped so much in that.”

Picture by Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour through Getty Photographs

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. You should definitely try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.