Back in the world top 50 and back as a PGA Tour winner (last year’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championionship), so the affable Norther Irishman is back at the Players for the first time since 2017. There have been a few rather fleeting flashes that he’s turning the corner, but the ball-striking is still nowhere close to being anywhere close to where it was in that 2014-’17 stretch (he’s 192nd in strokes gained/off the tee and 199th in strokes gained/approach). The Players Championship is the Tour’s premier event and features a $15 million purse, the richest prize in golf. His winning final round in 2009 might be the most badass round of golf ever played—a six-under 66 without putting a tee in the ground all day (he never hit driver and didn’t tee up any 3-woods or irons). You get the sense he has multiple majors in his future. Age: 39 World Ranking: 46 Players starts: 11 The history at Sawgrass is nothing to write home about, though—he’s made the cut four of six times but has never cracked the top 20. 3 is dealing with a nagging knee injury that kept him away for three months and, he says, still isn’t fully healed. Age: 37 World Ranking: 111 Players starts: 13 6. Best Players finish: Win, 2015 Paul Casey Best Players finish: T-23, 2018 Had a nice time in Hawaii, finishing T-14 in the Tournament of Champions and T-4 at the Sony Open, and posted a solid T-18 at the WGC-Mexico. Overhead, a jet put down a white stripe over the blue sky, a reminder that somewhere, somehow, things were normal. Lovable Thai player is slumping, plain and simple. Best Players finish: T-47, 2019 Such is golf. Go figure. Best Players finish: T-2, 2015 Rickie Fowler Best Players finish: DQ, 2019 “She’s crushed,” Hilcoff said. It’s based on a few criteria—current form, course history, statistical profiles and, yes, some good ol’ gut feelings. Loves a low ball flight, which can become an issue in big events, which tend to have firm greens. 50. Corey Conners J. T. Poston That’s been a bit of a theme, as he’s struggled on Bermuda greens in his young career. Age: 28 World Ranking: 66 Players starts: 1 Byeong-Hun An Kevin Streelman Brooks Koepka 80. Best Players finish: T-56, 2019 Graeme McDowell The Korn Ferry trademark is also a registered trademark, and is used in the Korn Ferry Tour logo with permission. His victory in 2012 remains the biggest win in a long, lucrative career. Reigning U.S. Open champion has made the Players cut only three times in eight starts, though he has made the weekend three of the past four years. Kiradech Aphibarnrat 73. Had a resurgent 2019 and made it to the Tour Championship, which was nice to see given the depths he’s experienced. Welcome to TPC Sawgrass. Brandt Snedeker His T-5 at Riviera came in the best field of the year thus far, and he had a chance to win until the very end. First U.S. start of the year was at Bay Hill, where a first-round 77 torpedoed his chances to make the weekend. Who at TPC Sawgrass had it, if anyone? Age: 37 World Ranking: 19 Players starts: 9 31. Age: 26 World Ranking: 4 Players starts: 6 Age: 33 World Ranking: 61 Players starts: 9 C.T. “See ya next time,” Ryan Palmer said as he dropped his bags off with Ben Hulka, who with his wife, Heidi, runs Hulk, Inc, the shipping business started by Ben’s father, Steve, in 2003. Age: 41 World Ranking: 93 Players starts: 11 22. One of the straightest hitters out there, he should be able to steer well clear of Sawgrass’ ubiquitous trouble, but he’s only broken 70 once in 12 rounds here. Jason Kokrak Best Players finish: Win, 2016 Sungjae Im Has actually missed the cut in four of his 10 Players starts, including in 2018, but the other three came before his 24th birthday. Age: 40 World Ranking: 75 Players starts: 17 At this stage, he fares best on wide courses with room to miss of the tee. Had a terrific fall including his first Tour win at the Houston Open and has mostly kept up the good form, posting four top-15 finishes already in 2020. The green featured the same back hole location as the day before, and NBC’s tiny camera remained buried in the hole’s hula-hoop-sized pot bunker. Did you know you can save your preferences across all your digital devices and platforms simply by creating a profile? He’s a bit boom or bust and tends to fare best on courses with room to miss. 10. The struggles have been around the green: he ranks 218th in strokes gained/around the green and 116th in strokes gained/putting. Austrian played in the final pairing of the 2014 PGA Championship before struggling with injuries and dropping outside the top 300 in the world. Has made the cut in eight of his 10 Sawgrass starts but has no real solid finishes except the T-9 in ’16. To help you get your bearings and assess a wildly deep group of golfers, we’ve ranked the top 100 players teeing it up this week at TPC Sawgrass. Best Players finish: T-42, 2015 Does the majority of his damage in the weaker-field events, but he’s having a solid season thus far with two top 10s in 10 events. Golf’s latest player to be in the news for the wrong reasons, he posted a homophobic meme to this Instagram story and was promptly dropped by his clothing and equipment sponsors. Won’t wow you with his game, but he’s got a victory in two of the past three PGA Tour season, including earlier year at the American Express. J. Age: 39 World Ranking: 9 Players starts: 18 No surprise, then, that he has quite a solid history around Sawgrass: two top 10s and five top 25s in six starts. Best Players finish: MDF, 2019 Age: 30 World Ranking: 16 Players starts: 4 Age: 43 World Ranking: 102 Players starts: 18 Has made five of seven cuts at the Players but has yet to post a top 10. This will be his 10th start in as many weeks, and he’ll hope for better luck than his previous tries here: three missed cuts and a MDF. 34. The third member of the Wolff-Morikawa-Hovland triumvirate to get their first Tour win. Adam Scott Was his own biggest critic last week, saying he needs to re-learn how to play golf but that he’s trying his (butt) off. Dustin Johnson Age: 30 World Ranking: 183 Players starts: 1 Matt Fitzpatrick