THE PLAYERS Championship 2025 Prediction: Make it Matsuyama

• This column landed a +3500 winner with Russell Henley last week

• Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass has hosted every PLAYERS since 1974

• World No.1 Scottie Scheffler seeks a Sawgrass threepeat

THE PLAYERS Championship 2025 Odds

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THE PLAYERS Championship 2025 Predictions

• Hideki Matsuyama each-way (1/4, 7 places) at +2500 with BetMGM

• Daniel Berger to beat Viktor Hovland over 72 holes at -134 with bet365

• Sepp Straka for Top 10 at +400 with BetMGM

THE PLAYERS Championship 2025 Intro

The gap between the final Major of one year (July’s Open Championship) and the first of the next (April’s Masters) is lengthy.

Signature Series events have helped fill the gap but this week’s PLAYERS Championship really takes it up a notch.

For starters, it offers the richest first prize in golf with the winner on Sunday walking away with a massive $4.5m jackpot.

Scottie Scheffer is the hot favorite to bank those riches for a third straight year but history is very much against him.

He was actually the first to defend but only Jack Nicklaus has won THE PLAYERS on three occasions.

Tiger Woods managed to win at TPC Sawgrass just twice, enduring a hefty 12-year gap between his triumphs in 2001 and 2013.

The course, designed by Pete Dye, is iconic and every golfer in the world would love to have a go at playing the infamous 17th hole whose green is surrounded by water.

Coming so late in the round, it can make or break not just 18 holes but decide the whole tournament.

And with winds set to pick up on this weekend, plenty of jeopardy awaits at the course’s penultimate hole.

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Winners of THE PLAYERS Championship

• The 2020 event was abandoned due to the pandemic

Course Notes

• TPC Sawgrass is a par 72 measuring 7,352 yards

• A total of 77 yards has been added this year

• The tournament moved back to a March date in 2019

• The Bermuda greens have been overseeded 

• Greg Norman (1994) holds the 72-hole record of 264

• Tom Hoge (2023) has the 18-hole course record of 63

Favorites to win THE PLAYERS Championship 2025

Scottie Scheffler (+500) at bet365

We all knew Scheffler was good but wins here in 2023 and 2024 have really cemented his position as a modern-day great. And yet his first two efforts at Sawgrass resulted in a missed cut and T55. After his start to the season was delayed due to a hand injury, Scheffler hasn’t managed to hit the winning trail yet in 2025. He’s not far off but finishes of 9-25-3-11 show that he’s not hit his full peak yet. Is this the week where he does?

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Rory McIlroy (+1200) at bet365

Rory has had a rather curious relationship with Pete Dye’s most famous creation. He missed his first three cuts but then went 8-6-8-12. He failed to make the weekend again in 2018 but returned a year later to land the silverware. But since that 2019 PLAYERS win he’s been patchy: MC-33-MC-19. It just goes to show that even the best struggle here if they’re just a little off. His win at Pebble Beach earlier this year was impressive but this is a much tougher test.

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Collin Morikawa (+1200) at bet365

Morikawa can consider himself unlucky last week after Russell Henley rather pinched the Arnold Palmer Invitational trophy from his grasp via a chip-in eagle at 16. That left Morikawa a runner-up for the second time this season after a pair of 17ths at Pebble and Torrey Pines. At this course, he’s another big name who has struggled for consistency. His course form reads 45-13-MC-41 and although he’s posted just three sub-70 rounds they were 65 (R1 2023) and 66 (R4 2021).

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Matsuyama on a Mission  

With Scheffler not at his very best and history against him, it’s fair to oppose the World No.1.

Rory McIlroy’s mixed Sawgrass record and average ball-striking display at Bay Hill last week also suggests he can be swerved.

Collin Morikawa has yet to post a top 10 here so the one who stands out near the front of the market is Hideki Matsuyama.

The 2021 Masters champion has seven top 25s in nine Sawgrass appearances.

Four of those are top 10s and he was looking good for another in 2020 before his opening 63 became null and void after the tournament was abandoned due to Covid.

Matsuyama had been eighth the year before while in the last two editions of THE PLAYERS he’s posted fifth in 2023 and sixth 12 months ago.

With three PGA TOUR wins in the last 13 months - 2024 Genesis, 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship and 2025 Sentry - he’s proven that he can get over the line regularly when other elite players can’t. 

He’ll head to Sawgrass on the back of three straight top 25s and this looks a great chance for the Japanese golfer to land a big fish.   

After we landed first prize at Bay Hill with sole outright pick Russell Henley (+3500) last week, let’s back Matsuyama here each-way at +2500 (1/4, 7 places) with BetMGM.

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Berger to Beat Hovland

For this week’s 72-match bet, I’ll back Daniel Berger at -134 with bet365 to take down Viktor Hovland.

The Norwegian continues to have a tough time and suffered his third missed cut in four starts when crashing out at Bay Hill last week after laps of 77-72.

Berger, meanwhile, again displayed the consistency you want from a match bet pick by taking T15 at the Arnold Palmer, his fifth top 25 in six starts this year.

Berger is 6-for-6 at Sawgrass since 2016 with two ninths and a 13th in that run.

Hovland has played well at THE PLAYERS before but it’s a venue that exposes weaknesses and he just can’t find a way to hide them right now.

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Straka for Top 10

Sepp Straka is the surprise leader in the FedEx Cup standings but deserves his place after a great run which includes a win at The American Express and fifth at Bay Hill last week.

With a ninth (2022) and a 16th (2024) in two of his last three Sawgrass starts, the in-form Austrian can bank a Top 10 finish at +400 with BetMGM.

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How to Watch the PLAYERS Championship 2025

• Tournament: THE PLAYERS Championship

• Location: TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

• Date: Thursday March 13 - Sunday March 16

• How to Watch: Thursday-Friday 1 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel, NBC Sports App), Saturday noon-2 p.m. (NBC/Peacock), Sunday 1 p.m.-7 p.m. (NBC/Peacock) And all four days on Sky Sports