Players Championship 2016

After a break post-Masters, where some of the younger crew enjoyed Spring Break, all the big names are back for this week’s Players Championship. Last year this provided a spectacular finish, with Rickie Fowler scoring at 55-1 despite being at least five shots behind before hitting the final 12 holes and then winning the three-way playoff. Obviously I backed Fowler at such a silly price but then I decided on the Saturday evening to swap half of my bet for half a bet on Billy Horschel, twat. Anyway this week should be exciting and I will be not making the same mistake, below are my thoughts on who should play well…

The big four are the favourites for this tournament and I can see justification that all four could claim victory come Sunday. Favourite Rory McIlroy played well at last week’s Wells Fargo and is a previous tournament winner. Rickie Fowler also ticks both of those boxes and is available at 18-1 as opposed to 8-1 for Rory so I would go with the former. Jordan Spieth looks to have put his Masters disappointment behind him and has been showcasing a relaxed approach to his game, however 11-1 is not a big enough price come Sunday if he has another bout of impatience. Finally comes Jason Day at 12-1, his best finish here was a sixth place in 2011 so he may need to pull his best game out of the bag to score this weekend. From this group I will go for Rickie, who was leading the Wells Fargo last week going into the final round.

Two other players caught the eye during last week’s tournament, Hideki Matsuyama and Phil Mickelson. Hideki is definitely in the midst of a purple patch of form but 22-1 may be a bit stiff with no real previous form at this course. Therefore I will back Phil Mickelson, who seems to have put a dismal Masters performance behind him, at 35-1. Phil won this in 2007, let’s hope he can do it again.

Other players who are worthy of a mention are last year’s runner-ups, Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia, who are 80-1 and 28-1 respectively. Kisner missed the cut at the Wells Fargo but managed a top 40 finish in the Masters while a former winner of this tournament, Sergio, has not played since his Augusta top 40 finish. I would go for Garcia, he clearly loves this course, finishing in the top ten for the last three years.

Finally let’s go for Kevin Na at 70-1. He managed to gain two low scoring rounds in this tournament last year, he has not missed the cut in his last five starts, and with many firms playing each way to seventh place, he is a definite each-way shot for me.