2023 Player Championship: Jon Rahm Domination, Justin Thomas Struggle Leads 10 Storylines at TPC Sawgrass

The 2023 Players Championship marks the culmination of an incredible five-week stretch for the PGA Tour. It started in Phoenix with Scottie Scheffler defending his Phoenix Open title, continued in Los Angeles with Jon Rahm’s (approximately) 80th win of the season at the Genesis Invitational and advanced into Florida over the past two weeks. The Tour now showcases its crown jewels with some of the top players playing their best golf, and thousands of talking points will be gained as the week progresses.

Up until last week’s T39 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rahm had actually overtaken Tiger Woodsian. Given his interesting history at TPC Sawgrass, what he does at this year’s Players will be fascinating. Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele have all had their fair share of golf and a few of them will be taking part in this tournament.

Throw in all the off-course drama — revamped PGA Tour schedule, LIV Golf’s ever-present threat, $25 million — and even Tiger’s absence can’t be. detracts from what should have been one of the best weeks of the year.

Let’s take a look at 10 storylines for another spectacular week at the Players Championship.

The Story of the 2023 Player Championship

1. Planet Rahm: Before ending the game 76-76-72 last week, Rahm had almost burned down the entire game. His West Coast scorching swing is comically good and it looks like he won’t stop competing all year long (the API finish is the first time he’s been outside the top 10 anywhere in the world). gender since before last). NFL season). With his near misses at TPC Sawgrass, including a minor meltdown in 2019 that resulted in McIlroy’s win, this week’s biggest fan favorite and curiosity lies with him. person. Sideline: How interesting it would be if someone drove to Magnolia Lane in April after hitting the Kapalua, Palm Springs, Riviera bag And TPC Sawgrass?

2. Too much randomness: TPC Sawgrass, perhaps more than any other regular course in the top players’ schedules, conjures up strange rankings that seem unpredictable. I mean, look at these last two top 10.

Joseph LaMagna lays out the reasons for this seemingly randomness, including tons of underwater hazards and the ever-increasing demand for accuracy at teeing off, in this piece, but the problem remains that it is extremely difficult to predict who will come out on top — or sometimes even over — at this golf tournament. Thankfully, for you, it’s not the biggest wallet of the year or anything.

3. No defending champion: Not only is it strange for the reigning champion of a prominent tournament not to attend for reasons unrelated to injury, but the Players will also be absent. half among its top 10 from a year ago. Cameron Smith, Anirban Lahiri and Paul Casey (first to third) along with Harold Varner III and Dustin Johnson (both in the top 10) are all absent. They are healthy but no one will compete because they have switched to LIV and are suspended indefinitely by the PGA Tour. What’s crazier? This happens for the second time in the past year at one of the game’s most important events. Phil Mickelson was last year’s defending champion at the PGA Championship in Southern Hills, and he chose not to defend his title even though there was no limit to his participation.

4. Signature won: Many golfers in the field are looking for their first win or even their first win in general. You can throw Hovland, Sam Burns, Cameron Young, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Sahith Theegala and maybe even Will Zalatoris and Tony Finau in that bucket. Those last two golfers have both won FedEx Cup Playoff events, but Players are much different from the knockouts and a win this week would usurp whatever comes before. Given the aforementioned relative randomness of TPC Sawgrass, this becomes a bit more of a plot than in a place like Augusta National, for example.

5. Disney agents: I’m surprised that Jordan Spieth played well where all the roller coasters were last week. However, his history at TPC Sawgrass is less compelling. He finished T4 in his first appearance in 2014 but hasn’t made the top 40 since. If he’s playing for a second week in a row, especially in a place where it’s too fine for misaligned serves, I’ll totally agree. shockedalthough not as shocked as I was on Sunday when i found out he doesn’t score his points after every hole. Others who underperformed their expectations at TPC Sawgrass included Rahm, McIlroy, Young, Finau, Burns, Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Harris English. So again, good luck this week.

6. Rory is back: The 2019 champion had a mediocre swing on the West Coast after his win in Dubai but things got back on track with a narrow win at Bay Hill. Like most, he’s been a mixed bag here. The ’19 win was great, but he clamped that down with missed cuts, including one in 2021 in which he chased Bryson DeChambeau’s length right in the lake running up the 18th hole. . reason to prove it. I don’t know if that will lead to another win here — he’s hit the ball more than usual this season, that’s not good at all — but if he starts to feel the moment that’s a bit, then that should happen a program.

7. Scottie as Phil: Scheffler remains Rahm’s Woods’ impressive Mickelson until 2023, but don’t let what Rahm has done get in the way of the fact that Scheffler, not Rahm, is the best dribbling striker in the world until 2023. It’s a startling reality for what Rahm — and to a lesser extent McIlroy and Homa — has been doing, but it’s true. That doesn’t mean Scheffler will win the tournament, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind as the week begins.

8. Talking about Tigers: His absence will be felt, but it won’t be epic. That’s pretty crazy, isn’t it? I’ll dig deeper into this idea later in the week, but the Tour has been going strong for the first two months of the designated events so the idea of ​​a post-Tiger world flourishes more than it did. Tiger at his peak is no more. can’t think. Brendan Porath discussed this idea on Shotgun Get Started. There’s real momentum in this year’s Player, but more importantly real movement. If you compare this year to last, in which it feels like the Tour is trying to beat LIV with no plans to talk, there’s legitimate excitement about how all of this could go. To where.

9. What’s wrong with JT? The 2021 champion is still… fine until 2023, but not his normal, elite self. The floor is still pretty high for Thomas — he’s six times in the top 25 in seven starts! — but he doesn’t care about the top 25 and hasn’t really played in a golf tournament lately. Interestingly, he struggled with the best audio in his game (again, compared to his usual performance). He’s been a top 20 player for the past two years from 50-100 yards, but in 2023 he’s just about average in the league. This is something to watch out for with a lot of key approach shots at TPC Sawgrass this week.

10. Golden Boy: The biggest question all week, as the tournament and its future as well as the biggest championship on its roster are both in the balance, is whether the golden humanoid will appear for the second time in a row. on our TV or not. Obviously, my hope is that he comes back and returns with gusto.