Players Championship odds, picks: Scheffler eyes third straight title

The first of six massive events on the 2025 golf calendar is now upon us.

The Players Championship, held annually at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, features 144 of the best players on the PGA Tour. Forty-eight of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) are in the field this week. That includes Laurie Canter, a former LIV Golf player who left the Saudi-backed circuit in 2023 and has flourished on the DP World Tour over the past year. Canter has won twice, which helped raise his OWGR ranking to within the top-50 — those within the top-50 in the OWGR receive exemptions into The Players.

But the biggest storyline of the week revolves around World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is not only eyeing a third straight victory at The Players but also his first win of 2025. Scheffler hit the ball well from tee-to-green last week at Bay Hill, but an ice cold putter prevented him from threatening the winner’s circle. He tied for 11th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Still, Scheffler arrives at TPC Sawgrass as a massive favorite.

The Players Championship Odds:

Here are the latest odds for players to win The 2025 Players, courtesy of FanDuel:

Scottie Scheffler +400

Rory McIlroy +1100

Collin Morikawa +1400

Ludvig Åberg +1800

Justin Thomas +2200

Xander Schauffele +2500

Tommy Fleetwood +3000

Hideki Matsuyama +3300

Russell Henley +3500

Shane Lowry +4000

Patrick Cantlay +4000

Sepp Straka +4500

Keegan Bradley +5000

Sungjae Im +5500

Corey Conners +6000

Wyndham Clark +6000

Jason Day +6500

Daniel Berger +6500

Si Woo Kim +6500

Robert MacIntyre +6500

Jordan Spieth +7000

Tony Finau +7500

Michael Kim +7500

Maverick McNealy +7500

Aaron Rai +7500

Sam Burns +8000

Viktor Hovland +8000

Will Zalatoris +8000

Tom Kim +9000

Denny McCarthy +9000

Taylor Pendrith +10000

Min Woo Lee +10000

Adam Scott +10000

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Playing Through’s Picks:

Jack Milko — Staff Writer, Golf

Outside of being wayward off the tee this season, every aspect of Hideki Matsuyama’s game has been world-class. The 2021 Masters winner is sixth on tour in strokes gained overall and second in scrambling — his short-game is highly underrated.

Another thing that is world-class? Matsuyama’s resume at TPC Sawgrass.

In his 10 career starts at The Players, Matsuyama has four top-10 finishes and held the first round lead in 2020 before COVID-19 cancelled the tournament. Matsuyama also has the best scoring average at TPC Sawgrass since 2019, averaging a score of 69.5, per golf statistician Justin Ray. That does not include the 9-under 63 Matsuyama fired on March 12, 2020.

That’s all to say that if he can find the fairway more consistently off the tee, Matsuyama will win on Sunday.

FanDuel Odds: Matsuyama to win at +3300

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

RJ Ochoa — Senior Producer, Blogging the Boys

History says that players who are hot generally find a way to win at The Players. Obviously it kickstarts the major, no pun intended, tournaments on the season.

It is as chalk as it gets, but I am going with Scottie Scheffler. I am not going to vote in a way that works against history because that feels unwise relative to who he has demonstrated to be.

Give me Scottie versus the field, literally, and some history on Sunday with a three-peat.

FanDuel Odds: Scheffler to win at +400

Mark Schofield — Staff Writer, NFL and Formula 1

Going outside the box a bit, I’m rolling with Keegan Bradley this week.

His stunning 7-under 29 on the challenging front nine at Bay Hill last Sunday certainly caught some eyes, and Bradley has yet to miss a cut this season. Granted, his history at The Players Championship has not been great, as the last time he made the cut in this tournament came back in 2022.

Still, with how he finished at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Ryder Cup Captain is an intriguing pick headed into TPC Sawgrass.

FanDuel Odds: Bradley to win at +5000

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.