“It’s a big deal.”
That’s Justin Thomas’s take on one of the biggest weeks in golf this week – The Players.
All eyes are on TPC Sawgrass this week.
It’s the 50th anniversary of a tournament that this year offers a $25-million payday, with the champion walking off with a cool $4.5-million.
There’s no doubt this week is a bit of a show of force from the PGA Tour, and they know it as their stars have all turned up for this one, which offers a wealth of picks for you.
So here’s a little breakdown of the field for you.
There will be 49 of the top 50 players in the current FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List in the field this week.
There will be 43 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (and please park all this world ranking debate at the door for the moment. It’s not perfect but it’s what golf has to work with for now and it still makes for a pretty decent field).
There will be eight former Players champions in the field and six FedEx Cup champions.
The PGA Tour winners in the field make for a combined 323 Tour titles.
And South Africa forms part of 20 countries represented this week.
Our boys competing include Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Erik van Rooyen and Garrick Higgo.
Listen to what Christiaan had to say to Golf Champs here about his overall goals for this year.
It was also interesting to hear PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s thoughts on the state of the game.
“We are becoming a younger, more inclusive sport. You’ve got more women playing the game. We are truly global. The more that we can do to increase fandom, to bring our product forward in a way that is consistent with the way fans want to consume it and the more steps we can take to dimensionalise our great athletes, those are all steps that we can take to grow fandom. And when you grow fandom, ultimately that drives your commercial success.”
Fandom. That’s you Golf Champs.
So this week is dedicated to you – the fan.
Go big, and pick well.