Who does our tipster fancy at TPC Sawgrass? See his 2026 Players Championship betting tips here…
Has it really been a year since that dramatic Monday finish that saw Rory McIlroy see off JJ Spaun in a playoff for his second Sawgrass victory? With McIlroy’s involvement this week in doubt, I’ve avoided him in the my Players Championship betting tips, but before we get to those, here’s everything you need to know about the so-called Fifth Major…
2026 Players Championship key details
Dates: March 12-15, 2026
Venue: TPC Sawgrass (Stadium course), Sawgrass, Florida
Course: Par 72; 7,352 yards
Format: 72-hole stroke play with halfway cut
Purse: $25 million ($4.5m winner’s share)
FedEx Cup: 750 points
Defending champion: Rory McIlroy (-12)
2026 Players Championship TV coverage
US viewers can catch all the action on the Golf Channel and NBC, while viewers in the UK will be able to watch on Sky Sports. Click here for the full breakdown on how to watch The Players Championship.
2026 Players Championship field
Click here to see the full field at TPC Sawgrass.
2026 Players Championship tee times
Click here to see the tee times from the 2026 Players.
2026 Players Championship prize money
The Players Championship prize money will once again be set at a whopping $25 million. Click here to see the full breakdown and a brief history of how the Sawgrass purse has evolved.
Like this article? See more TG content in your feed! Click here to add Today’s Golfer as a preferred source on Google.
2026 Players Championship betting tips
Right, this is why you’re really here. Let’s dive in…
The Banker: Ludvig Aberg
28/1 e/w (BetMGM 6 Places 1/5 Odds)
Punters have been keeping an eye on Ludvig Aberg all season and many were rewarded with some each-way money last week after he finished 3rd at Bay Hill.
I have chosen to go down the watching brief route with the Swede, but I haven’t been impressed enough to back him for the win. Until now.
I just didn’t think he’d been showing enough and quite frankly rather than waiting for him to drift out to a big price I felt I couldn’t ignore, I was instead looking for the week that suggests he’s ready to win again. That came last week. I’m now happy to take him at 28/1 rather than the 40/1 mark many were paid out on him at last time.
Last week, we finally saw top ball striking from Aberg, as he ranked 2nd in SG Tee to Green and 3rd in SG Approach. When he’s hitting the ball like that, he’s hard to ignore.
He now returns to TPC Sawgrass, where he’s played the Players twice and finished 8-MC in his two visits.
Sawgrass is one of those where you sometimes have to ignore missed cuts, because even the best of players have plenty of them at this event, and we should instead focus on the 8th place finish on debut where he shot three rounds of 67.
To put Aberg’s missed cuts last year into context, Jason Day won here in 2016, but had missed three of his last five cuts at this event. Rickie Fowler had missed four of his last five cuts here before winning in 2015 (incidentally with Joe Skovron, now Aberg’s caddie, on his bag). Rory McIlroy missed the cut the year before and the year after winning in 2019, and Scottie Scheffler went MC-55 before winning back-to-back in 2023 and 2024. Simply put, consistency is hard here, and it’s the upside you have to focus on, which Aberg certainly offers.
After a slow start to the season, where he withdrew in his first start and missed the cut in his next, he’s now steadied the ship, and got better with every start since, finishing 37th, 20th, and then 3rd last week.
The Swede typically lets us know he’s ready to win, as he’s done in his first two PGA Tour wins so far. Before his maiden win at the RSM, he had won the Omega European Masters for his first DP World Tour win, and then gone on to finish 10th at Wentworth, T2 at the Sanderson Farms, T13 the Shriners, and T10 in Mexico. That five-event stretch showed us he was in winning form, starting with that win at Crans and that’s when he booked his spot on the Ryder Cup team as well.
Even when he looked out of sorts before his Genesis Invitational win, that was due to illness. He had actually been the 36-hole leader at Torrey Pines two starts before, but got ill and his tournament was derailed. He then withdrew at Pebble, before returning in fine fashion to win at the same course he has just led at for two rounds two starts ago.
I think it was worth waiting on Aberg this season, and I feel a lot happier about the 28/1 now he’s got a contending rep and some fantastic ball striking under his belt, which is usually a sign that better things are to come.
At 26 years old, he’s still got so much time ahead of him, but now’s the time to start collecting these huge titles, as he did at the Genesis, and he will be looking to emulate his countryman Henrik Stenson’s success here in 2009.
Living in Ponte Vedra, this is a home game for Aberg now, and that should only help as well.
The Outsider: Min Woo Lee
50/1 e/w (BetMGM, Paddy Power, Sky Bet 6 Places 1/5 Odds)
Min Woo Lee struggled for large parts of 2025, which was particularly strange given he had broken through and won his first PGA Tour title in March, at the Houston Open.
The tide turned later in the season, though, starting with a T13 at the Rocket Classic, where he gained in all four strokes gained categories, and then continuing in Europe, where he finished T11 at Wentworth and 5th in France. A top 10 at the Baycurrent Classic, before a solid return to Australia, where he finished 5th and 14th, all set him up nicely for a strong 2026, which he is showing could be the case.
He started with a 38th place finish at the American Express and a 28th in Phoenix, before really kicking on in the last three events. T2 at Pebble Beach, T12 at the Genesis Invitational despite a poor iron week, and then T6 at Bay Hill, Lee is clearly showing enough form to win at a course he’s enjoyed.
5th in SG Approach and 6th in SG Tee to Green last week, Min Woo arrives at Sawgrass in good ball-striking form, and with plenty of knowledge of a course where he’s had a chance to win twice in three starts.
Like Aberg, Min Woo really impressed on his debut here, finishing 6th but threatening better as he was in 2nd and two shots back going into Sunday. A year later he returned to finish a disappointing 54th, but he was in the mix again last year, this time co-leading after 36 holes before a Saturday 78 took him out of contention and he eventually finished 20th.
He’s never arrived at the Players in better form than he’s in now, and that could be the difference between him contending twice already and winning this time around. Having trust in his irons after a big week last week at a tough Bay Hill course should do wonders for his confidence, and I am keen to have him onside this week, at what looks a decent number.
The Longshot: Corey Conners
125/1 e/w (BetMGM 6 Places 1/5 Odds)
To close out my trio of picks, I will take Corey Conners, who is seemingly on his way back to form after and now gets to play at a course he looks very comfortable on.
2025 was a tough year for Conners, despite a really strong start. He struggled in the summer due to a wrist injury that saw him withdraw from the US Open, but he bounced back quickly to finish T10 at the Open Championship and was able to close out the season with a T4 finish at the Tour Championship.
2026 hasn’t been too kind yet, but there’s been some signs he’s playing well. When T24 at the Sony Open for example, he was 8th after 54 holes, and last week when 33rd at Bay Hill, he sat 9th after round 1.
Often the final results don’t lie, and his form reads 24-MC-70-37-33 which is not the ideal run-in for a Players champion, but his ball striking retuned last week and that could be a big factor in a turnaround.
Ranking 9th for both SG Approach and SG Tee to Green, Conners hit the ball well for the first time since leading the field in Approach at the Sony, and if there’s more to come, it will likely come here at Sawgrass.
In six Players Championship starts, Conners has finished inside the top 7 twice, inside the top 26 two more times, and only missed one cut. Considering the level of player that routinely misses the cut here, that’s a great strike rate.
Better still, his final finishes here don’t tell the full story. When 7th on his second start here, he raced out into 3rd place after round 1 and closed out well to secure his first top 10. A year later he could only finish 26th, but he was 5th after 36 holes, showing he could get in the mix again. Two years ago he finished 13th but was once again better placed, this time in 6th at the halfway mark, and then last year, he posted his best finish yet, landing in 6th. Even then, he managed to bounce back into 5th place after 54 holes and ultimately finish 6th, despite opening with a pair of 71s and sitting in 49th place after two rounds.
3rd at the WGC Match Play in Austin, 4th at the RBC Heritage and twice inside the top 7 here, Conners clearly has an affinity with Pete Dye courses, and given his recent ball striking, it is surely time for Conners to start posting top results again, and I’ll take a chance it here at a big price.
This goes against the grain, picking a player who’s not coming into Sawgrass on a high, and I was certainly tempted by the likes of Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott in this spot, but I do think Conners could surprise a few this week.