While it may not technically be a golf major, The Players Championship certainly has the feel of one. After all, it features a full field filled with the best players in the world and one of the most dramatic venues on the PGA Tour calendar with one of the most dramatic finishing stretches of golf holes.
This makes the PGA Tour’s flagship event a melting pot for one of the best tournaments of the year with some top storylines leading into it. These talking points touch on the action inside and outside the ropes given PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will make his annual address to the media early in the week.
Questions surrounding the future of the men’s professional game will be asked, and only time will tell if they will actually be answered. Regardless of the commissioner’s state of the tour address, eyes will shift to the golf come Thursday where stars like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Ludvig Åberg will all be in the spotlight.
For now, let’s take a look at some of the top storylines entering the 2025 Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
2025 Players Championship storylines
Not one, not two…
Unlike the last two seasons, Scheffler arrives at this year’s Players without a trophy already under his belt. Small windows here and there have hindered his ability to enter the winner’s circle — whether it was the back-nine 41 at TPC Scottsdale or third-round 76 at the Genesis Invitational. It has largely been business as usual for the world No. 1, but it remains clear his game is not quite as sharp as it has been in years past. (At least not yet.)
Last year, he became the first player to successfully defend The Players and just the seventh to win the tournament multiple times. A win this week would pull him alongside Jack Nicklaus — past the likes of Tiger Woods and Fred Couples — who leads the pack with three.
State of the Tour
This week’s address will be spearheaded, as per usual, by Monahan. The PGA Tour boss has been a busy bee traveling to the White House for a working session alongside PGA Tour members Tiger Woods and Adam Scott along with President Donald Trump and Yasir Al-Rummayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Monahan remains optimistic about the state of a potential deal between the parties to unite professional golf, but he may be the only one. Almost two full years into this saga, patience from players, fans and stakeholders dries up by the day with some of the biggest names believing a deal may not even be worth the headache at this stage.
“I think the narrative around golf — I wouldn’t say [the sport] needs a deal — I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again,” McIlroy said at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong.
“TV has been good; TGL has been hopefully pretty additive to the overall situation. I answered this question at Torrey Pines two weeks ago, before, you know, the landscape might have looked a little different then than it does now over these past couple of weeks. I think a deal would still be ideal scenario for golf as a whole. But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”
McIlroy’s march to the Masters
It’s been an inherently different McIlroy in 2025 compared to 2024 when he entered The Players battling the big miss off the tee and the big number on the scorecard. He went onto grab a share of the first-round lead but backtracked over the next 54 holes to barely finish inside the top 20.
McIlroy continues to preach patience and discipline and it has paid off with a win at Pebble Beach and top 20s in the next two signature events. Those will both be tested at TPC Sawgrass — as will his new and improved wedge play. which features plenty of off-speed shots and sawed-off swings.
A win would mark his second Players in the last six playings and make it the first time in McIlroy’s career that he would enter the Masters with multiple wins under his belt in a calendar year.
Åberg’s ascension
The Players marks the first time Åberg will visit one of the five biggest tournaments for the second time. It’s easy to forget given his status in the game that 2024 marked the Swedish superstar’s first strolls around golf courses such as TPC Sawgrass and Augusta National. Unsurprisingly, Åberg acquitted himself quite nicely in his Players debut notching a top-10 finish. He has only gotten better and more experienced since winning at the Genesis Invitational and contending at multiple major championships. With a win, he would join Si Woo Kim as players to win the PGA Tour’s flagship event in their second attempts.
Déjà vu?!
The last few Players Championships have featured leaderboards that look a lot like the … Arnold Palmer Invitational played the week prior. Last year, Wyndham Clark finished runner up to Scheffler in consecutive tournaments. A few years before that, Bryson DeChambeau won the API over Lee Westwood. Both players finished second and third respectively behind Justin Thomas at that year’s Players.
Few would be surprised if a similar occurrence materializes this year given the names atop the leaderboard at Arnie’s Place. Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley, Correy Conners have all found success at TPC Sawgrass, and oh yeah, Scheffler and McIlroy were in the mix, too.
Struggling stars
Many of the usual suspects are still in the field, but they are no longer on the short list of contenders. The last couple of Players Championships have featured the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala, Viktor Hovland and Max Homa on the first page of the leaderboard. These four players have combined for just one top-20 finish this year with that coming courtesy of Theegala’s T17 at the Genesis Invitational. Throw in a player like last year’s runner-up Xander Schauffele, who just returned from injury at Bay Hill and is still shedding some rust, and there is a slew of stars who are searching for answers.
Laurie Canter? Yes, Laurie Canter.
You might be wondering, “Why should I care about Laurie Canter?” It’s a fair question, but given the oddity of the golf world and fractured nature, his name deserves some shine. Following his playoff defeat at the South African Open a few weeks ago on the DP World Tour, Canter earned a spot in the field at the Players Championship.
This would not be noteworthy otherwise except that Canter’s appearance at TPC Sawgrass will mark the first time that someone who played on LIV Golf will play a PGA Tour event. Canter played with LIV in 2022 and served as a reserve option across the first two tournaments last year.
The PGA Tour states that a non-member who played for LIV is prohibited from tour events for a year after his last tournament that tour. Enough time has passed, however, and Canter can play in the Players Championship for the first time in his career.
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