5 groups to watch in the first two rounds of The Players Championship

Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed

Thursday, Round 1: 1st tee, 1:30 p.m ET

Friday, Round 2: 10th tee, 8:05 a.m. ET

The golf world keeps waiting for Hideki Matsuyama to win the big one and it just hasn’t happened. Don’t get things twisted though. The ninth-ranked player in the world has won a couple of World Golf Championship events, contended in major championships, including a runner-up finish at last year’s U.S. Open and a tie for fifth at the PGA Championship, and has 14 professional wins to his credit. But the 26-year-old would certainly love to add The Players Championship to his list of victories heading into the rest of the major championship season. However, after a solid start to 2018, Matsuyama hasn’t played his best golf as of late. He had to withdraw from the Phoenix Open, an event he’s won twice, finished tied for 49th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, tied for 36th at the Match Play, did get a top 20 at The Masters but then tied for 76th this past week at the Wells Fargo. However, he’s set up to have a good week at Sawgrass. In four starts at this tournament, he’s never finished outside the top 25.

This week could certainly be a monumental one for world No. 3 Jon Rahm. With the top five players in the world rankings being so close to one another, the 23-year-old Spaniard actually has a chance to become the top-ranked player in the world. A victory would get it done. And since we’re talking about victories, Rahm comes into this week having won the last tournament in which he played, a two-stroke victory at the European Tour’s Open de España. That follows up a fourth-place finish at The Masters. Rahm made his Players debut last year and finished tied for 72nd but you can expect a better finish this time around.

There may be no golfer in the world right now having more fun than Patrick Reed. He’s been wearing his green jacket everywhere (as he should) and including that victory at Augusta, he’s simply been playing some brilliant golf. In the three tournaments before The Masters, he finished tied for second at the Valspar, tied for seventh at Bay Hill and tied for ninth at the Match Play. In his first start since winning his first major championship, Reed continued his solid play with a solo eighth-place finish at Quail Hollow this past week, a finish that snuck him back into the top 10 in the world rankings. He’s missed the cut in two of his four starts at TPC Sawgrass but finished in the top 25 in the two others. With as well as he’s playing, expect a strong showing this week.