Fansided

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

By Luke Norris

AUGUSTA, GA - APRIL 03: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson of the United States look on from the 12th tee during a practice round prior to the start of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 3, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, GA - APRIL 03: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson of the United States look on from the 12th tee during a practice round prior to the start of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 3, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) /
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DUBLIN, OHIO – JUNE 02: (L-R) Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Jordan Spieth try to figure out where Thomas’ ball went in the hazard on the 11th hole during the first round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 2, 2016 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Ryan Young/PGA TOUR)
DUBLIN, OHIO – JUNE 02: (L-R) Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Jordan Spieth try to figure out where Thomas’ ball went in the hazard on the 11th hole during the first round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 2, 2016 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Ryan Young/PGA TOUR) /

Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas

Thursday, Round 1: 10th tee, 8:27 a.m ET

Friday, Round 2: 1st tee, 1:52 p.m. ET

Just look at the star power in this group. This is the next 10-15 years of golf right here and there’s already eight major championships between them, led by Rory McIlroy’s four. The former top-ranked player in the world once again came close to winning the career Grand Slam at The Masters but once again couldn’t quite get it done. That’s been the story for Rory at The Players as well. McIlroy has made it no secret that he used to despise TPC Sawgrass, saying it didn’t fit his game, but he’s since come around on it and had three consecutive top-10 finishes here from 2013-2015. He finished 12th in 2016 but fell back to a tie for 35th last year. However, over those five years, he has the lowest cumulative score in relationship to par at -29 so he certainly knows how to go low on this track.

Also a former top-ranked player in the world, three-time major champion Jordan Spieth is looking to add The Players to his list of accolades. A win at The Players would be the 12th for Spieth on the PGA Tour but in a crazy statistic, the 24-year-old Texan is the only player in the top 15 in the world that doesn’t have a win since last year’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. It doesn’t help matters that he hasn’t had much success recently at TPC Sawgrass. His debut in 2014 went well and he actually went into the final round tied for the lead with eventual winner Martin Kaymer. However, a final-round 74 left him three strokes off the pace and he tied for fourth. Still a solid first outing. Unfortunately, he hasn’t made the cut since. Ranked fourth in the world, he has a mathematical chance to once again become the top-ranked player in the world but he’ll need to figure out this course again to achieve that.

The highest-ranked player in this threesome is world No. 2 and reigning PGA champ Justin Thomas, who obviously also has the chance to become No. 1 in the world, and he’s certainly playing some good golf right now. Since breaking through with his first major win last August, Thomas has played in 16 events and finished in the top 10 in half of them, including three victories, the last coming at The Honda Classic. He finished second the following week in Mexico, fourth at the Match Play, got a top 20 at Augusta and had a decent showing this past week at Quail Hollow. He didn’t fare very well at The Players a year ago, finishing tied for 75th, but he tied for third two years ago and is certainly one of the favorites this week.

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