The Players Championship 2019 preview: Predictions, picks and upsets

The Players Championship pick

This is a very tough call. With this being such a strong field, there are plenty of options here. If I’m starting at the top, I don’t see Dustin Johnson winning this golf tournament. He may certainly go out and just dust the field and make me look bad but the fact that he’s never cracked the top 10 at Sawgrass does concern me.

Justin Rose seems to be a good pick each and every week he tees it up and he’s about as consistent of a player that you’ll ever see but I think he’s really going to turn it on later in the year so I’ll pass on him this week. Brooks Koepka is a great choice as well and I think he has a very good week but just comes up short. Justin Thomas is playing great golf and seems to be on the cusp of getting that first win in 2019 and Bryson DeChambeau can go low at any time.

To quickly run through six through 10 again, Rory McIlroy is playing as well as anyone in the world but his ability to close recently is a big concern coming into such a big tournament. It’s hard to go back-to-back on the PGA Tour, no matter what the spot, so that puts Francesco Molinari in an interesting position. I feel that Xander Schauffele is going to win a big tournament this year and he’s proven in his only appearance here that this venue doesn’t scare him one bit. Rickie Fowler has won here before and Jon Rahm is always a threat.

Yes, Tiger Woods joining Jack Nicklaus as a three-time champion would be a great story and Tiger in contention is just good for the game as a whole but he’s going to have to put four great rounds together and we haven’t seen that yet this year.

Okay, enough stalling. I need to make a choice here.

And the winner of The Players Championship is…

Justin Thomas.

Man, that was hard. So much of me wanted to pick Rory McIlroy and I might end up kicking myself for not doing so on Sunday. But I picked him so many times last year while doing these previews and it never payed off for me so I’m going to start this year differently. The other name I really wanted to go with here was Xander Schauffele. This kid is dynamite and he’s going to be a major factor on the PGA Tour all season long.

But there’s just something telling me that Justin Thomas pulls this off on Sunday. He’s been playing great golf this year and his game really matches up nicely with this golf course. He’s been right near the top of the leaderboard pretty much all year and I think everything comes together this week. There are no real weaknesses in his game and I think he’s got that little extra fire going right now with everything going on outside the ropes. I think he takes that energy to Ponte Vedra Beach and has a great week.

Justin Thomas wins The Players Championship at 14-under. Book it.

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