The 2025 Players Championship: PGA Tour Betting Odds
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is favoured on the golf odds for the “fifth major.”
While Signature Events have a total purse of $20 million (US) and the winner gets $4 million, the Players Championship has the biggest overall purse of $25 million with $4.5 to the winner – among many other perks. It’s a full field of 144 players with the usual cut, and 48 of the world’s Top 50 set to play.
The Players Championship is for PGA Tour members, but we will see some history this week with Englishman Laurie Canter (+15000) set to play as the first former LIV Golf member to play in a PGA Tour event that is not a major or a co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour event like the Scottish Open.
Canter was a member of the Cleeks Team during LIV Golf’s inaugural season in 2022 and played as a reserve in 2023 but not since then. He qualified by being in the Top 50 of the world rankings and generally plays overseas. The PGA Tour prohibits non-members who played any LIV events from competing on the Tour for a year past their last LIV event. The 35-year-old Canter, who won a DP World Tour event in Bahrain earlier this year, is also in position to play in the Masters.
No Tiger Woods again this week as he hasn’t competed at the Players since 2019. He’s a two-time winner. Scheffler is the two-time defending champion as he shot 17-under 271 in 2023 to win by five and then 20-under 268 last year to edge out fellow Americans Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele by one shot – four of the past stagings have been decided by a single shot but not in a playoff since 2015.
Scheffler began his final round last year at 12 under, five shots behind 54-hole leader Schauffele and in a tie for sixth place, but shot an 8-under 64 to become the only golfer to ever repeat in this event. Scheffler finished the Tour’s flagship event without a bogey over the final 31 holes. It tied the biggest comeback win Players Championship history and tied the lowest closing round by a winner. Schauffele, Harman and Clark all had a chance to force a playoff with a birdie on the 18th but couldn’t. We simply backed an American last year at -165.
TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach (also home city of PGA Tour’s headquarters) hosts per usual, is home to the infamous island par-3 17th and a par 72 overall and 7,352 yards – about 75 yards have been added since last year. Some players love this course and some despise it, especially the 17th as a gimmick hole.
The Players Championship Golf Odds
Scottie Scheffler was the +550 favourite when the tournament teed off last year and is +400 to become the first player on the PGA Tour to win an event three straight years since Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic from 2009-11. Scheffler also looks to join Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the event three times.
Rory McIlroy (+1000) won the 2019 Players Championship but hasn’t contended since with a best finish of 19th last year. He comes off a T15 on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Collin Morikawa (+1200) looked like he would win Sunday in Orlando but was overtaken by Russell Henley (+3500 this week). Neither of them have contended here yet.
Ludvig Aberg (+1800) and Justin Thomas (+2000) round out the favourites with Thomas the 2021 champion. Aberg was T8 in his tournament debut last year and has a win already in 2025. The last man to join this field was Karl Vilips (+17000). He won the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open on Sunday in just his fourth Tour start. Vilips, who recently moved to Jacksonville, had five Top 10s in five starts at the Junior Players highlighted by a runner-up in 2020. He is one of 24 first-timers in this field.
That there’s a hole-in-one at all in the tournament at the famous island green 17th is +175 with none at -225. For what it’s worth, no player has made a hole-in-one anywhere at TPC Sawgrass and gone on to win the Players the same tournament. The last five aces made in the tournament have all been at No. 17. Ryan Fox had the lone one in 2024.
Stephen Ames, who has dual nationality in Trinidad and Tobago and Canada, won this event in 2006 by six shots and was a runner-up in 2002. He’s the lone Canadian winner. Corey Conners was the top finisher last year at T13, with Mackenzie Hughes T26 and Nick Taylor T26. Ben Silverman, Adam Svensson, Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith missed the cut. Conners is +5000 this week with Pendrith +9000, Taylor +10000, Hughes +20000, Hadwin +25000, Svensson +25000 and Silverman +40000.
The Players Championship Golf Predictions
The last five winners of this event since it moved back to March were ranked Top 10 in the world. Hard to go against Scottie Scheffler, but we will simply take an American again at -165.
