2022 THE PLAYERS Championship Betting Card Preview

Mar 09, 2022

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The PLAYERS Championship is often referred to as the PGA Tour's fifth major, and rightfully so. This week, 47 of the world's top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings list make their way to the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verda Beach, Florida for a tremendous test of their all-around game.

This traditional par 72 layout forces the field to be dialed in up and down the bag in order to have a chance to win come Sunday afternoon. Play your best for four days, and you'll have a shot. There's not one particular type of player or skill set that wins at TPC Sawgrass more than others, so for handicapping purposes, we're taking a highly variant sport and adding another level of unpredictability to it. Oh, and this week, the weather will be a massive factor as well. Fun! I'm not going to pretend to play the role of meteorologist a couple days out from the first tee time, but the early forecast is not pretty, with wind and rain prevalent throughout the event.

This Pete Dye-designed layout brings water into play on 17 of the 18 holes and features numerous doglegs that limit a bomber's advantage off the tee. Avoiding the water, and the crooked numbers that come with it, are keys to success this week. Driving accuracy is a common denominator when looking at past leaderboards for this event, as it is at other Pete Dye tracks like Harbour Town, TPC River Highlands, and Stadium West, but this event moving from May to March (which happened in 2019) throws a wet blanket on that narrative a bit, in my opinion. Not only are the greens softer at this time of year, but the grabby nature of bermudagrass rough is mitigated a skosh in March due to the overseeding necessary at this time of year. Missing the fairway or green is never ideal, but it's less penial than it used to be because the unpredictable nature of the lie caused by the bermudagrass has decreased with the overseeding that March brings to a Florida golf course.

As we saw last year with Justin Thomas, who barely made the cut on Friday and then stormed the leaderboard on Saturday and Sunday, low rounds can be had here. Knowing when and where to be aggressive for scoring opportunities goes a long way. You also have to be comfortable eating your vegetables on this course, accepting that par is a good score on most holes, and moving along. Check out Ron Klos's Betting & DFS Preview for more picks and his final scoring model.

Past Winners at TPC Sawgrass

2021: Justin Thomas (-14)
2020: COVID (-19)*
2019: Rory McIlroy (-16)
2018: Webb Simpson (-18)
2017: Si-Woo Kim (-10)
2016: Jason Day (-15)

There are so many ways to bet on this beautiful game. Picking outright winners is fun but must be done responsibly. Proper unit sizing is vital, and I've shared my approach with our subscribers in the 4for4 Discord chat. In this space, I want to touch on the players I'm targeting this week and share my opinion on the best way to bet them at this event.

Please take advantage of the Discord feature and community. It's the best way to get up-to-the-minute lines and advice, and if you need help getting started, please reach out. That's where my full card will be posted, along with any live in-tournament bets. Betting markets are fluid, but I'll note the best number available at the time of this writing.

*Betting lines accurate at the time of publication.