2026 Players Championship odds: Collin Morikawa joins Scottie Scheffler among favorites in crowded field
Despite a tough week at Bay Hill, Scottie Scheffler remains the big favorite to win a third Players
By
Robby Kalland
Mar 11, 2026
at
10:34 pm ET
•
3 min read
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The PGA Tour’s best are coalescing for its flagship event Thursday as the 2026 Players Championship gets underway Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. TPC Sawgrass again serves as a gracious host that has been conquered by some of the top names in the game over the last few years.
The stern test of Pete Dye’s masterpiece boasts as strong a list of recent winners as any event in the world: Rory McIlroy (2019, 2025), Scottie Scheffler (2023, 2024), Cameron Smith (2022) and Justin Thomas (2021) have emerged from among elite fields over the last six years at TPC Sawgrass.
Still, the 2026 season to this point has been defined by the depth of the top of the PGA Tour. There has been a continuation of last year’s trend of different players winning each signature event, as the last 11 such trophies have been raised without a single repeat champion.
Scheffler and McIlroy still enter as the two best players in the world, but the gap between them and the next tier of PGA Tour stars seems to be narrowing in size while growing in number. McIlroy is no longer second on the odds boards for The Players as he enters the tournament a self-described “game-time decision” due to lingering back spasms that are putting his play at risk.
Scheffler has moved down from 4-1 to 5-1, while Collin Morikawa at 15-1 has replaced McIlroy as second on the board. Rory has dropped from 13-1 to 18-1 as tournament play begins with Si Woo Kim and Ludvig Åberg the only two players otherwise listed at 20-1 or better
The 2026 Players Championship will be a fascinating battle between one of the strongest fields in golf, and you are not going to want to miss a moment. Check out the full slate of Players tee times for Round 1 as well as The Players Championship TV schedule and coverage guide for all four days.
Will 2026 see someone new lift the golden trophy, or will Scheffler and McIlroy reassert their dominance and pick up another golden statue? That’s the question the oddsmakers are asking coming into TPC Sawgrass this week.
