2024 Players Championship odds, field: Surprising PGA picks, predictions by golf model that's called 10 majors
There will be another star-studded field this week when the 2024 Players Championship begins on Thursday morning at 7:40 a.m. ET. The top players on the PGA Tour will be playing for the second week in a row, with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler coming off a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Scheffler is the 11-2 favorite in The Players Championship odds, sitting ahead of Rory McIlroy (12-1) atop the PGA odds board. Should you include either of them in your 2024 Players Championship bets?
Some of the other 2024 Players Championship contenders include Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland, who are all 22-1 longshots. Wyndham Clark (33-1), who finished five shots behind Scheffler for second place last week, is also in The Players Championship field. Before locking in your 2024 Players Championship picks, be sure to see the golf predictions and projected leaderboard from the proven computer model at SportsLine.
SportsLine's proprietary model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June 2020. In fact, the model is up more than $9,600 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.
McClure's model predicted Scottie Scheffler (+600) would finish on top of the leaderboard at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational. McClure also included Hideki Matsuyama in his best bets to win the 2024 Genesis Invitational. That bet hit at +9000, and for the entire tournament, McClure's best bets returned nearly $1,000.
The model also predicted Jon Rahm would be victorious at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions and The American Express. At the 2023 Masters, the model was all over Rahm's second career major victory heading into the weekend. Rahm was two strokes off the lead heading into the third round, but the model still projected him as the winner. It was the second straight Masters win for the model, which also nailed Scheffler winning in 2022.
In addition, McClure's best bets included Nick Taylor (70-1) winning the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, Jason Day (17-1) winning outright at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson, and Rickie Fowler (14-1) finishing on top of the leaderboard at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic. This same model has also nailed a whopping 10 majors entering the weekend. Anyone who has followed it has seen massive returns.
Now that The Players Championship 2024 field is set, SportsLine simulated the tournament 10,000 times, and the results were surprising. Head to SportsLine now to see the projected leaderboard.
Top 2024 Players Championship predictions
One major surprise the model is calling for at The Players Championship 2024: McIlroy, a 24-time PGA Tour champion and one of the top favorites, struggles this week and doesn't even crack the top five. McIlroy won this event in 2019, but he's been extremely inconsistent at TPC Sawgrass in recent years. In fact, McIlroy has missed the cut in two of his last three starts at The Players Championship. The 34-year-old has also failed to crack the top 20 in each of his four starts on the PGA Tour this season.
McIlroy remains one of the best drivers on tour, but he's been inconsistent with every other aspect of his game in 2024. He'll enter this week's event ranked 152nd in strokes gained: approach to green (-0.522), 124th in greens in regulation percentage (67.41%) and 138th in putting average (1.791). He also ranks 135th in scoring average (70.27), which doesn't bode well for his chances to finish on top of the leaderboard at TPC Sawgrass.
Another surprise: Will Zalatoris, a 25-1 longshot, makes a strong run at the title. He has a much better chance to win it all than his odds imply, so he's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. Zalatoris secured his spot in The Open Championship this summer with a fourth-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, posting the lowest score among golfers who were not already exempt.
He led for much of Saturday's third round at Bay Hill before getting derailed by two double bogeys in his final five holes to fall two shots off the lead heading into the final round. Zalatoris has six top-10 finishes in 10 major starts, including three runner-up finishes, so he has proven that he can compete against elite fields. He also finished T2 at The Genesis Invitational last month in his first top-10 finish since undergoing back surgery last April, making him a valuable longshot for The Players Championship this week. See who else to pick here.
How to make 2024 Players Championship picks
The model is also targeting four other golfers with odds of 25-1 or longer to make a strong run at the title. Anyone who backs these longshots could hit it big. You can only see the model's picks here.
Who will win the 2024 Players Championship, and which longshots will stun the golfing world? Check out The Players Championship 2024 odds below and then visit SportsLine to see the projected Players Championship leaderboard, all from the model that's nailed 10 golf majors, including last year's Masters and Open Championship.
2024 Players Championship odds, field
Scottie Scheffler +550Rory McIlroy +1200Justin Thomas +2200Xander Schauffele +2200Viktor Hovland +2200Patrick Cantlay +2500Will Zalatoris +2500Hideki Matsuyama +2800Max Homa +3300Ludvig Åberg +3300Wyndham Clark +3300Sam Burns +3300Collin Morikawa +3500Jordan Spieth +3500Shane Lowry +4000Tommy Fleetwood +4500Jason Day +4500Sahith Theegala +5000Cameron Young +5000Min Woo Lee +5500Sungjae Im +6000Si Woo Kim +6000Corey Conners +6000Russell Henley +6000Tony Finau +6000Brian Harman +6500Harris English +6500Matt Fitzpatrick +7000Tom Kim +7500Byeong Hun An +7500Adam Scott +8000Tom Hoge +8000J.T. Poston +9000Keith Mitchell +9000Keegan Bradley +10000Cam Davis +10000Eric Cole +11000Christiaan Bezuidenhout +11000Jake Knapp +12000Justin Rose +12000Nicolai Højgaard +12000Erik van Rooyen +12000Billy Horschel +12000Adam Hadwin +12000Rickie Fowler +12000Alex Noren +12000Matthieu Pavon +15000Chris Kirk +15000Denny McCarthy +15000Beau Hossler +15000Emiliano Grillo +15000Stephan Jaeger +15000Brendon Todd +15000Aaron Rai +15000
