PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It’s almost mind-boggling to think that the two biggest names in men’s professional golf at this particular event and this particular week are also the two biggest question marks. Still, winning this year’s Players Championship means the champion must go through Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
If the latter can even tee it up, that is.
McIlroy withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week prior to the third round citing a back injury and only arrived at TPC Sawgrass Wednesday afternoon. He told reporters he was a “game-time decision.”
“All indications are pointing in the right direction, so hopefully good night tonight. The drugs are working wonders, and then just keep it going from there,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy won last year’s Players Championship in a playoff, his second title at TPC Sawgrass. If he — or Scheffler — were to go on to win this week, he would match Jack Nicklaus for the most wins at The Players in the event’s history.
McIlroy, whose last tournament withdrawal prior to Saturday came all the way back in 2013, is set to tee off in the afternoon Thursday. He hit only up to a 6-iron on the driving range Wednesday, he said, but admitted he was taking it “hour by hour.”
“I couldn't stand to address the ball on Saturday morning on the range at Bay Hill, and it's obviously better than that,” McIlroy explained.
The good news, McIlroy said, is that he was not in pain standing and speaking to reporters, and even when he swings, he wouldn’t go so far as calling it pain, more along the lines of “sensitivity.” He said he drove straight to his physiotherapist in West Palm Beach from Orlando on the weekend and has been working with him ever since.
A year ago, McIlroy came into The Players having won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and was, of course, on his way to winning the Masters. This year he’s notched a T14 in his title defence and had a runner-up at the Genesis Invitational. McIlroy said he’d walk nine holes late Wednesday with his caddy — who has been on site since Monday — with just a wedge and a putter to get a feel of the greens and the rough, which is thicker than usual this year.
McIlroy said he hasn’t been on his feet much the last couple of days and instead has watched plenty of press conferences from TPC Sawgrass. That would have included Scheffler, the game’s top-ranked player, on Tuesday afternoon.
Scheffler and McIlroy have won the last three Players Championships — with Scheffler winning in both 2023 and 2024 — and Scheffler is showing no signs of slowing down his tremendous form from the last two years. The world No. 1 won his first start of the year at The American Express and followed that up with a T3-T4 run in his following two starts. However, Scheffler finished T24 Sunday at Bay Hill, his first finish outside the top 15 on the PGA Tour since, ironically, last year’s Players Championship when he finished T20. He was also shown throwing his ball in the water on more than one occasion last week.
That said, Scheffler doesn’t feel like he’s in a slump, or even slumping, when he was asked directly about his last two results.
“If you flipped my season around and it was like, OK, I finished… 24th and 12th, and like third and fourth, and a win. Would your question be the same if I was coming from third, fourth, win?” Scheffler said. “That's my point. It's like your expectations of me are living week by week. My expectations of myself is almost more shot-by-shot.
“I think I'm always my own, like, my biggest critic. I think, like, no matter what round of golf you look at, I think there's always something you feel like you could do better.”
Scheffler has played better than anyone else on the planet the last few years and has an especially tidy run at TPC Sawgrass. But should his recent results give you pause? How about McIlroy’s health?
With those two wonderings, that could mean the PGA Tour’s crown jewel could be won by a lesser-known, but no less deserving, player. Or the run of the cream-rising-to-the-top could continue with each of the last six winners — since the event moved back to March from May — being ranked in the top 10 in the world.
It’s not a Major, most everyone has made that clear, but it’s certainly a major week on the PGA Tour.
“Everybody knows it's a tournament you want to win,” Brooks Koepka said Tuesday, himself returning for the first time since 2022 after joining LIV Golf. “It’s a tournament that’s the kickoff to the big season of golf — and that’s what makes it fun.”
CHIP SHOTS
Justin Thomas absolutely loves the weather. Or, at least, weather apps on his phone. In an off-the-wall opening question in his press conference Monday Thomas, who won The Players in 2019, was asked about weather forecasting and his preparation. He opened his phone and showed the assembled media that he had six(!) weather apps and often just picks the forecast that is the most positive… Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood have been wearing any clothes they’ve wanted so far in 2026 as both are apparel free agents. Fleetwood has shown up to each event he’s played so far looking like he just came from the merchandise tent. In terms of Monday at The Players, it was his son who bought him a hat from the event a few years ago and he decided to put it on to open the week… Brooks Koepka got so overwhelmed with messages when he returned to the PGA Tour at the WM Phoenix Open he changed his phone number. As part of Koepka’s status as a 'returning member' to the Tour after his three years at LIV Golf, whenever he enters a tournament the field must expand by two in order to round out the first and second-round groupings. At each event, he said, the people who have drawn in have thanked him (although since he hasn’t been on Tour since 2022 there is about “30 per cent” of the Tour he doesn’t know). But, of course, only in person. They don’t have his number… Adam Scott is teeing it up for the 24th time at The Players, the most of anyone in the field. Scott, who won The Players in 2004, relayed a story Tuesday from that year with a big laugh where he said he was having dinner Thursday night with his now wife and he overheard a pair of men chatting at the bar next to them. One asked the other, “Who is leading this tournament?” and the reply was, “Some expletive no-name.” And turns out it was Scott, who had just shot 65… Seven past champions are in the field along with 14 first-timers (including two Canadians)… Fifteen of the last 18 winners of The Players have played in the morning on Thursday and the afternoon on Friday.
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