PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Whether or not you consider within the idea of the Gamers Championship as a significant or not, one of many greatest weeks on the PGA Tour has arrived and storylines abound.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler are each attempting so as to add a 3rd Gamers title to their résumés. Brooks Koepka is enjoying in his first Gamers since 2022. The golf course is ready to have extra chunk than it has proven in recent times whereas a number of different gamers are vying for a career-defining win.
Listed below are 5 storylines we’re watching at TPC Sawgrass this week.
1. Is Scottie the overwhelming favourite this week?
Paolo Uggetti: The numbers say sure they usually most likely ought to and but, in the event you’ve watched any of Scheffler’s golf over the course of the previous three tournaments, you’ll know it is not that easy. In any respect three occasions, Scheffler has struggled on Thursdays, and final week at Bay Hill he appeared extra annoyed than ever together with his play when he threw a ball within the water after a missed putt.
The truth that a T-24 end will be thought of dangerous for Scheffler says all you should find out about how excessive his flooring is, and this week needs to be no completely different. Whereas Scheffler downplays his struggles on the microphone and wears it on his sleeve on the golf course, the truth is that this week is tailor-made for him — he has already gained this occasion twice and TPC Sawgrass calls for nice iron play. There lies the catch.
Scheffler’s iron play has not been his standard, all-time, all-world self recently. In actual fact, after main the PGA Tour in strokes gained: method for 3 straight seasons, Scheffler is 88th to date this season. It is robust to consider that can proceed for a participant of his caliber and this week is nearly as good per week as any for him to begin turning into an unbeatable power once more.
Mark Schlabach: With McIlroy doubtlessly sidelined with a again harm, I might say Scheffler is an awesome favourite.
After changing into the primary golfer to win back-to-back Gamers Championship titles in 2023 and ’24, Scheffler can be part of Jack Nicklaus as the one three-time winner in historical past. (McIlroy may obtain this if he performs, after ending first in 2019 and ’25.)
Scheffler has appeared semihuman the previous few weeks, as Paolo famous. Gradual begins have plagued him in 2026; his scoring common within the remaining three rounds (67.0) is sort of 3.5 strokes higher than the primary (70.4) this season. He does not appear to have a solution for why he has been sluggish out of the gates.
Nevertheless, getting off to a quick begin at TPC Sawgrass hasn’t been an issue for Scheffler, who’s 13 underneath on the primary three holes throughout his profession.
Two-time main winner Collin Morikawa has been sizzling and is enjoying with plenty of confidence, and reigning Tour Championship winner Tommy Fleetwood remains to be enjoying nicely.
However I am going to roll with Scheffler once more if Rory is not round.
2. Apart from Rory and Scottie, which different participant will you be watching the closest this week?
Uggetti: Perhaps it is outdated information by now, however the Brooks Koepka expertise remains to be intriguing, particularly this week. That is the primary time Koepka is teeing it up on Tour with the highest gamers on this planet all a part of the sphere. And whereas the PGA Tour makes an attempt to not-so-subtly flip the Gamers extra right into a major-like occasion, it is going to be curious to see how Koepka will get up for the problem as he normally does with greater occasions.
This course does not precisely match him like a glove. In seven begins, he has by no means had a top-10 end, and he missed the reduce the final time he performed this occasion in 2022. After which there’s the way in which he has performed the well-known par-3 seventeenth gap. In 20 rounds at TPC Sawgrass, Koepka is 20-over par on the outlet.
“That seventeenth gap has gotten me through the years,” Koepka stated. “I’ve performed good rounds right here; that is simply sort of the one bugaboo that at all times will get me.”
Although he struggled in his first two begins again on the PGA Tour, Koepka confirmed flashes of his outdated self when he shot 6-under 65 within the remaining spherical at PGA Nationwide a couple of weeks in the past. This week, nevertheless, will likely be a extra true measurement of the place his sport stands among the many Tour’s greatest.
Schlabach: Two-time main winner Xander Schauffele was exhibiting indicators of rounding into his earlier championship type earlier than slipping within the remaining 36 holes in final week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, by which he tied for twenty fourth at 2 underneath.
After recovering from a painful rib harm that derailed his 2025 season, Schauffele had good showings when he tied for nineteenth on the AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am and for seventh within the Genesis Invitational.
Schauffele is a two-time runner-up in The Gamers, in his first begin in 2018 and once more in 2024. His quick sport has been distinctive on the Stadium Course — he is tied for second in strokes gained: across the inexperienced (0.66) since 2018.
Will we begin to see the Schauffele who dominated the game, together with Scheffler, in 2024?
3. Sleepers for this week?
Uggetti: How about one other previous winner? Rickie Fowler gained this occasion over 10 years in the past and has gone via many ups and downs since then, however his sport appears to be trending up to date this season.
Fowler has made 5 begins and his worst end is a T-28 at Riviera. He notched 4 top-20 finishes and a T-9 final week at Bay Hill. He’s seventeenth in strokes gained to date this season and, save for his sport across the inexperienced (157th), Fowler is enjoying a number of the greatest golf he has in recent times. Loads has modified since he gained at TPC Sawgrass in 2015, however this can be nearly as good per week as any for him to name on his expertise.
Schlabach: I am undecided a former Gamers Championship winner and the Twenty eighth-ranked golfer on this planet qualifies as a sleeper, however Si Woo Kim has a terrific monitor document at TPC Sawgrass and has been placing the ball in addition to anybody this season.
The Korean golfer has already performed a whopping seven instances this season, ending within the high 15 in 5. He was runner-up within the Farmers Insurance coverage Open at Torrey Pines and tied for third within the WM Phoenix Open.
Heading into this week, Kim is second on tour in strokes gained: method (1.198) and tee to inexperienced (1.947). He already has 23 rounds underneath par in 2026.
Kim, who as a 21-year-old gained the 2017 Gamers Championship, is aware of his approach across the Stadium Course.
Jake Knapp, who’s ranked forty second on this planet, was enjoying spectacularly earlier than he needed to pull out of the API final week due to sickness. He completed within the high 11 in every of his first 5 begins, together with a solo sixth within the Genesis Invitational.
There is not a lot Knapp hasn’t accomplished proper to date in 2026. He ranks second in strokes gained: complete (2.183) and fourth in placing (1.095). He is additionally seventh in driving distance (319.4 yards), though accuracy off the tee (58.6%) has been a difficulty at instances.
4. How do you suppose the course will play this week?
Uggetti: After strolling round TPC Sawgrass for a couple of days now, it’s clear that the Tour is making a concerted effort to set this course up a bit more durable than it has in recent times. The tough is thicker — Justin Rose confirmed as a lot when he stated his caddie informed him it was half an inch longer — and the greens appear to have a bit extra of a firmer bounce to them to date.
I watched Tuesday as Wyndham Clark hit a sand wedge into the twelfth inexperienced and the ball bounced about waist excessive earlier than touchdown again down on the floor. On Monday, Adam Schenk hit two balls into the tough proper of 18 and had bother discovering them among the many moguls. Chipping across the inexperienced will likely be trickier and it seems some collars across the water have been shaved down a bit as nicely.
On the threat of utilizing the phrase “main championship take a look at”, it seems that we are going to see a harder Sawgrass this 12 months than most. And although there’s rain scheduled within the forecast for Thursday, it doesn’t seem that it is going to be important sufficient to really change the situations.
5. Prediction for the winner?
Uggetti: Give me Ludvig Åberg. Final week’s end at Bay Hill (T-3) and the T-20 at Riviera had been promising and it seems that he has discovered a groove after a tough begin to the season on the West Coast.
With this course doubtlessly enjoying harder due to firmer greens and longer tough than standard, a man like Aberg who hits it very excessive and really straight is ready as much as do nicely. If his putter can catch some warmth (it has been the worst a part of his sport to date this season), search for him to be in rivalry come Sunday.
Schlabach: When unsure, I am going to go along with the golfer who has been most dominant for a lot of the previous three seasons. Sure, Scheffler’s ball-striking hasn’t been as much as his historic requirements, however the man is because of have a couple of off weeks every so often.
Scheffler will be part of the Golden Bear on Sunday as the one three-time winner in Gamers Championship historical past — and he’ll full the profession Grand Slam within the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Membership in June.
