The Players Championship has been won by the Tour’s biggest stars of three generations: Jack Nicklaus (three times), Tiger Woods (twice) and Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy (twice each).
Other winners include World Golf Hall of Fame members Greg Norman, Nick Price, Phil Mickelson, Lee Trevino and Lanny Wadkins.
It’s also been won by Craig Perks, Jodie Mudd, Tim Clark, Stephen Ames and Mark Hayes, who no one saw coming until they captured the magic that week.
That’s one of the beauties of The Players. Since the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was designed by Pete Dye to favor no particular game, it enables anyone who qualifies to have a fighting chance. Since it’s the deepest field in golf, any of them can put together four good days of golf and walk away with the Gold Man Trophy.
Here are five players who might not be household names to fans but have qualified for the PGA Tour’s marquee event and deserve to feel good about their chances when standing on their first tee in the first round on March 12:
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
The stocky 31-year-old South African has won five international events (three on the DP World Tour) and is still looking for his first PGA Tour title. He’s paid is dues, with 98 cuts in 128 starts and he’s turned in some solid work at the Stadium Course, tying for 13th in 2023 and 2024 before missing his first Players cut last year in four starts.
Bezuidenhout has 19 starts in major championships, making 13 cuts, with his best performance a tie for 12th at the U.S. Open last year at Oakmont. He’s got a good short game, ranking 19th in Strokes Gained Around the Green and 13th in Stroke Gained Putting in 26 PGA Tour starts last season.
Adam Schenk
Fits the category of a PGA Tour journeyman in the Ames or Hayes mold. Schenk came out of Purdue and beat the bushes on PGA Tour Americas and the Korn Ferry Tour for the best part of a half-decade since turning pro in 2015.
He’s flashed at times: a playoff loss to Emiliano Grillo in the 2023 Schwab Challenge, holding the 54-hole lead over Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth in the 2023 Valspar Championship, tying for 12th in the 2024 Masters and a tying for 19th in the 2024 Players.
Schenk finally won in Bermuda in his 243rd PGA Tour start last fall. One thing about him is that he’s unafraid: he led the Tour last year in hitting the green with tee shots on drivable par-4s and second shots at par-5s (35.88 percent) and he led the Tour in proximity to the from the rough, average 35 feet, 8 inches.
Ryo Hisatsune
The 23-year-old is the next star from Japan. He was the DP World Tour Rookie of the Year in 2023 at barely 20 and has posted seven top-10s on the PGA Tour, with some impressive finishes on tough courses: a tie for second this year at the Farmer Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, a tie for eight at Pebble Beach and last year a tie for fourth in the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Copperhead Course and a tie for sixth at the Schwab Challenge at Colonial National.
Hisatsune doesn’t hit it far (91st in driving distance on the Tour) but he keeps it in play. He’s 14th in Strokes Gained tee-to-green, 21st in SG off the tee and 36th SG approach the green.
Eric Cole
Looking for a seasoned veteran with a good all-around game? Look no further than the 2024 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and the son of former LPGA star Laura Baugh and former PGA Tour player Bobby Cole. Their son has been around the block. He has a combined 178 PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour starts and before that has more than 60 mini-tour victories, including one in late 2025. He already has his PGA Tour card for 2026 locked up, but the dude just wants to wake up in the morning and play competitive golf.
Cole doesn’t do any one thing outstanding except get the ball in the hole: he was fifth on the Tour in one-putt percentage last year (44.42 percent of his greens) and is 13th this season (with a slightly better percentage, 44.4 percent).
And the guy will have no fear down the stretch. As his Mom said once, anyone who’s playing in a mini-tour event to make his next car payment doesn’t get fazed by much.
Johnny Keefer
Looking for a winner from pros making their Players Championship debut? How about the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year, who’s made a bunch of cuts in his rookie season but still looking for the big splash.
Keefer, who played college golf at Baylor, had two victories and nine top 10s on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, after getting his card off the 2024 PGA Tour University rankings. He once had designs on being a professional lacrosse player.
Keefer is looking for his putting stroke, but he’s putting himself in position. He’s 12th on the Tour through the Cognizant Classic in Strokes Gained off the tee and 22nd in Strokes Gained approach the green, but 137th in putting. If he gets hot on the greens, watch out, no matter where he’s playing.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Players Championship dark horse winner candidates to watch this week
Reporting by Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
