CNN —
A year on from becoming the first player to defend The Players Championship title, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler tees off at Florida’s TPC Sawgrass on Thursday looking to put further distance between himself and his peers in golf’s history books.
US fans will be able to watch Thursday and Friday’s action from 1 p.m. ET on the Golf Channel before NBC assumes coverage for the closing two rounds from 2 p.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Streaming options are available via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+.
Sky Sports Golf will broadcast the action for UK viewers, with coverage beginning from 11:30 a.m. GMT on Thursday and Friday before moving to the later start time of 1 p.m. at the weekend.
The world’s top three ranked players – Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele – will be grouped together for the first two rounds, with the trio teeing off at 1:29 p.m. ET (5:29 p.m. GMT) and 8:24 a.m. ET (12:24 p.m. GMT) on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Victory at the 51st edition of golf’s unofficial “fifth major” in Ponte Vedra Beach come Sunday would see American Scheffler join legendary compatriot Jack Nicklaus as the tournament’s only three-time winners.
Nicklaus won three of the first five editions of event before it moved permanently to Sawgrass’ Stadium Course in 1982 but Scheffler would be the first to make it a hat-trick – not only at The Players, but at any PGA Tour event since Steve Stricker conquered the John Deere Classic three years running between 2009 and 2011.
“Last week was a week in which I struggled on the greens,” Scheffler said of his T-11 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, per ESPN. “I drove it really well. I hit some good iron shots; some iron shots I wasn’t as pleased with.
“But I felt like if the ball would have gone in the hole a little bit more, I would have had a chance to win, which is always a nice thing.”
Victory at last year’s tournament, clinched just a week on from triumph at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, set the tone for a season of crushing dominance by Scheffler, who added a second Masters win and Olympic gold en route to nine titles across 2024.
“Last year is last year. I’m not trying to replicate it,” he added. “I’m not trying to look back on it. At the end of the day, it’s in the past. It was a great year … but when it comes to this year, I’ve never been a guy that sets long-term goals.
“My goal is to be as prepared as possible when I step up on the first tee and then I want to have a good attitude when I go out and play over each shot. And that’s how I view success.”
An injury sustained while preparing Christmas dinner saw him miss the PGA Tour’s Hawaii curtain raiser in January but he has since played four events.
It seems absurd that Xander Schauffele’s 2024 season went somewhat under the radar despite winning two majors, such was Scheffler’s historic dominance.
This year, however, has so far been defined by a rib injury that had kept Schauffele, the world No. 3, out of action since the The Sentry at the start of January.
He returned to the golf course at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished T-40 at four-over par, but ended the tournament without any recurrence of the injury.
“That was the biggest thing. That’s probably the biggest win of the week,” Schauffele said, per the PGA. “Not being able to play enough golf coming in here, was rolling the dice a little bit. All scans were clean, but super happy with how I feel. Definitely, with the added golf didn’t feel any strain or any worse, so that’s a big bonus.
“I’m trying to convince myself to be in a good spot mentally regardless,” Schauffele added. “I can’t sit all year long and feel sorry for myself like, ‘Oh, you know, I’m just rusty, I haven’t played.’ That stuff doesn’t matter in any sport, so it is what it is, and I’m gonna have to sort of pick up the pace.”
Collin Morikawa, conversely, endured a barren 2024 and is without a PGA Tour title since winning the Zozo Championship in October 2023.
He came close at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, but shot even par in the final round to open the door for Russell Henley to surge past and take the win by one shot.
Morikawa admitted there was “a lot of frustration” after Sunday’s round, but was sanguine about his improvements compared to 2023.
“Just looking back over the past year and kind of how I went about my fall was to figure out how to play better in final rounds, and when you don’t play well and you don’t close it out, you’re like: ‘How do we go back to the drawing board?’” he said, per ESPN.
“It’s not really (to) rip everything up and start over, but there’s just little things, right? Obviously, I wasn’t hitting it as well. I wasn’t putting as well. But I still had my chances to close it out, and Russ obviously played some great golf.”
