The 2024 Players Championship was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida from March 14–17. Officially, it was the 50th edition of The Players Championship tournament.
Venue
Field The field consists of 144 players meeting various criteria; they include tournament winners on the PGA Tour since the previous Players Championship, recent winners of major championships, The Players and World Golf Championships, and leading players in the FedEx Cup standings from the current and preceding seasons.
Eligibility criteria This list details the eligibility criteria for the 2024 Players Championship and the players who qualified under them; any additional criteria under which players were eligible is indicated in parentheses.
1. Winners of PGA Tour events since the 2023 Players Championship
Ludvig Åberg (2,15) Akshay Bhatia (2) Keegan Bradley (2,15) Sam Burns (2,10,15) Wyndham Clark (2,7,15,16) Corey Conners (2) Jason Day (2,15,16) Nick Dunlap Austin Eckroat (2,15) Tony Finau (2,15) Matt Fitzpatrick (2,7,15) Rickie Fowler (2,15) Brice Garnett Lucas Glover (2,15) Emiliano Grillo (2,15) Nick Hardy (2) Brian Harman (2,6,15) Lee Hodges (2) Viktor Hovland (2,9,14,15) Tom Kim (2,15) Chris Kirk (2,15,16) Jake Knapp (15,16) Luke List (2) Hideki Matsuyama (2,4,12,15,16) Rory McIlroy (2,5,9,15) Taylor Moore (2) Collin Morikawa (2,6,8,15) Grayson Murray Vincent Norrman (2) Matthieu Pavon (15,16) Davis Riley (2) Scottie Scheffler (2,4,5,10,13,15,16) Sepp Straka (2,15) Nick Taylor (2,15) Sahith Theegala (2,15) Erik van Rooyen (2) Camilo Villegas (2) Matt Wallace (2)
2. Top 125 from the previous season's FedEx Cup Fall Playoffs and Eligibility Points List
Tyson Alexander An Byeong-hun (15,16) Aaron Baddeley Christiaan Bezuidenhout Zac Blair Joseph Bramlett Hayden Buckley Patrick Cantlay (9,14,15) Eric Cole (15) Joel Dahmen Cameron Davis Thomas Detry Tyler Duncan Nico Echavarría Harris English (15) Tommy Fleetwood (15) Doug Ghim Ben Griffin Chesson Hadley Adam Hadwin (15) Harry Hall Russell Henley (15) Garrick Higgo Tom Hoge Max Homa (15) Billy Horschel (10,14) Beau Hossler Mark Hubbard Mackenzie Hughes Im Sung-jae (15) Stephan Jäger Michael Kim Kim Seong-hyeon Kim Si-woo Kurt Kitayama (13,15) Matt Kuchar Martin Laird Nate Lashley Lee Kyoung-hoon David Lipsky Justin Lower Shane Lowry (6) Peter Malnati Ben Martin Denny McCarthy (15) Troy Merritt Keith Mitchell Taylor Montgomery Ryan Moore Matthew NeSmith Alex Norén Andrew Novak Taylor Pendrith J. T. Poston (15,16) Séamus Power Andrew Putnam Aaron Rai Chad Ramey Chez Reavie Patrick Rodgers Justin Rose (15) Sam Ryder Xander Schauffele (15,16) Adam Schenk Matti Schmid Adam Scott (15) Robby Shelton Greyson Sigg Alex Smalley J. J. Spaun Jordan Spieth (15) Scott Stallings Sam Stevens Kevin Streelman Justin Suh Adam Svensson Callum Tarren Ben Taylor Justin Thomas (5,8,15) Davis Thompson Brendon Todd Gary Woodland (7) Brandon Wu Dylan Wu Cameron Young (15) Carson Young Yu Chun-an Yuan Yechun
Will Gordon, David Lingmerth, and Danny Willett did not play.
3. Top 125 (medical)
Maverick McNealy Pan Cheng-tsung
4. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2019–2023) Tiger Woods did not play.
5. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2018–2023) Webb Simpson
6. Recent winners of The Open Championship (2018–2023) Francesco Molinari
7. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2018–2023)
8. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2018–2023)
9. Recent winners of the FedEx Cup (2019–2023)
10. Recent winners of the WGC Match Play (2021–2023)
11. Recent winners of the WGC Invitational (2021)
12. Recent winners of the Genesis Invitational (2022–2024)
13. Recent winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational (2022–2024)
14. Recent winners of the Memorial Tournament (2021–2023)
15. Top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking following the Cognizant Classic
Ryan Fox Nicolai Højgaard Min Woo Lee Will Zalatoris
16. Top 10 in the current season's FedEx Cup points standings after the Cognizant Classic
17. Kaulig Companies Championship champion from previous year Steve Stricker
18. Leading player to earn a PGA Tour card from the previous year's Race to Dubai ranking
19. Leading points winner from the Korn Ferry Tour during the previous year Ben Kohles
20. Remaining positions and alternates filled through current year FedEx Cup standings after the Cognizant Classic (rank in parentheses)
Charley Hoffman (36) Sami Välimäki (38) Chan Kim (69) Ben Silverman (73) Ryo Hisatsune (88) Robert MacIntyre (92) David Skinns (93) Jimmy Stanger (96)
Ineligible players The following players met criteria but, having joined LIV Golf, were suspended by the PGA Tour and ineligible to compete:
Abraham Ancer (11) Bryson DeChambeau (7) Tyrrell Hatton (2,15) Dustin Johnson (4,9) Brooks Koepka (1,7,8,15) Adrian Meronk (18) Phil Mickelson (8) Joaquín Niemann (12) Jon Rahm (1,4,7,12,15) Cameron Smith (5,6,15)
Round summaries
First round Thursday, March 14, 2024Friday, March 15, 2024
The overnight lead was shared by Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark, who recorded scores of 65 (7 under par). McIlroy's 10 birdies tied the tournament record for most birdies in a single round. Nick Taylor and Matt Fitzpatrick both shot their career best rounds at the Stadium Course with 6-under 66s. Defending champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler began with a 5-under round of 67, as did debutant Ludvig Åberg.
Ryan Fox became the first player since records began to make back-to-back eagles at The Players Championship; doing so by scoring a three at the par-5 16th and a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th hole.
Play was suspended due to darkness at 7:32 p.m. EDT with 9 players yet to finish their round. Round 1 was completed on Friday morning.
PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Wyndham Clark 65 −7 Rory McIlroy Xander SchauffeleT4 Matt Fitzpatrick 66 −6 Nick TaylorT6 Ludvig Åberg 67 −5 Jason Day Tyler Duncan Tom Hoge Maverick McNealy Scottie Scheffler
Second round Friday, March 15, 2024 Saturday, March 16, 2024
Wyndham Clark shot a second consecutive 65 (–7) to reach 14-under for the tournament and open a four-shot lead after 36 holes. Clark, who began the round on the 10th hole, made four straight birdies on holes 1-4 and played his back-nine in six-under.
Xander Schauffele began the round tied for the lead but made a double-bogey on the par-5 11th hole after hitting his second shot in the water. He came back with an eagle on the par-5 16th and shot three-under 67 to join Nick Taylor in a tie for second place at 10-under.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler chipped in for birdie on the par-3 third hole (his 12th of the round) and shot 69 (–3) to finish at 8-under and in a tie for sixth place. First round co-leader and 2019 champion Rory McIlroy drove into the water on the 14th hole and made double-bogey, part of a one-over round of 73 to fall to 15th place.
The cut came at 143 (–1), after two players who didn't finish their round on Friday finished on Saturday. Notables to miss the cut included 2021 champion Justin Thomas and three-time major champion Jordan Spieth.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Wyndham Clark 65-65=130 −14T2 Xander Schauffele 65-69=134 −10 Nick Taylor 66-68=134T4 Matt Fitzpatrick 66-69=135 −9 Maverick McNealy 67-68=135T6 Corey Conners 68-68=136 −8 Tom Hoge 67-69=136 Scottie Scheffler 67-69=136 Matti Schmid 68-68=136T10 Brian Harman 72-65=137 −7 Pan Cheng-tsung 69-68=137 J. T. Poston 69-68=137 Sahith Theegala 70-67=137
Third round Saturday, March 16, 2024
Xander Schauffele made seven birdies in a bogey-free round of 65 to take the 54-hole lead by one shot over Wyndham Clark. Schauffele began the round four shots behind Clark but tied for the lead with a birdie on the 12th. He then made a 58-foot birdie putt on the par-4 14th hole to reach 17-under and in sole possession of the lead going to the final round.
Clark also reached 17-under with a birdie on the par-5 16th hole, but his tee shot on the par-3 17th found the water hazard. He made bogey to fall one behind Schauffele and finished with a two-under round of 70.
Brian Harman made five birdies on the back-nine to shoot the lowest round of the day with a 64 (–8) and climb up to third place at 15-under, two behind Schauffele; with second and third rounds of 65 and 64, respectively, Harman recorded the lowest two-consecutive-round total in Players history, with a 129. Maverick McNealy chipped in for birdie on the 14th to get within three of the lead, but he hit his second shot on the 16th into the water and made bogey. He finished at 13-under and in a tie for fourth place with Matt Fitzpatrick. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler was one-under on his round before finishing with three straight birdies to shoot 68 (–4) and move into sixth place.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Xander Schauffele 65-69-65=199 −172 Wyndham Clark 65-65-70=200 −163 Brian Harman 72-65-64=201 −15T4 Matt Fitzpatrick 66-69-68=203 −13 Maverick McNealy 67-68-68=203T6 Scottie Scheffler 67-69-68=204 −12 Sahith Theegala 70-67-67=2048 Nate Lashley 68-70-67=205 −11T9 Hideki Matsuyama 69-69-68=206 −10 Taylor Montgomery 68-70-68=206 J. T. Poston 69-68-69=206
Final round Sunday, March 17, 2024
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler shot a bogey free 64 (−8) to overcome a five shot deficit and become the first player in the history of The Players Championship to win back-to-back tournaments.
Wyndham Clark, Xander Schauffele and Brian Harman all had birdie putts on the 18th hole to force a playoff, but all missed.
Champion(c) = past champion PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)1 Scottie Scheffler (c) 67-69-68-64=268 −20 4,500,000T2 Wyndham Clark 65-65-70-69=269 −19 1,891,667 Brian Harman 72-65-64-68=269 Xander Schauffele 65-69-65-70=2695 Matt Fitzpatrick 66-69-68-69=272 −16 1,025,000T6 Kim Si-woo (c) 70-71-68-64=273 −15 875,000 Hideki Matsuyama 69-69-68-67=2738 Ludvig Åberg 67-73-67-67=274 −14 781,250T9 Maverick McNealy 67-68-68-72=275 −13 706,250 Sahith Theegala 70-67-67-71=275