Rory McIlroy has been backed into 9/1 favourite from 11/1 with BoyleSports to land a second title at the event dubbed golf’s ‘fifth major.’
The Players Championship takes centre stage on the PGA Tour this week and McIlroy will tee off on Thursday buoyed by a runner-up finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida, where he finished just one stroke shy of Kurt Kitayama’s winning score.
McIlroy will be hoping to go one better when he makes the short hop to the TPC course at Sawgrass, famed for its island green at the par three 17th and the scene of one of 23 PGA Tour victories already on the CV of the Holywood man.
The 2019 champion was denied a real opportunity to defend his title when the 2020 event was cancelled with just Thursday’s opening round in the books as the world shutdown at the outset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but he’ll fancy his chances of adding a second win at the PGA Tour’s flagship event and punters seem to agree.
Some recent promising form for Shane Lowry has also seen the former Open champion clipped into 33/1 from 35/1 to get back to winning ways at a course where he has finished no worse than 13th in his last two visits.
Waterford’s Seamus Power, who has yet to miss a cut this year nor in his previous two outings at Sawgrass, is rated a 100/1 shot to bag a third PGA Tour victory following previous triumphs at the Barbasol and Bermuda Championships in 2021 and 2022.
Lawrence Lyons, spokesperson for BoyleSports said: “The battle for top spot in the world rankings is hot right now with Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler in such scintillating form. But Rory McIlroy went within a whisker last week and support is snowballing for him to tame Sawgrass again.”
The Players Championship odds
9/1 R McIlroy
10/1 J Rahm
10/1 S Scheffler
14/1 P Cantlay
16/1 J Thomas
20/1 M Homa
22/1 C Morikawa
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33/1 S Lowry
100/1 S Power
2023 Golf Specials
5/2 R McIroy to win a major
10/1 S Lowry to win a major
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