2023 Players Championship
The 2023 Players Championship was the 49th playing of the Players Championship, having been played at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida from March 9–12.
The winner was Scottie Scheffler, who shot a 69 in the final round to finish at 271 to win his first Players Championship, five strokes ahead of runner-up Tyrrell Hatton.
Defending champion Cameron Smith became the first player since 2014 not to defend the title, being one of many players ineligible to compete having been suspended by the PGA Tour after joining LIV Golf. Other ineligible players included both the runner-up and third-place finishers from 2022, Anirban Lahiri and Paul Casey.
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 2023 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 2022 Players Championship
- Keegan Bradley
- Sam Burns
- Patrick Cantlay
- Nico Echavarría
- Tony Finau
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Russell Henley
- Max Homa
- Billy Horschel
- Mackenzie Hughes
- Kim Si-woo
- Tom Kim
- Chris Kirk
- Kurt Kitayama
- Lee Kyoung-hoon
- Rory McIlroy
- Trey Mullinax
- J. T. Poston
- Séamus Power
- Jon Rahm
- Chad Ramey
- Chez Reavie
- Justin Rose
- Xander Schauffele
- Scottie Scheffler
- J. J. Spaun
- Jordan Spieth
- Adam Svensson
- Justin Thomas
- Will Zalatoris
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout
- Ryan Brehm
- Hayden Buckley
- Stewart Cink
- Wyndham Clark
- Corey Conners
- Joel Dahmen
- Cameron Davis
- Jason Day
- Tyler Duncan
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Rickie Fowler
- Dylan Frittelli
- Doug Ghim
- Lucas Glover
- Emiliano Grillo
- Chesson Hadley
- Adam Hadwin
- James Hahn
- Brian Harman
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Lucas Herbert
- Kramer Hickok
- Lee Hodges
- Tom Hoge
- Beau Hossler
- Viktor Hovland
- Mark Hubbard
- Im Sung-jae
- Stephan Jäger
- Kevin Kisner
- Patton Kizzire
- Russell Knox
- Kelly Kraft
- Matt Kuchar
- Martin Laird
- Nate Lashley
- David Lipsky
- Luke List
- Adam Long
- Justin Lower
- Shane Lowry
- Peter Malnati
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Denny McCarthy
- Max McGreevy
- Maverick McNealy
- Troy Merritt
- Keith Mitchell
- Taylor Moore
- Collin Morikawa
- Matthew NeSmith
- Alex Norén
- Ryan Palmer
- Taylor Pendrith
- Scott Piercy
- Andrew Putnam
- Aaron Rai
- Doc Redman
- Davis Riley
- Patrick Rodgers
- Sam Ryder
- Adam Schenk
- Matthias Schwab
- Adam Scott
- Greyson Sigg
- Webb Simpson
- Alex Smalley
- Austin Smotherman
- Scott Stallings
- Sepp Straka
- Robert Streb
- Kevin Streelman
- Callum Tarren
- Nick Taylor
- Sahith Theegala
- Michael Thompson
- Brendon Todd
- Kevin Tway
- Jhonattan Vegas
- Matt Wallace
- Nick Watney
- Danny Willett
- Aaron Wise
- Gary Woodland
- Brandon Wu
- Cameron Young
- Daniel Berger, Lanto Griffin, John Huh, Pan Cheng-tsung and Vince Whaley did not play.
- Tiger Woods did not play.
5. Recent winners of the U.S. Open
6. Recent winners of the PGA Championship
7. Recent winners of The Open Championship
- Francesco Molinari
9. Recent winners of the WGC Championship
10. Recent winners of the WGC Match Play
11. Recent winners of the WGC Invitational
12. Recent winners of the WGC-HSBC Champions
13. Recent winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational
14. Recent winners of the Memorial Tournament
15. Recent winners of the Genesis Invitational
16. Top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking following The Honda Classic
- Ryan Fox
- Min Woo Lee
18. Senior Players champion from previous year
- Jerry Kelly
- Justin Suh
- Nick Hardy
- Taylor Montgomery
- Thomas Detry
- Davis Thompson
- Eric Cole
- Ben Griffin
- Robby Shelton
- Tyson Alexander
- Garrick Higgo
- Kim Seong-hyeon
- An Byeong-hun
- Will Gordon
- Joseph Bramlett
- David Lingmerth
- Harris English
- Aaron Baddeley
- Ben Martin
- Harrison Endycott
- Andrew Novak
- Erik Barnes
- Dylan Wu
- Ryan Armour
- ''Ben Taylor and Kevin Yu did not play.''
Ineligible players
- Abraham Ancer
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Talor Gooch
- Dustin Johnson
- Brooks Koepka
- Anirban Lahiri
- Danny Lee
- Marc Leishman
- Phil Mickelson
- Sebastián Muñoz
- Joaquín Niemann
- Mito Pereira
- Thomas Pieters
- Patrick Reed
- Cameron Smith
- Brendan Steele
- Cameron Tringale
- Harold Varner III
Round summaries
First round
Thursday, March 9, 2023Friday, March 10, 2023
Due to lack of daylight, play was suspended at 6:30 pm EST Thursday with 21 players yet to complete their opening rounds.
Chad Ramey, ranked 225 in the Official World Golf Ranking and making his Players Championship debut, recorded a bogey-free round of 64 to take the first-round lead. He birdied the par-5 16th hole to tie for the lead, before hitting his tee shot on the 17th hole to within two feet, setting up another birdie and moving him atop the leaderboard.
Collin Morikawa also did not make a bogey in a seven-under par round of 65, that included an eagle on the par-5 second hole. He finished alone in second place, one stroke behind Ramey.
The top-three players in the world rankings: Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, and Rory McIlroy; were drawn together, but only Scheffler made his way into the top-10 at the end of the round. After beginning his round with nine straight pars, Scheffler birdied three of his final four holes to finish at four-under par. Rahm did not make a birdie on his back-nine that included a bogey on the par-3 eighth hole, his 17th, finishing at one-under par. McIlroy, the 2019 champion, double-bogeyed his opening hole in a round of 76.
Hayden Buckley made a hole-in-one on the 17th during his round of 73.
| Place | Player | Score | To par | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  Second roundFriday, March 10, 2023Saturday, March 11, 2023 Adam Svensson birdied the par-5 ninth hole, the last of his round, after getting a free drop from the hospitality tent on his second shot to finish off a five-under round of 67 and take a two-shot lead through 36 holes at nine-under. Scottie Scheffler made three birdies on his back-nine and shot 69 to move into second place at seven-under. Christiaan Bezuidenhout shared the lead with Svensson when play was suspended but bogeyed two of his final three holes on Saturday morning to fall back to a share of third place at six-under, three behind. Overnight leader Chad Ramey birdied two of his first three holes and led by as many as three shots early in his round before putting two balls in the water on the par-3 17th, leading to a quadruple-bogey. He ended up at five-under, four back, after a round of 75. Jerry Kelly became the oldest player to make the cut in Players Championship history, surpassing Arnold Palmer, who had held the record for making the cut in the 1985 Tournament Players Championship at 55 years, 6 months and 19 days. Kelly was 56 years, 3 months and 16 days old. The cut came in at 146, with 75 players making it to the weekend. Notables to miss the cut included 2019 champion Rory McIlroy, 2018 champion Webb Simpson, and 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick. World No. 1 Jon Rahm withdrew before the start of his second round due to illness. Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, play was suspended at 4:27 pm EST Friday. It was the second year in a row that the second round play was not completed on the Friday due to severe weather. The PGA Tour announced that play would resume on Saturday at 7:00 am, with the third round starting around 10:45, with players in groups of three, instead of the usual two, and commencing from both the first and tenth tees.
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