With one week to go until the strongest field in golf reconvenes at TPC Sawgrass, THE PLAYERS Championship sets the stage for the 2024 event by profiling four of the biggest names in the sport who are among the favorites to create their Defining Moment en route to hoisting THE PLAYERS trophy.

Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler returns to TPC Sawgrass to defend his 2023 title, looking to become the first winner in PLAYERS Championship history to do so. While he has not won since his victory last March, the 27-year-old has risen back to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, while also being named 2023 PGA TOUR Player of the Year. Thus far in 2024, Scheffler has recorded four top-10 finishes in five starts, including a season-best T3 at the WM Phoenix Open. He is currently No. 2 in the FedExCup and is competing this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, where he won in 2022.

Xander Schauffele

Olympic Gold Medalist and seven-time PGA TOUR winner Xander Schauffele returns to THE PLAYERS for the sixth time, looking to improve upon a career-best T2, recorded in his tournament debut in 2018. Currently ranked No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, the 30-year-old has posted four top-10 finishes in five starts this season, highlighted by a T3 effort at The American Express.

Wyndham Clark

Perhaps no other player in THE PLAYERS Championship field has risen to the top of the game quite like Wyndham Clark over the last 12 months. After a T27 at TPC Sawgrass, Clark notched top-10 finishes in four of his next six starts on the PGA TOUR, including a breakthrough win at the Wells Fargo Championship in May. One month later, the former University of Oregon standout won the U.S. Open at famed Los Angeles Country Club, finishing the season at No. 3 in the FedExCup. Clark added a third TOUR title last month at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and enters THE PLAYERS at No. 7 in the official World Golf Ranking.

Akshay Bhatia

Akshay Bhatia will be making his PLAYERS Championship debut in 2024 and will be one of the most sought-after players at the tournament’s annual First-Timers press conference on Wednesday morning. After turning professional at the age of 17, Bhatia cut his teeth on various mini-tours and the Korn Ferry Tour before earning Special Temporary Member status on the PGA TOUR following a runner-up finish at the 2023 Puerto Rico Open. Later that year, he broke through with a win at the Barracuda Championship, which in turn secured a two-year exemption on TOUR and his spot in the 2024 PLAYERS.