7 picks our experts love

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolferand you can read his picks below for the 2026 Players Championship, which begins Thursday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Players Championshipthe granddaddy event of the PGA Tour, it’s here. And how glorious it is. It’s not a major championship, and I hope it never becomes one, despite the recent push for one. TPC Sawgrass it is a magnificent golf course, arguably one of the best in the world, and is the masterpiece of world-class designer Pete Dye. Can we just leave some things in sports? The players are affectionately known as the “fifth great” and I’d just like to keep it that way – please. The Masters, PGA, US Open, and Open Championship are different. The players are great as it is, and the best of the rest.

Okay, get off the soapbox and onto the handicap. TPC Sawgrass is truly a masterful design. Dye was brought to PGA Tour headquarters in Ponta Vedra Beach, Fla., to build just that, a stadium-like showcase venue that tests every fiber of the game. No two holes are in the same direction. Outside of four par 3s, half the holes favor a par and the other half cater for a fade. Water comes into play on all but one of the 18 holes. It is an intense examination of precision, nerve and endurance. The final stretch, holes 16, 17 and 18, are arguably the best closing holes in the game, with 17 being the globally renowned island green.

The golf course is a par 72 that measures close to 7,400 yards. The fairways are relatively narrow, bordered by thick rough, and the Bermudagrass greens are smaller than average size. The weather forecast calls for high 70s and low 80s throughout the week with winds in the 10-20 mph range.

The results over the years at The Players are wild. Almost everyone who has done well here has also missed multiple cuts. We’ve had marquee winners like Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. We’ve also seen Stephen Ames, Jerry Kelly, Ian Poulter, Fred Funk and Tim Clark play well here at TPC Sawgrass every time. Predicting the winner of The Players strikes me as one of the biggest challenges in the entire tournament calendar, but that doesn’t mean the formula here is a mixed bag. On the contrary, it is quite clear what needs to be done around this track. The ball shot is A, no. 1. Iron game, approach shot — if the ball strike isn’t on point, it’s not going to be your week. Off the tee, accuracy is preferred over distance, and finally, Scrambling. Getting yourself out of trouble has to be executed successfully every now and then.

The links are strong and some are simply other Pete Dye designs we see regularly on Tour, like TPC River Highlands (Travellers Championship) and Harbor Town (RBC Heritage). Sedgefield Country Club (Wyndham Championship) has had tremendous crossover success with TPC Sawgrass. I also looked at Innisbrook (Valspar Championship), Waialae Country Club (Sony Open) and didn’t rule out success at the American Express in La Quinta, Calif., or since two of the four rounds there are played on Dye’s Stadium Course in the PGA West.

Russell Henley (30-1)

Henley was quite impressive in defending his title last week at Bay Hill, finishing sixth. He was ranked 13th in the field for SG: Off the Tee and was the no. 1 in Scrambling. His record on cross-country courses is outstanding, with top-10 and top-20 finishes up and down the board. He was runner-up at TPC River Highlands and Sedgefield, and won the Sony Open. Henley finished eighth in the American Express earlier this season. He does everything very well, he is one of the most accurate players in the game, and in 2026 the putter is also putting, ranking 24th on Tour in SG: Putting.

Rickie Fowler (50-1)

Yes, I will go there. It’s been a while, but it sure would be something to see Fowler add a second Players Championship to his resume, and with the way he’s been going lately, it’s enough for me to risk a few shekels to do it again. Fowler has yet to miss a cut all season and was tied for ninth last week in Orlando, where he ranked ninth for SG: Off the Tee, was second in Scrambling, eighth in Greens in Regulation and was fifth in Driving Accuracy. Like Henley, everything is working well together with the shooter. After last week’s top-10 finish at Bay Hill, Fowler has reached No. 60 on the OWGR. He has three more events to win or break the top 50 in order to qualify for the Masters. I bet the push continues.

Maverick McNealy (65-1)

McNealy missed a large portion of the 2023 season due to injury, but since then, we’ve seen him become one of the best players in the world, currently 25th in the OWGR. He’s been as high as ninth here at Sawgrass and has two top-5 finishes at Harbor Town. McNealy was 10th earlier this season at Torrey Pines and has finished 13th twice, including last week at Bay Hill. He ranks 53rd on Tour for SG: Approach, 30th in SG: Off the Tee, is 36th in Scrambling and 40th in Par 4 Scoring.

Shane Lowry (70-1)

The Irishman missed the cut last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and I’m not that surprised with how the week before that went for Lowry at the Cognizant Classic. But I expect him to be ready to bounce back this week in a country that has finished as high as eighth and in the top 20 four other times. He has been a top 10 finisher at all of the associated courses and has twice finished third at the RBC Heritage. Lowry has played fantastic golf so far this season, and unlike last year, the putter has also found his groove in 2026, ranking 35th on Tour for SG:Putting. I was hoping to go 50-1 this week on the Lowry, so 70 looks like an excellent bargain.

Adam Scott (80-1)

The 45-year-old Australian was another tour veteran who came to mind this week, as was Fowler. Both of these former Players champions have played outstanding golf so far in 2026. Scott was fifth in the field last week at Bay Hill for the driving distance. Amazing that this guy can still really hit it. You remember, he was right there in the mix for the US Open last year at Oakmont. In addition to his win at TPC Sawgrass, Scott has finished in the top 10 three other times and in the top 20 six times. He also finished runner-up and seventh previously at the Wyndham Championship. Four weeks ago, Scott was fourth at Riviera. Last week he was 11th at Arnie’s, where he placed 12th in the field for SG: Approach and Scrambling. Scott is ranked 26th on Tour in Ball Striking.

Sahith Theegala (92-1)

It’s been a minute since the star from Pepperdine University has been a factor on the PGA Tour, but it looks like he’s back. Theegala has three top-10 finishes already this season, including eighth at American Express and sixth last week at Bay Hill, where he placed eighth for SG: Approach and 10th in Scrambling. He’s been as high as ninth here at the Players and tied for second at Harbor Town and TPC River Highlands. Off the tee it’s been a little shaky for Theegala early this season, but he gained over half a stroke in the field last week. Continuing this week, he will be in the mix again.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout (100-1)

We’ve reached triple digits. Bezuidenhout finished 13th here at Sawgrass in back-to-back visits in 2023 and 2024. He was eighth last week in Puerto Rico, where he ranked 12th in the field for Driving Accuracy and was fourth for Greens in Regulation. Bezuidenhout ranks 56th on Tour this season for SG: Approach, 21st for SG: Putting, is 33rd for Driving Accuracy and is 45th in Scrambling. He has been top 10 previously at the Valspar Championship and was runner-up at the 2024 American Express.