Can Rory McIlroy win The Players Championship 2025? Day 1 odds explored

2025's The Players Championship is set to tee off on Thursday, March 13 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The event, popularly called men’s golf’s ‘fifth Major’, will see a stacked PGA Tour field of 144 players competing for the winner’s paycheck from the whopping $25 million prize purse. Rory McIlroy is one of the favorites to win the contest.

The latest edition of The Players will have 48 of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking teeing up. LIV Golfers Tyrrell Hatton and Bryson DeChambeau are the only two top-50 ranked players missing the event, owing to their PGA Tour ban. Despite the stacked field, the World No. 1 and the contest’s two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler is the outright favorite to win.

The 28-year-old enters the field with 36-1 odds, as per SportsLine. He is closely followed by McIlroy with 80-1 odds. The Northern Irishman, who started off the 2025 PGA Tour season with a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, will be eyeing a big comeback this weekend. Coming off a T15 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the four-time Major winner is a clear favorite behind Scheffler.

McIlroy signed off an eventful 2024 season with a single victory, which came at the Wells Fargo Championship. He famously lost the US Open to LIV Golf counterpart Bryson DeChambeau in a dramatic playoff. Having failed to win a Major championship in over a decade now, the 35-year-old golfer will be focused on getting over the line at The Players.

---

The Players Championship 2025 odds

Rory McIlroy sits second behind two-time defending champion and event favorite Scottie Scheffler on The Players odds list. Meanwhile, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele follow the top two with 160-1 odds each.

Some other big names to watch at TPC Sawgrass will include the likes of Ludvig Aberg (200-1), Justin Thomas (200-1), Hideki Matsuyama (300-1), Patrick Cantlay (350-1), Tommy Fleetwood (350-1) and Shane Lowry (400-1).

---

Listed below are the top odds for The Players 2025 (As per SportsLine):

• Scottie Scheffler +360
• Rory McIlroy +800
• Collin Morikawa +1600
• Xander Schauffele +1600
• Ludvig Aberg +2000
• Justin Thomas +2000
• Hideki Matsuyama +3000
• Patrick Cantlay +3500
• Tommy Fleetwood +3500
• Shane Lowry +4000
• Russell Henley +4500
• Sungjae Im +5500
• Sepp Straka +5500
• Keegan Bradley +5500
• Sam Burns +6000
• Wyndham Clark +6000
• Corey Conners +6500
• Jason Day +6500
• Maverick McNealy +6500
• Tony Finau +7000
• Viktor Hovland +7000
• Si Woo Kim +7000
• Daniel Berger +7000
• Min Woo Lee +7500
• Robert MacIntyre +7500

More details on the 2025 PGA Tour’s The Players Championship will be updated as the event progresses.