Three Irish golfers to watch at The Players Championship 2023

TPC Sawgrass

Dubbed the fifth golf major, The Players Championship will, once again, be back at the TPC at Sawgrass at Ponte Verde Beach, Florida at the beginning of March.

Held at the world-famous course every year since 1982 – apart from a COVID-effected 2020 – The Players Championship is always eagerly anticipated by golf fans.

It has not always been a successful event for Irish golfers. But there will be representation again this year. The Players Championship odds at most of the big online sports betting sites have mixed feelings over the three Irish golfers. But there has been some success in recent years.

Shane Lowry

Lowry elected to turn professional a week after winning The Irish Open as an amateur in 2009 and has not really looked back since. It took him three years to record his first professional victory but is best known for his 2019 Open Championship triumph.

Playing at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Lowry set a course record in the third round to lead by four strokes going into the final day. In the end he won by six shots and actually held the Claret Jug for two years, thanks to the cancelling of the 2020 tournament because of the COVID pandemic.

Lowry played in his first Ryder Cup in 2021 where he went 1-2. He most recently won the BMW PGA Championship, beating a certain Rory McIlroy by one shot to record his sixth European Tour title.

Rory McIlroy

The Northern Irishman is one of the favourites to win this year’s Players Championship, after claiming the title in 2019. He is one of the most exciting talents of his generation and is one of just three players to win four majors by the time he was just 25.

McIlroy is the current number one golfer in the world and will be coming into The Players Championship after a successful 2022. Although he fell away in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November, after leading early on, he did claim his 20th PGA Tour victory at the CJ Cup in October and represented Europe in the Ryder Cup in the summer

It is hard sometimes to remember that he is still only 33, with such a long list of honours. Although it has been a while since he won both the PGA and The Open Championship in the same year, this four-time major champion will be looking to be successful once more at the TPC at Sawgrass.

Séamus Power

The third golfer from the Emerald Isle competing at The Players Championship, Séamus Power is beginning to show some real form and has now won two PGA Tour events. He is one of only five players from the Republic of Ireland to claim that distinction. The others being Pat Doyle, Peter O’Hara, Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry.

Power actually played college golf at East Tennessee State University before going pro in 2011. This is his third Players Championship, but he has never finished higher than 33rd. But that second PGA Tour event triumph in October should give him some confidence going into the 2023 edition.

Best Irish performances

Rory McIlroy remains the only golfer from either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland to win The Players Championship. But the great Pádraig Harrington came agonisingly close two years running at the beginning of the 2000s. In both 2003 and 2004, Harrington finished as runner-up.

In 2003, Harrington had led the tournament through three rounds of the event before Davis Love III shot a 64 in the final round to sneak through to the title. A year later Harrington had fallen out of the running after shooting a round of 73 on the third day. But he fought back in the final round and was only beaten by one shot in the end by Australian Adam Scott. Hopefully one of the Irish players this year will have better luck.