The Biggest Storylines Ahead of the 2015 Players Championship

It's time for the so-called fifth major of the season as 49 of the top 50 golfers in the world tee it up at TPC Sawgrass for The Players Championship. 

Of course, with so many of the world's top golfers in the field, there are bound to be storylines, especially coming on the heels of a tournament (the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship) that presented no shortage of controversy itself. 

What are the biggest storylines heading into this week's Players Championship?

Read on to find out. 

Tiger Woods Returns to Competition at a Difficult Time

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Tiger Woods returns to competition at the Players for the first time since the final round of the Masters Tournament on April 12.  

Asked about the state of his game, Woods said, per Marika Washchyshyn of Golf.com:

"

I’ve made some huge strides. Huge. To go from that to what I was at Augusta...I worked my ass off to get to that point. I really did. To change all that and go into a major championship, basically untested and do what I did, I thought was pretty good for three days.

"

Woods didn't compete at the Players last year as he was recuperating from back surgery. He won the event in 2013 and thus will enter it having won it the last time he played, for what that's worth. 

He found himself in the headlines this week as girlfriend Lindsey Vonn announced the couple's breakup May 3, which is also the anniversary of his father's death. 

Given all of the above, how the former world No. 1 plays this week will be a major tournament storyline. 

Rory McIlroy Proved He's No. 1, Will Likely Relish the Chance to Prove It Again

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Coming off a marathon victory at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship, Rory McIlroy has restated his case as the No. 1 golfer in the world. 

McIlroy handled himself in difficult matches against Billy Horschel, Paul Casey and Jim Furyk before steamrolling Gary Woodland in the championship match. 

In short, he's on-form, and his confidence is surely high as he returns to a venue where he finished tied for sixth last year. 

The boy wonder just turned 26 this week and will be paired with 21-year-old Jordan Spieth for the first two rounds. You'd have to imagine with all the talk recently about Jordan Spieth being the best player in the world, McIlroy would relish the opportunity to beat him by a couple of strokes in their Thursday and Friday three-balls together. 

Keegan Bradley vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez Fallout

Much has been made of the on-course incident between Keegan Bradley, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Bradley's caddie, Steve "Pepsi" Hale at last week's WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship.

If you need a refresher, check out the video above for the full nose-to-nose incident.

Golf Channel's eternal insider, Tim Rosaforte, spoke with Keegan Bradley as he practiced at his home course, The Bear's Club, in Jupiter, Florida. Rosaforte quoted Bradley as saying, "In retrospect, I was schooled by a gamer. I let him get into my head."

Thus, the St. John's alum acknowledged both Jimenez's expert gamesmanship and his own overreaction. 

Still, you shouldn't expect that they've put this issue to bed. Now that Bradley has offered his assessment of what transpired, the media will press Jimenez for comment, and you'll see a discussion about the etiquette of what the Spaniard was doing and a number of other conversations. 

There may never be a Round 2 in Bradley vs. Jimenez, but we're certainly in for additional analysis of Round 1. 

McIlroy, Spieth, Day Grouping

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The PGA Tour has thrown golf fans (particularly those in attendance at TPC Sawgrass) a bone with this one: Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day are grouped together for the first two days. And this group (plus Tiger Woods) should dominate 90 percent of the Thursday and Friday coverage, with debates as to who the real No. 1 is abounding.

Regardless of that conjecture, it will be entertaining to watch the top two golfers playing together for the first two rounds. And Jason Day's no slouch either!

All three golfers have won this season, with McIlroy's victory coming last week at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship. The trio will tee off at 8:39 a.m. ET in the first round and 1:49 p.m. ET in the second. 

Match Play Grumbling

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Coming out of last week's restructured WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship, we've heard rumblings of discontent from the PGA Tour's best. 

From Jordan Spieth suggesting the first three days of the competition ought to be stroke play to Ian Poulter lamenting having to play a "meaningless" match (h/t Golf.com) to Henrik Stenson essentially advocating for half points in the group stage rather than sudden-death playoffs, per Golf Week's Alex Miceli, the pros had a lot to say. 

Ditto goes for the columnists, including ESPN's Jason Sobel, with his "Five ways to fix the 'new' WGC-Match Play" piece, and Golf.com's Gary Van Sickle, who entertained the notion that the format may need further revision. 

Assuming we have continued discussion of the match play's format, fold in the FedEx Cup points system and, heck, even add in the debate about whether The Players Championship should officially become the fifth major, and the larger issue becomes the fluidity of the PGA Tour calendar and tournaments in the quest for some sort of optimum. 

Of course, the tour is less fluid in other areas...

All of these are storylines this week. 

Anonymous Pro, Secret Survey Findings

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In the span of a few days, Golf Digest published an installment of its "Anonymous Pro" series in which a (presumably different) pro sounds off, and Golf.com released its own anonymous survey of touring professionals. 

You're likely to hear quite a bit of banter about the results in the week ahead, with a few findings getting the lion's share of the attention. 

Most notably, PGA Tour pros think Tiger Woods (76 percent) is more likely to get to 19 majors than Rory McIlroy (just 24 percent). And 73 percent of pros feel Dustin Johnson's leave of absence last year was not totally voluntary. Also, Ian Poulter and Rickie Fowler (24 percent each) are the most overrated players in golf. 

These types of surveys are always fun and/or stupid and designed to stir up controversy, so expect to hear more about them. And you can count on some brilliant journo cornering Rickie Fowler to ask, "Hey Rickie, what's it like for your peers to think of you as the most overrated player on tour?"