Players Championship 2016: Favorites, Sleepers and Tournament Preview

The Players Championship is often referred to as the fifth major because of its prominence on the PGA Tour.

It is not the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open or PGA Championship, but this tournament regularly brings out the best players on the tour, and golf fans often see the best golf of the year at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

It's a huge tournament that is worth 600 FedEx Cup points to the winner, and it is always one of the most anticipated events of the year.

Dramatic finishes are often the rule at the Players Championship, and Rickie Fowler authored one of the most memorable last year when he came back from a five-shot deficit with six holes to play and emerged victorious in a three-man playoff with Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner.

Player	FedEx Cup Ranking	Skinny
Adam Scott	No. 1	Best swing in the game.
Jason Day	No. 2	At his best in big events.
Russell Knox	No. 4	Magnificent season.
Kevin Kisner	No. 5	Lost in playoff last year.
Jordan Spieth	No. 7	Will try to get past Masters blowup.
Bubba Watson	No. 11	Needs to show off his accuracy at TPC Sawgrass.
Rickie Fowler	No. 13	Will try to defend his title.
Phil Mickelson	No. 18	Has struggled here regularly.
Rory McIlroy	No. 30	Ready for a strong run.
William McGirt	No. 35	Four top-10 finishes this season.
Jason Bohn	No. 38	Two seconds, one third-place finish.
Daniel Berger	No. 51	Averaging 299.2 yards off the tee.

Fowler will be back to defend his title, but he has not won a tournament in the United States since last September. Jordan Spieth will compete at the Players, and this is his first tournament appearance since his Masters meltdown in April. Danny Willett, who won that tournament when Spieth collapsed on the back nine in the final round, will also compete.

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Adam Scott, the No. 1 player in FedEx Cup points will be in the field, as will Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Henrik Stenson, Kevin Na, Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson.

However, it's not just the tour's big stars who will be looking to take the title away from Fowler. Sleepers such as William McGirt, Russell Knox, Jason Bohn and Daniel Berger have the firepower and complete games to give the top stars a run for their money.

While Tiger Woods may be getting close to playing tour events again, he will not be playing in the Players Championship.

McIlroy could be getting ready for a big tournament after firing a closing 66 in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Irishman has finished in the top 10 at the Players Championship each of the last three years, and that comes on the heels of missing the cut in the event during the three previous years.

McIlroy told Helen Ross of PGATour.com he has made adjustments to his game that have allowed him to gain more comfort with the famed TPC Sawgrass course: 

"

I finally accepted that I can't hit driver as much as I would like there. I've always felt that it was a golf course that handcuffed me a little bit. The things that give me an advantage over some of the field, you know, they don't really give me an advantage there.  

So the first few years I was quite stubborn and still trying to take on a lot of things instead of accepting the fact that I'm going to have to play the course the way everyone else plays it. If I'm going to beat them, I have to beat them with approach shots and good wedge play and putting.

"

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Mickelson has often struggled at the Players Championship over the years, and while he has won the tournament once, he has just two other top-10 finishes despite competing 22 times.

Mickelson said the primary reason for his struggles at TPC Sawgrass is that the course is unforgiving and that his normal recovery shots are simply ineffective there. 

"I look back, I've struggled on that golf course over the years," Mickelson said, per Ross. "It's a very difficult course to recover. To recover off the tee is very challenging because the penalties are so severe. Very difficult to recover around the greens because the shots are so tough around the greens." 

The Players Championship is often among the most competitive tournaments of the year. With a star-studded field once again, it seems quite likely another exciting finish is a strong possibility.