Players Championship 2016 Payout: Breaking Down Prize-Money Purse Distribution

Golf's fifth major championship has arrived. The Players Championship gets underway Thursday at TPC Sawgrass' Stadium course, with a majority of the world's top golfers descending to Ponte Vedra Beach.

Looking at the pre-tournament odds, though, you might notice something a little bit off. The tournament favorite is not world No. 1 Jason Day. It's not world No. 2 Jordan Spieth. It's world No. 3 Rory McIlroy, who hasn't won on the PGA Tour in almost a full calendar year.

Odds Shark has McIlroy at +750 (bet $100 to in $750), and it's not even as if McIlroy has a history of dominance at Sawgrass. He's never won a Players Championship, though he has been in contention a few times. 

"I've gotten a lot more comfortable with Sawgrass,'' McIlroy said, per Bob Harig of ESPN.com. "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.''

McIlroy being the favorite is arguably more of a comment on how Spieth and Day have been playing. Spieth hasn't played a competitive round since his Sunday collapse at the Masters. While he wound up second—a fine overall performance—it continues an inconsistent 2016 season. Augusta was Spieth's only top-10 finish since January, and he's only won once all year.

Category	Details
Total Purse	$10.5 million
Winner's Share	$1.89 million

"This is going to hurt badly," Nick Faldo told Ian O'Connor of ESPN.com. "He was on the steps of doing something to join our little club, which would've been great. I would've welcomed him to our little club of those who have defended. The good news is he's 22. You regroup. He's way too talented...He's got a lot of majors he's going to have a shot to win."

Spieth is two years removed from sharing a 54-hole lead with Martin Kaymer before finishing in a tie for fourth. He responded with a 75-72 last year to miss the cut, giving him two disparate performances to draw from coming into this tournament.

Still, given his 2016 ascent, it's a bit odd that Jason Day isn't sitting atop the oddsmaker charts. Day has won twice this season and has finished worse than 11th only three times this season. He's also a couple weeks removed from a fifth-place finish at the Zurich Classic.

It's likely Day's shaky history at the Players Championship played a part in those expectations. Day has entered the tournament five times. He's missed three cuts and has one top-10 finish. Last year, he shot 81 in the second round on his way to an early exit. 

“Obviously I haven't had the greatest finishes here at The Players Championship, but with that said, I feel a lot more prepared this year than I ever have in my career coming into this event,” Day said Tuesday, per Steve DiMeglio of USA Today.

Day said it's his inability to play driver that haunts him most here.

“It's a difficult golf course in regards that, for me, not so much trying to hit the driver off the tee, but there's a few 3-woods out there for me that I have to hit, and if there's one club in the bag that's uncomfortable for me at times, it's the 3-wood,” Day said. “That's why I might be hitting a few more 2-irons off the tee this week, just to try and get it in play, so that I can hit the fairways and try and get it on the green and give myself an opportunity at birdie."

As it stands, the winner of this will get a major championship-level check—if not a major in the overall column. The Players Championship is now an eight-figure purse tournament and for years had the distinction of being the highest-grossing on tour.