Players Championship 2017: Favorites, Sleepers and Tournament Preview

Widely regarded as the PGA Tour's unofficial fifth major, the Players Championship is scheduled to begin Thursday at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. 

And with a $10.5 million purse—including a $1.89 million winning share—on the line, the proceedings at the Players figure to heat up in a hurry. 

With the action just days away, here's a primer for this year's championship, with a focus on favorites and potential sleepers. 

Tournament Preview

Forty-eight of the world's top 50 players have committed to the Players, according to the Florida Times-Union's Garry Smits, with Brandt Snedeker and Thomas Pieters the lone exceptions. 

As a result, there won't be a shortage of worthy title contenders in action. However, all eyes figure to be trained on Jason Day after he took home the 2016 Players Championship by four strokes over Kevin Chappell. 

And if there was ever a time for Day to snap out of his early-season funk, this would seem to be it.

Day was positively dialed in with first-and-second-round scores of 63 and 66 at Sawgrass a year ago, and even one round of that caliber this time around could help him find a groove following a 23rd-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a 22nd-place finish at the Masters. 

However, Day figures to have stiff competition from world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, No. 2 Rory McIlroy and No. 5 Jordan Spieth. 

Spieth, in particular, will be looking to rebound after one of his two missed cuts of 2016 came at the Players. 

And considering Spieth hasn't competed since he finished 11th at the Masters following a stellar 69-68 showing on Friday and Saturday, he should enter the week well rested and ready to wash away memories of last year's slip-up. 

Then there's Johnson, who returned to action last weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship following a withdrawal at the Masters due to a back injury. 

And although he struggled a bit in Rounds 1 and 2, Johnson's weekend surge should have the rest of the Players Championship field on notice. 

On the sleeper front, one name immediately jumps out based on recent performance. 

That would be Cameron Smith, who just clinched his spot in the Players by virtue of a dramatic playoff win alongside Jonas Blixt at the Zurich Classic. 

"Seeing how he played golf, the sky's the limit for him," Blixt said of Smith after their title, according to Smits. "Just watching these last four days, I haven't seen anything that good in an extremely long time."

Beyond the win in New Orleans, Smith also finished sixth at the Valero Texas Open last month. 

One last sleeper to keep in mind is Chappell. 

Not only did Chappell finish as the runner-up behind Day at last year's Players, but he carded a seventh-place finish at the Masters and won the Valero Texas Open to secure his first PGA Tour triumph. 

Consecutive wins from Chappell would be something of a stunner, but he's as hot as any player on tour at the moment and proved last year he has the game necessary to compete for a title at Sawgrass with the sport's best.