Previewing the Players Championship: Can anyone stop Scheffler, and who are some sleepers? - ESPN

The Players Championship has arrived, and while the PGA Tour is still trying to figure out what the future of professional golf might look like, its marquee event is chock full of storylines this week.

As world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler attempts to do the unthinkable and three-peat at a course that doesn't typically lend itself to repeat winners (let alone three in a row), TPC Sawgrass is primed to once again provide a thrilling tournament finish come Sunday.

Here are the five things we're keeping an eye on this week.

Mark Schlabach: I'm curious to see how Collin Morikawa bounces back from another disappointing Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He played great through the first two months of the season, finishing second at both the Sentry and API and tying for 17th at both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational.

Still, Morikawa has to be wondering what he must do to lift a trophy again. The two-time major champion's last victory on tour came at the Zozo Championship in Japan in October 2023. He has nine top-five finishes the past two seasons, including runner-up finishes to Scheffler at the Memorial Tournament and Tour Championship in 2024.

Morikawa didn't play badly on Sunday, but he didn't make enough putts to hold off Russell Henley at Bay Hill.

«Sunday night was a lot of frustration,» Morikawa said. «Just looking back over the past year and kind of how I went about my fall was to figure out how to play better in final rounds, and when you don't play well and you don't close it out, you're like, 'How do we go back to the drawing board?'

»It's not really [to] rip everything up and start over, but there's just little things, right? Obviously, I wasn't hitting it as well. I wasn't putting as well.