The 2023 Players Championship was the 50th playing of the Players Championship, having been played at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida from March 9–12.
The winner was Scottie Scheffler, who shot a 69 in the final round to finish at 271 (−17) to win his first Players Championship, five strokes ahead of runner-up Tyrrell Hatton.
Defending champion Cameron Smith became the first player since 2014 not to defend the title, being one of many players ineligible to compete having been suspended by the PGA Tour after joining LIV Golf. Other ineligible players included both the runner-up and third place finishers from 2022, Anirban Lahiri and Paul Casey.
Venue
Field
The field consists of 144 players meeting various criteria; they include tournament winners on the PGA Tour since the previous Players Championship, recent winners of major championships, The Players and World Golf Championships, and leading players in the FedEx Cup standings from the current and preceding seasons.
Eligibility criteria
This list details the eligibility criteria for the 2023 Players Championship and the players who qualified under them; any additional criteria under which players were eligible is indicated in parentheses.
1. Winners of PGA Tour events since the 2022 Players Championship
Keegan Bradley (2,16,17) Sam Burns (2,16) Patrick Cantlay (2,8,14,16) Nico Echavarría Tony Finau (2,16,17) Matt Fitzpatrick (2,5,16) Russell Henley (2,16) Max Homa (2,15,16,17) Billy Horschel (2,10,14,16) Mackenzie Hughes (2) Kim Si-woo (2,4,16,17) Tom Kim (2,16,17) Chris Kirk (2,16,17) Kurt Kitayama (2,13,16) Lee Kyoung-hoon (2,16) Rory McIlroy (2,4,8,12,16) Trey Mullinax (2) J. T. Poston (2) Séamus Power (2,16,17) Jon Rahm (2,5,14,15,16,17) Chad Ramey (2) Chez Reavie (2) Justin Rose (2,16) Xander Schauffele (2,16) Scottie Scheffler (2,3,10,13,16,17) J. J. Spaun (2) Jordan Spieth (2,7,16) Adam Svensson (2) Justin Thomas (2,4,6,11,16) Will Zalatoris (2,16)
2. Top 125 from the previous season's FedEx Cup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Ryan Brehm
Hayden Buckley
Stewart Cink
Wyndham Clark
Corey Conners (16) Joel Dahmen Cameron Davis Jason Day (16) Tyler Duncan Tommy Fleetwood (16) Rickie Fowler Dylan Frittelli Doug Ghim Lucas Glover Emiliano Grillo Chesson Hadley Adam Hadwin James Hahn Brian Harman (16) Tyrrell Hatton (13,16) Lucas Herbert Kramer Hickok Lee Hodges Tom Hoge (16) Beau Hossler Viktor Hovland (16) Mark Hubbard Im Sung-jae (16) Stephan Jäger Kevin Kisner (10,16) Patton Kizzire Russell Knox Kelly Kraft Matt Kuchar Martin Laird Nate Lashley David Lipsky Luke List Adam Long Justin Lower Shane Lowry (7,16) Peter Malnati Hideki Matsuyama (3) Denny McCarthy Max McGreevy Maverick McNealy Troy Merritt Keith Mitchell (16) Taylor Moore Collin Morikawa (6,7,9,16) Matthew NeSmith Alex Norén (16) Ryan Palmer Taylor Pendrith Scott Piercy Andrew Putnam Aaron Rai Doc Redman Davis Riley Patrick Rodgers Sam Ryder Adam Schenk Matthias Schwab Adam Scott (15,16) Greyson Sigg Webb Simpson (4) Alex Smalley Austin Smotherman Scott Stallings Sepp Straka (16) Robert Streb Kevin Streelman Callum Tarren Nick Taylor Sahith Theegala (16,17) Michael Thompson Brendon Todd Kevin Tway Jhonattan Vegas Matt Wallace Nick Watney Danny Willett Aaron Wise (16) Gary Woodland (5) Brandon Wu Cameron Young (16)
Daniel Berger, Lanto Griffin, John Huh, Pan Cheng-tsung and Vince Whaley did not play.
3. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2018–2022) Tiger Woods did not play.
4. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2017–2022)
5. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2017–2022)
6. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2017–2022)
7. Recent winners of The Open Championship (2017–2022) Francesco Molinari
8. Recent winners of the FedEx Cup (2019/20–2021/22)
9. Recent winners of the WGC Championship (2020–2021)
10. Recent winners of the WGC Match Play (2019–2022)
11. Recent winners of the WGC Invitational (2019–2021)
12. Recent winners of the WGC-HSBC Champions (2019)
13. Recent winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational (2020–2023)
14. Recent winners of the Memorial Tournament (2019–2022)
15. Recent winners of the Genesis Invitational (2020–2023)
16. Top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking following The Honda Classic
Ryan Fox
Min Woo Lee
17. Top 10 in the current season's FedEx Cup points standings after The Honda Classic