Golf odds: The Players Championship

Let's get this out of the way first and foremost heading into the PGA Tour's "fifth major" this weekend at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.: Tiger Woods is not playing.

Thus, the chances of many increases significantly and probably make this story a little more worthwhile.

Even without Tiger, the field is stellar: 49 of the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup points are playing. Every player who has won a tournament since the start of 2007 is teeing it up at Sawgrass other than Tiger.

Phil Mickelson is the defending champ at The Players, as Lefty came from behind on the final day to defeat Sergio Garcia by two strokes in 2007. Mickelson, the WagerWeb.com betting favorite this week at +650, is
playing well this year, second in FedEx Cup points and coming off a T-12 at last week's Wachovia Championship.

Mickelson also has a win under his belt (Northern Trust Open), tied for sixth at the Buick Invitational, lost in a playoff at the FBR Open and tied for fifth at the Masters. However, no one has won back-to-back at The Players (five players have won this event multiple times).

One change that Mickelson and the rest of the field will encounter this week will be the rough which will exceed the two-inch depth from 12 months ago."I don't know exactly how the course will be set up but I would guess it would be similar to what we saw last year," Mickelson said.

Incidentally, of the previous 34 Players champions, 26 have been major championship winners.

No one may be playing better on Tour right now than 22-year-old Anthony Kim (+1700 at WagerWeb.com), who won last week's Wachovia. He is the only player on Tour to have a first, second and third this year. He missed the cut at The Players last year.

Another young player worth a betting look this week is Adam Scott (+700). The 27-year-old Aussie won this tournament in 2004 has had three top-10s since. He has registered two wins this year and a top-10 finish last week at Wachovia.

Vijay Singh (+1500) loves Sawgrass - the Fijian has a runner-up finish, two top-15s and a top-10 from his last seven appearances at The Players.

Padraig Harrington (+1500) has been a runner-up twice here and has three top-5s finishes this year. However, Sandy Lyle was the last European to triumph at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, doing so 21 years ago.

In a curious coincidence, 21 Europeans are in this week's field of 144.

"If there is a reason why Europeans haven't won since '87, I don't know," British Open champion Harrington said. "We must be due and I have a 1-in-21 chance if it's a numbers game.

Brandt Snedeker (+4000) tied for 12th a year ago in his first appearance at The Players and has four top-10s already this year, including a tie for third at the Masters.

Maybe Garcia (+2500) gets his first PGA Tour win since 2005 this week after the runner-up finish at The Players last year. He also finished fourth at Sawgrass in 2002, so he should have confidence.