With four weeks to go until the strongest field in golf reconvenes at TPC Sawgrass, THE PLAYERS Championship will profile three players each week to highlight the biggest storylines and set the stage for the 2023 championship.
Jon Rahm, Max Homa and Si Woo Kim will be among those who arrive at THE PLAYERS having already won on the PGA TOUR in 2023.
Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm opened 2023 with victories in consecutive starts at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and The American Express, with the latter giving the Spaniard his first career lead in the FedExCup. He nearly added a third in a row at the Farmers Insurance Open before settling for T7, his fourth top-10 in as many starts during the 2022-23 season. His two wins mark the second time in his career with multiple victories in a season (2020). At THE PLAYERS, Rahm owns two top-15 finishes in five career starts, including a T9 in 2021. As the 54-hole leader in 2019, he closed with a final-round 76 to finish T12.
Max Homa
Max Homa continued his torrid record in his home state of California, coming from five strokes back in the final round to win the Farmers Insurance Open for his sixth career PGA TOUR title and fourth in The Golden State. He joins Rahm as the only two multiple winners on TOUR in 2022-23, with Homa having already won the season-opening Fortinet Championship in September. The win elevated Homa to No. 13 in the Official World Golf Ranking, a career high for the 32-year-old who endured an up-and-down journey to the PGA TOUR that saw him lose his card in 2015 and 2017. But since May of 2019, Homa is one of only five players on TOUR with six or more victories. In two career starts at THE PLAYERS, Homa posted a T13 in 2022.
Si Woo Kim
Still the youngest to hoist THE PLAYERS Championship trophy at 21 years old in 2017, Si Woo Kim returned to the winner’s circle in January with a come-from-behind victory at the Sony Open in Hawaii for his fourth career PGA TOUR victory and first since the 2021 American Express. Kim is the second player from Korea to win THE PLAYERS after K.J. Choi accomplished the feat in 2011. In what was his second PLAYERS appearance, Kim overcame a two-stroke deficit in the final round with a bogey-free 69 – which included pars on his final nine holes – to win by one. Since his win, Kim has added one top-10 finish at TPC Sawgrass – a T9 in 2021.
