5 DP World Tour members to watch at the Players Championship.. TEE TIMES

 PGA Tour : Players Championship Tee Times Leaderboard

This week sees one of the strongest fields in golf assemble for THE PLAYERS Championship on the PGA TOUR.

Marco Penge won the 2025 Seve Ballesteros Award after being voted Player of the Year by his peers on the DP World Tour

A 123-man field containing the world's top 19 and 46 of the top 50 will descend on TPC Sawgrass to battle for one of the game's most prestigious trophies.

Rory McIlroy will look to defend the title he won 12 months ago and he is one of a strong cast of dual members representing the DP World Tour in Florida.

Marco Penge  Age: 27

DP World Tour titles: 3  OWGR: 38

A year ago Penge was 336th in the world, did not have a DP World Tour title and had just returned to the game following an enforced absence for a breach of Tour regulations.

If you had told him then that 12 months later he would be a three-time winner, the runner-up on the Race to Dubai, the Seve Ballesteros Award winner and a dual member about to make his PLAYERS and Masters debuts, he would probably not have believed you.

But that is the case for the affable, big-hitting Englishman, for whom one of the bonuses of taking the first dual membership card is a place in this week's field.

Rory McIlroy beat him to the Harry Vardon Trophy in Dubai but he came into the 2026 season an established star and began his campaign with globetrotting made cuts in Australia and South Africa.

After an initially slow start to life on the PGA TOUR, he led the Genesis Invitational heading into the weekend before finishing in the top 20 and now arrives in Florida looking for another strong week.

Kristoffer Reitan Age: 28

DP World Tour titles: 2  OWGR: 46

An overnight sensation seven years in the making, Reitan has taken the long route to the World Ranking that has earned him a place in this week's field.

He was just 20 years old when he came through all three stages of Qualifying School and turned professional to start his first full season on the DP World Tour. One top ten and 15 missed cuts saw him lose his playing privileges and gettng them back would not prove easy.

He would register just three top tens at ranking level over the next four seasons.

A first professional win at the Grand Final, changed all that, however, and this time Reitan was ready to take his chance.

Victory at the Soudal Open prompted a summer of incredible consistency and he finished eighth on the 2025 Race to Dubai to secure dual membership.

A second DP World Tour triumph at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player moved him into the world's top 50 and he has stayed there thanks to his form on the PGA TOUR, finishing in the top 20 at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches

Jordan Smith  Age: 33

DP World Tour titles: 2  OWGR: 93

An absolute picture of consistency for the best part of a decade on the DP World Tour, Smith is in the field this week after showing some of that consistency on the PGA TOUR.

He won in his maiden campaign while also making the top ten on his Major debut at the US PGA Championship and since then has only once - barring the Covid-affected 2020 campaign - finished outside the top 50 on the Race to Dubai

Last season 2025   saw him achieve the goal of dual membership thanks to two runner-up finishes and five other top tens and he is now building himself a solid platform as a dual member.

His five PGA TOUR starts have brought four made weekends and two top 25s, putting him 73rd in the FedEx Cup and in the field this week.

Haotong Li  Age: 30

DP World Tour titles: 4  OWGR: 75

This is not a debut PLAYERS appearance for Li but it is a first for eight years as the roller coaster that is his career gets back on an upward trajectory.

He earned his DP World Tour card by winning his national open in 2016 and the following year finished 3rd at The Open.

When he held off Rory McIlroy to win the 2018 Dubai Desert Classic, crack the top 50 in the world and earn that spot in THE PLAYERS, he had the world at his feet but, for a period, it would all come crashing down.

He made just two cuts in 2021 but in 2022 claimed an emotional victory at the BMW International Open, with the scenes on the 18th green living long in the memory.

However he would once again make just two cuts all season in 2023. In 2024 his game became more consistent but it was 2025 he found his way to the winner's circle, lifting the trophy in Qatar last season to go with seven other top tens to earn dual membership.

Finishes of 8th and 11th in consecutive weeks on the PGA TOUR in January and February have helped earn his place in the field this week and he will be hoping that this time, the good times are here to stay.

Shane Lowry Age: 38

DP World Tour titles: OWGR: 29

A man who, with all due respect to the others on this list, needs far less introduction as a Major winner and Ryder Cup hero.

He burst onto the scene in 2009 when he became just the third amateur winner in DP World Tour history at his home open and since then has won The Open, a World Golf Championships, two Rolex Series titles and the Portugal Masters.

He has also won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside close friend Rory McIlroy but his recent solo record in the States is one of near-misses.

For example he lost out to McIlroy at last season's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and then was in the final group as Sepp Straka beat him to the Truist Championship by the same margin.

And at the start of this month, he lost a healthy lead at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches as he found water for a pair of double-bogeys on the 70th and 71st holes to finish second again.

He admitted that stung, as youngest daughter Ivy has never been able to run onto an 18th green and celebrate a win, and that fuel is not the only good sign for Lowry - after finishing eighth in 2021, he has three top 20s at Sawgrass with a worst finish of 35th.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)