2023 Players Championship: Jon Rahm's dominance, Justin Thomas' struggles lead 10 storylines at TPC Sawgrass

Rahm's run, TPC Sawgrass' quirks and no defending champion highlight the big stories this week

The 2023 Players Championship marks the culmination of an incredible five-week stretch for the PGA Tour. It started in Phoenix with Scottie Scheffler defending his Phoenix Open title, continued in Los Angeles with Jon Rahm's 80th (approximate) win of the season at the Genesis Invitational and carried into Florida over the last two weeks. Now, the Tour presents its crown jewel with several top players playing their best golf and a thousand talking points to hit as the week unfolds. 

Until last week's T39 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rahm had truly been on a Tiger Woodsian run. Given his, uh, interesting history at TPC Sawgrass, what he does at this year's Players should be fascinating. Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele have all played terrific golf at times, and several of them will factor into this tournament.

Throw in all the off-the-course drama -- the revamped PGA Tour schedule, LIV Golf's ever-present threat, the $25 million purse -- and not even Tiger's absence can dampen what should be one of the best weeks of the year.