Five DP World Tour members to watch at THE PLAYERS

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

Here, we take a look at some of the players to keep an eye on.

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.

He finished top of the HotelPlanner Tour Rankings in 2023 but needed to make a birdie on the 36th hole at the 2024 Genesis Championship to make the cut and have a chance of keeping his playing privileges.

He made the putt, kept his card and the rest is history, with titles following in 2025 at the Hainan Classic, Danish Golf Championship and Open de España presented by Madrid.

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 and while 2024 saw improvement, a return to the DP World Tour still looked unlikely.

A maiden professional win at the Grand Final supported by the R&A 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.

The Englishman's initial rise in the game was rapid as he topped the Rankings on the EuroPro and HotelPlanner Tours in consecutive seasons to get on the DP World 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.

A second win in record-breaking style came at the 2022 Portugal Masters and in the following two seasons he would come close to earning dual membership, missing out by less than 100 points in 2024.

Last season saw him achieve that goal 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 third 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 the following season claimed an emotional victory at the BMW International Open, with the scenes on the 18th green living long in the memory.

It seemed, however, that the good was the anomaly rather than the bad, as he would once again make just two cuts all season in 2023.

The following year saw him stabilise and then once again 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 eighth 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: 6

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 takes his place here as there is an anomaly to his glittering CV: he has never won a regular individual PGA TOUR event on US soil, but he is trending the right way.

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.

His Open victory came on the island of Ireland at Royal Portrush and while that career highlight will probably never be topped, it may well have been matched when he holed the putt to retain the Ryder Cup for Europe at Bethpage last year.

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.

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.