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The PLAYERS Championship is the undoubted spring highlight on the PGA Tour, and this year's renewal comes with added lustre as Dustin Johnson requires his best ever performance in the event to hold onto the world number one ranking he's held for 64 weeks.

Johnson finished 12th at TPC Sawgrass last year, one week on from second place in the Wells Fargo Championship, but a two-way tie for 11th will be needed if he's to remain top dog and that's a result he's yet to achieve at a golf course which clearly does not play to his strengths.

Indeed, despite a win here for Jason Day and a string of top-10 finishes for Rory McIlroy, it's hard to argue that Pete Dye's masterpiece is suited to these modern-day golfers who continue to dominate the sport. This is no ordinary par 72 - some say it plays like a par 70 - and, unlike last week at Quail Hollow, driver just won't be in play often enough to hand the advantage to Day, McIlroy, Johnson and Justin Thomas.

McIlroy will carry a two-iron this week and will be forced to go against his all-out-attacking instincts so much of the time, and all these players who gain strokes off the tee (DJ first, Jon Rahm second in 2018) with 330-yard drives are going to have to find those shots somewhere else, often around greens if recent history is anything to go by.

Were this golf course hosting any old humdrum PGA Tour event, I suspect several of the above wouldn't be in the field, but this is the PLAYERS Championship, the so-called fifth major, the purse is huge and as it no longer clashes with the European Tour's BMW PGA, it is a ticket you do not tear up.

Plus, these are the best players in the sport and they can win anywhere. Day showed as much when he arrived at the peak of his powers and it's no surprise that he's back at the head of the market, while McIlroy's non-threatening consistency here, encouraging signs in his first start since Augusta and memories of his Bay Hill heroics entitle him to be 14/1, too. None appear to be a bad price - the market reflects their lack of suitability to the course - but none really tempt me.

The exception is Jordan Spieth, who very nearly made his way into the staking plan despite arriving on the back of three successive missed cuts at Sawgrass.

Although he's struggled a little in recent appearances here, it's telling that Spieth has said the same thing year on year. In 2015, he called Sawgrass "one of my favourite (courses) in the world", a message he echoed almost verbatim in 2016, while in 2017 he added: "I love this course and I think it fits my game well."

Spieth is right, and his struggles over this spell need to be balanced against a superb debut, in which he played the first 60 holes of one of the most mentally demanding courses on the planet without dropping a single shot. This was before he'd become a major champion, remember, and serves as evidence that he absolutely has the game and the mindset to win the event at some stage.