The 2018 Players Championship, which starts Thursday from TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl. will attract wagers from amateurs, professional bettors, and everyone in between. Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, and Jordan Spieth are the favorites at 14-1, while Justin Johnson, Justin Thomas, and Rickie Fowler are right behind at 16-1. The first group tees at 7:10 a.m. ET.

Before you make any bets or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on DraftKings or FanDuel, you'll want to hear what the team at SportsLine has to say.

SportsLine's prediction model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, nailed the 2018 Masters, predicting the career-defining victory for Patrick Reed entering the weekend.

It also nailed the Masters and U.S. Open last year, calling wins for Sergio Garcia and Brooks Koepka entering the weekend. Then, it was all over Jordan Spieth at the British Open from the start and called his third major victory with three rounds to play.

Now that the star-studded 2018 Players Championship field is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times and the results were surprising.

One huge surprise the model is calling for at the Players Championship 2018: Tiger Woods, a two-time champion, makes a strong run but falls short of winning the title.

Woods, one of just six players with at least two victories at the Players Championship, is coming off a disappointing 55th-place finish at last week's Wells Fargo Championship. However, he finished in the top eight at Quail Hollow in strokes gained tee to green, which will be vital this week at TPC Sawgrass.

Woods is also 44th on the PGA Tour in putts per round at 28.58 and 24th in driving distance at 306.6 yards.

Another shocker: Hideki Matsuyama, a 40-1 long shot, makes a serious run at the TPC title. He's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday.

Matsuyama is coming off a disappointing performance in the Wells Fargo Championship, but finished in the top 20 at the Masters and had top-5 finishes in three of his first four starts this season.

He can make up ground on a competitive 2018 Players Championship field in a hurry too. He's ninth on the PGA Tour in holes per eagle at 100.8, 59th in birdie average at 3.75, and 26th in putts in the final round of a tournament at 27.67.

Don't forget -- Matsuyama is No. 9 in the Official World Golf Rankings and has finished in the top six of each major over the course of his career.

Also, the model says three other golfers with 25-1 or longer Players Championship odds will make a deep run at the title, including a monumental long shot whose odds are even higher than Matsuyama's. Anyone who bets on these underdogs could hit it big.

So who wins the 2018 Players Championship? And which long shots stun the golfing world? Check out the odds below and visit SportsLine now to see the full Players Championship projected leaderboard from the model that's nailed four of the last five majors heading into the weekend, and find out.

Rory McIlroy 14-1
Jason Day 14-1
Jordan Speith 14-1  
Justin Thomas 16-1
Dustin Johnson 16-1
Rickie Fowler 16-1
Jon Rahm 20-1
Justin Rose 25-1
Henrik Stenson 25-1
Sergio Garcia 30-1
Patrick Reed 30-1   
Phil Mickelson 30-1
Tiger Woods 30-1 
Hideki Matsuyama 40-1
Francesco Molinari 40-1  
Tommy Fleetwood 50-1
Alex Noren 50-1
Bryson DeChambeau 50-1
Bubba Watson 50-1
Daniel Berger 50-1
Kevin Kisner 50-1
Marc Leishman 50-1
Matt Kuchar 50-1
Patrick Cantlay 50-1
Billy Horschel 50-1
Ian Poulter 50-1
Louis Oosthuizen 50-1