The 2018 Players Championship field is the deepest non-major field in golf (actually deeper than several majors), with exemptions in 13 different categories that wind up getting the overwhelming number of top-100 players in the Official World Golf Ranking in the field.
A golfer has to be one of the best on the planet to qualify for The Players Championship, or they can be a PGA Tour winner or a major champion or a points leader from the current or prior season to earn an invitation.
The Players Championship qualifying and exemption categories
- Winners of PGA Tour events since the last Players Championship
- Top 125 from previous season's FedEx Cup points list
- Top 125 players who completed a major medical extension in-season
- Major champions from the past five years
- Players Championship winners from the past five years
- Tour Championship winners from the past three years
- World Golf Championship winners from the past three years
- Memorial Tournament and Arnold Palmer Invitational winners for the past three years
- Top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking
- Senior Players champion from prior year
- Web.com Tour money leader from prior season
- Web.com Tour Finals money leader from prior season (if not the regular-season money leader)
- Top 10 current year FedEx Cup points leaders the week prior to the event
- Remaining positions filled through current year FedEx Cup standings
