Rory McIlroy can bounce back from Bay Hill errors and make history at Sawgrass, says Rich Beem

Rory McIlroy's consistency this season has been remarkable

Rory McIlroy has an "outstanding chance" to become the first man to successfully defend the Players Championship title, but he needs to avoid the mistakes that derailed him at Bay Hill, says Rich Beem ...

It's difficult to defend any tournament, but I think McIlroy's got an outstanding chance of doing so this week. There's very few in the game that can come close to him right now and his recent run of form is almost a mirror image of what he did last year.

McIlroy will be determined to cut out the mistakes which hampered his challenge at Bay Hill

McIlroy's consistency is just so strong right now and he keeps putting himself in these great positions to win on a weekly basis. He may stumble slightly along the way and he may not have won yet this year, but he's always there or thereabouts at the end of the week.

The world No 1 will be finding pleasure in the consistency he has had over the past few months although I think he knows that, given how well he has been playing, he could have won five or six in a row recently!

Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK & Ireland

Search

He doesn't make too many mental mistakes, although you could stay he made one last week that stopped him from winning at Bay Hill. The tee shot at the sixth was the wrong club and had I been caddying for him, I would've asked him to take out a different club to driver.

I don't think he will ever be fully satisfied until he gets his next win, which could easily be this week, but I think he's in a great frame of mind now because there's very little for him to be working on.

McIlroy is bidding to become the first back-to-back Players champion in history

This week's course is always a difficult place to wrap your head around, as there's nothing straightforward about it. It's one of the few places where the more you play it doesn't necessarily help you.

There's a lot of uncomfortable shots out there and even if you go out there with the greatest game plan in the world, the wind can suddenly switch up a little bit and throw away that plan you had.

We have never seen someone defend here at Sawgrass and I think the reason for that is it just isn't the horses-for-courses type venue that we often see on the PGA Tour. Even the greatest player of my generation, Tiger Woods, couldn't figure it out around here enough to go back-to-back.

There's so much competition at the top of the world rankings right now, which is great for the game and makes this week so open. I can go down this list and make a case for almost any guy on the tee times list that could win this week.