Featured Group: Bubba Watson, Luke Donald, Mark Wilson

At each PGA TOUR event this season, a featured pairing will be highlighted prior to the first round. Here is the featured group for Thursday and Friday at THE PLAYERS Championship.

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PONTE VEDRA, Fla. -- The top three players in the FedExCup competition are paired together during the first two rounds of THE PLAYERS Championship.

Two of the three -- Bubba Watson and Mark Wilson -- have already won twice this year. Both have spent time at No. 1: Watson for the last three weeks and Wilson for the previous 12.

The third member of the group, Luke Donald, currently clocks in at No. 2 in the FedExCup. He broke a four-year victory drought earlier this year when he won the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

It goes without saying that Watson has been playing extremely well this season. He came from behind to win the Farmers Insurance Open, then prevailed in a playoff over Webb Simpson two weeks ago in New Orleans.

The big-hitting lefty currently leads Donald by 140 points in the FedExCup. But he's hardly one-dimensional -- Watson ranks first on TOUR in greens in regulation at 74 percent and second in driving distance at 313.6 yards.

Watson, who is known for his go-for-broke style of play, also puts on a good show. No one has gone for it on par 5s more than he has (76 percent) and he also ranks first in eagles with 10, first in par-5 scoring (4.44) and first in birdie of better percentage at 59 percent.

Donald may trail Watson and Wilson in the win column but no one on TOUR has been more consistent than the Englishman. He missed the cut in his 2011 debut but won the next week -- and Donald hasn't finished lower than 10th in five starts since.

Not to mention, Donald nearly picked up his second win of the season last month at The Heritage when he took Brandt Snedeker to a three-hole playoff at The Heritage. Donald hasn't shot above par in his last 17 rounds and not coincidentally leads the TOUR in scoring average at 69.08.

In stark contrast to the Watson, Donald's short game has been particularly impressive. He ranks 13th in strokes-gained putting and leads the TOUR with his wedge game, averaging just 13 feet, 2 inches on approach shots inside 125 yards. He also ranks fourth in scrambling and 26th in sand save percentage.

Wilson won twice in his first three starts of the season. He shot four rounds in the 60s -- including on a 36-hole Sunday -- to capture the Sony Open in Hawaii and then did the same when he won the Waste Management Phoenix Open three weeks later.

Wilson, who now has four TOUR wins, added one more top-10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. He ranks 15th in driving accuracy and first in par-3 performance.

MORE: Watson interview | Bubba dealing with Dye's distractions

Statistical comparison

Key stats from Watson, Donald and Wilson from the 2011 season (TOUR rank in parentheses)

Category WATSON DONALD WILSON   Driving distance 313.6 (2nd) 277.0 (157th) 278.6 (T149th) Driving accuracy 61.32% (86th) 64.61% (44th) 68.72% (15th) Greens in regulation 74.02% (1st) 65.66% (T65th) 69.03% (22nd) Strokes gained - putting -.217 (134th) .632 (13th) .197 (74th) Scoring average 70.92 (T60th) 69.08 (1st) 70.88 (53rd)

Career at THE PLAYERS Championship

Bubba Watson Luke Donald Mark Wilson Appearance 5th 9th 5th Cuts Made/Missed 1/3 5/3 2/2 Wins 0 0 0 Top-10s 0 1 0 Top 25s 0 2 0 Best Finish T37 (2009) T2nd (2005) T42nd (2008) Last Appearance/Finish 2010/CUT 2010/T26 2010/CUT Scoring Avg. 73.30 72.08 73.42

EXPERT PREDICTIONS: We asked some of our PGATOUR.COM experts to predict which player will fare best this week at TPC Sawgrass:

Stan Awtrey: Luke Donald: One poor round has killed his chances the last three years at Sawgrass. But his game is in such a consistent place, this could be the week he takes the lead in the FedExCup points list.

Melanie Hauser: Luke Donald. Has the kind of game that works here. Solid all the way through the bag, low-key and poised to do some big things ... Doesn't hurt that he finished T2 here in 2005.

Craig Dolch: Luke Donald. The TPC Sawgrass is the ideal course for a strategic player such as Donald. He was second at THE PLAYERS in 2005.

FANTASY FORECAST: Rob Bolton has Luke Donald No. 1 this week, but in his Fantasy Insider he was much less bullish on Bubba.