Anyone care for more golf? The 2025 Players Championship will bleed into the work week as a 4-hour rain delay coupled with a tie at the end of regulation will force Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun back to TPC Sawgrass early Monday morning. The three-hole aggregate playoff will begin at 9 a.m. ET and consist of holes Nos. 16-18.
Spaun and McIlroy finished the 72 holes at Pete Dye’s devilish design tied at 12 under, two strokes clear of Tom Hoge, Akshay Bhatia and Lucas Glover. McIlroy extended his lead to as many as three strokes with six holes to play coming out of the rain delay, but he could not shake Spaun loose.
The 54-hole leader kept his nerve down the stretch and made birdies on Nos. 14 and 16 to pull even as McIlroy made a mistake when he missed the fairway on the par-4 14th leading to bogey. With McIlroy in the clubhouse at 12 under, Spaun was left standing on the golf course with a chance to win the golf tournament, however, when his 30-foot birdie bid fell just short, a playoff was made official.
The playoff will represent the sixth of McIlroy’s career as he boasts a 3-2 record in extra time while Spaun will partake in his first. This is the sixth playoff in Players Championship history and the first since Rickie Fowler memorably walked away with the title a decade ago in 2025.
“I’ve never experienced it before. I don’t quite know. But yeah, it’s going to be cool to be a part of,” McIlroy said. “I guess it’s very much just a three-hole match play scenario. That’s all it is. Just try to prepare as best I can tomorrow morning. Get a good night’s sleep. It’s been a very long day for all of us. Yeah, and just try to be as prepared as possible for tomorrow.”
2025 Players Championship leaderboard, breakdown
T1. J.J. Spaun, Rory McIlroy (-12): McIlroy extended his lead to three with a birdie on No. 12 just as Spaun dropped a shot on No. 11. The title appeared to be the Northern Irishman’s, but Spaun’s steady ball striking allowed him to claw back into the tournament. He hit his final seven greens in regulation including a gem into No. 14 which ultimately shifted the tides and provided a much-needed two-shot swing on that hole. McIlroy missed a 6-foot birdie opportunity on No. 15 and failed to get up-and-down for birdie on No. 16.
T3. Tom Hoge, Akshay Bhatia, Lucas Glover (-10)
T6. Danny Walker, Corey Conners, Bud Cauley (-9)
9. Robert MacIntyre (-8)
T10. Collin Morikawa, Davis Thompson (-7): The wind wreaked havoc on Saturday, and Morikawa was among the many effected. The two-time major champion put nine bogeys on his scorecard in the third round and went from firmly in the mix to out of contention. He made some noise early on Sunday, but an influx of misses from inside 10 feet proved too much to overcome.
T12. Patrick Cantlay, Jake Knapp (-6): Cantlay came out of the gates firing on Sunday and posted a pair of early birdies to climb within three of the lead. That is as close as he would get, however, as a double bogey on No. 7 erased all his hard work and a dropped shot on the very next sent him further in the wrong direction. Despite the mistake-riddled end to his tournament, Cantlay collected the best finish of his Players Championship career.
T14. Sepp Straka, Sam Ryder, Alex Smalley, Denny McCarthy, Tommy Fleetwood, Aaron Rai (-5): The American Express winner was one of three players to post an under-par round late on Saturday to pull his name onto the first couple pages of the leaderboard. Straka was unable to carry this momentum into Sunday morning, however, as he played his first six holes in 5 over to drop out of the mix. Still, the big Austrian continues to play some terrific golf as his latest finish represents his seventh top 15 in nine starts this season.
T20. Keegan Bradley, Ryan Fox, Joe Highsmith, Matt McCarty, Daniel Berger, Shane Lowry, Scottie Scheffler, Min Woo Lee, Max McGreevy, Stephan Jaeger (-4): The three-peat had legs heading into the weekend, but a blustery day caused Scheffler to slip up at TPC Sawgrass. The world No. 1 was solid from tee to green on the week but uncharacteristic course management mistakes and an uncooperative putter did him no favors. He has yet to finish outside the top 25 this season, but his last eight rounds have come between scores of 69 and 73. Solid golf, but not yet spectacular.
“I walk away from this week feeling close,” Scheffler said. “I feel like there’s some stuff that I need to work on at home, but I feel very close. Overall I felt like I did some good things this week, felt like I could have done some other things better. But overall don’t feel far off by any means. Definitely excited to get home, get a little practice in and get ready for Houston.”
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