PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: Rory McIlroy built a three-shot lead on the back nine at The Players Championship and unheralded J.J. Spaun didn’t blink. They wound up tied after a four-hour rain delay and had to return Monday for a playoff to decide the richest tournament in golf.
McIlroy needed two putts from 75 feet on the par-4 18th for a 4-under 68. All he could do was wait in the scoring area on Spaun, who had caught up with a marvelous chip on the par-5 16th and stood over a 30-foot putt for the win.
It stopped inches short, giving Spaun a 72 to match McIlroy at 12-under 276.
They did well to finish in regulation before sunset. The Players has a three-hole aggregate playoff on the most dynamic holes on the TPC Sawgrass — the par-5 16th, the island green on the par-3 17th and the daunting par-4 closing hole.
It will be the first Monday finish since Cameron Smith won in 2022 and the first playoff at The Players since Rickie Fowler won 10 years ago.
“I’m standing here feeling like I should be going home with the trophy today,” McIlroy said. “But it’s all right. I’ll reset and try to go home with the trophy tomorrow.”
Tom Hoge had to wait out the four-hole delay with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th. He returned and missed, posting a 66 and wound up two shots behind. Lucas Glover rallied from a rough front nine for a 71 and joined Hoge and Akshay Bhatia (70).
Bud Cauley, whose thought his career was over from crushing injuries in a 2018 car crash in Ohio, fell back early and steadied himself for a 74. He tied for sixth, giving him more than enough points to fulfill his medical exemption for the rest of the year.
McIlroy faced a four-shot deficit going into the final round and roared into contention with an 8-foot birdie putt and beautiful long iron to 10 feet for eagle on the par-5 second. He took the lead for the first time when Spaun made bogey on the seventh hole.
Spaun caught a big break on the ninth hole when his second shot was in the collar of deep rough. He got relief from standing on a sprinkler head, then more relief when his drop was in the sprinkler head, leading to a clean lie. He chipped to 6 feet for birdie.
Still, McIlroy appeared to start pulling away right before and after the four-hour delay from a band of thunderstorms moving across north Florida.
He holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th to reach 12 under. Spaun, playing in the group behind him, was in trouble in a bunker well short of the green.
Four hours later, McIlroy made a 15-foot birdie on the 12th, while Spaun barely got the bunker shot on the green and three-putted for bogey from some 70 feet.
Just like that, McIlroy was three shots clear and Spaun appeared rattled, missing birdies chances from the 12-foot range on consecutive holes. And then it became tight again.
“Once that bogey kind of hit me, I just tried to just fight back,” Spaun said. “I kind of went with the odds. I had nothing to lose. Now I’m trying to catch Rory, and I can’t really control what he does, but I can control what I do, and I just started committing to my shots and my swing and trusting it more.
“When I’m hunting, it’s easier to let it go. Whereas, starting the round I was a little tentative, a little scared and stuff,” he said. “I think it put me in a pretty comfortable spot to finish off the round.”
McIlroy fanned a drive well right on the 14th, couldn’t reach the green, hit wedge to 15 feet and powered it through the break for only his second bogey of the round. The one-quarter inch of rain softened the green. The 15 mph wind all but vanished. The Stadium course was vulnerable.
McIlroy, however, missed a birdie chance from just inside 6 feet on the 15th and didn’t judge the rain-softened speed of the green on the par-5 16th, missing a 12-foot birdie. Behind him, Spaun threw a dart to a foot on the 14th for birdie, and chipped tight at the 16th for a birdie that tied him for the lead.
Both found land on the island at the 17th — McIlroy against the collar for an awkward stab at his 15-foot birdie attempt, Spaun lagging beautifully from 45 feet on a putt that is slow up the slope and races to the pin.
Danny Walker, who has lived in the area the last few years and only got in as an alternate Thursday morning when Jason Day withdrew with illness, shot 70 and tied for sixth with Cauley and Corey Conners (71)
Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler was never really in the mix. He went 15 straight holes without a birdie between the third and fourth rounds, made only one birdie on Sunday and closed with a 73 to tie for 20th.
“Being able to repeat here was very special and I would have liked to have done it a third time,” Scheffler said. “At the end of the day, I just didn’t have what it took this week. The guys that are ahead of me on the leaderboard — there’s many of them, so they obviously played better than I did.”
