Miami (AFP) – Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun battled through Sunday’s dramatic final round at the storm-hit Players Championship without determining a winner, forcing a three-hole aggregate playoff on Monday to decide the champion. Second-ranked McIlroy, a four-time major winner from Northern Ireland, and 34-year-old American Spaun, chasing his second PGA Tour title, both finished on 12-under 276 after 72 holes at TPC Sawgrass.
McIlroy, the 2019 Players winner, began the day four adrift of 54-hole lead Spaun, but just minutes after play resumed following a four-hour lightning delay, McIlroy had seized a three-stroke lead with six holes remaining. After a McIlroy bogey at 14, Spaun responded with birdies at 14 and the par-five 16th to share the lead, and both made tense pars down the stretch to force the playoff.
Related news
“All day it was a bit of a battle,” McIlroy said. “I’m standing here feeling like I probably should be going home with the trophy tonight but that’s fine. I’ll reset and hopefully go home with the trophy tomorrow morning.” McIlroy and Spaun will play 16, the famed par-three 17th island hole and the 18th in the playoff.
“The little break we had with the weather kind of helped me regroup and reset and came out with a different mindset instead of being so nervous,” Spaun said. “I was in a position where I couldn’t make any mistakes and I was making mistakes. Kind of grinded it out and got another chance tomorrow.”
Americans Lucas Glover, Tom Hoge, and Akshay Bhatia shared third on 278. McIlroy, 35, seeks his 28th career PGA title and second of the season after winning at Pebble Beach in February. McIlroy grabbed the solo lead with a 13-foot birdie putt at the par-five 11th just before lightning stopped play and a storm dumped one-quarter inch of rain on the course.
After the break, McIlroy sank a birdie putt at 12 from just outside 13 feet and Spaun made a three-putt bogey at 11, leaving McIlroy with a three-stroke advantage. McIlroy, however, sent his tee shot at 14 into deep right rough on the way to a bogey that trimmed his lead to two, and Spaun, a group behind, followed with tap-in birdies at 14 and 16.
“I was watching him the entire time,” Spaun said of McIlroy. “This is a course where decision making is part of the process all the time. I had to know what I had to do based off what he was doing.” McIlroy missed birdie putts from inside six feet at the 15th and just beyond 11 feet at the par-five 16th.
“I had two really good chances on 15 and 16,” McIlroy said. “I felt like it got a little darker at 15 and 16. There was like a little cell that was a few miles away and I really struggled to read those two putts. So I had two good chances that slipped by there.” Both parred the 17th and 18th, McIlroy two-putting from 74 feet at 18 and Spaun just short on a 30-foot birdie putt to win at 18.
“It was nice to two-putt that and give myself a chance tomorrow,” said McIlroy. Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Masters champion, missed out on a third straight Players title after a closing 73 to finish on 284 alongside Keegan Bradley, the US captain for September’s Ryder Cup who aced the par-three 13th hole.
© 2024 AFP
