Rory McIlroy may have felt that he should’ve wrapped up the 2025 Players Championship in regulation, but it didn’t take long for him to take a firm grasp in the three-hole playoff with J.J Spaun.
Returning on Monday to tackle the 16th, 17th and 18th holes at TPC Sawgrass, the world number two had the honour on the first tee by virtue of being first in the clubhouse the prior evening, and he laid down a marker by crushing a 336-yard drive right down the heart of the fairway on the par-5.
Spaun, a one-time PGA Tour winner who was competing in his first playoff, found the right rough and took a bold line on approach, narrowly missing the hazard to the right and ending up in the front bunker.
McIlroy, from 177 yards, hit a pitching wedge pin high and, despite an aggressive first putt, managed to clean up for birdie while his opponent had to settle for par.
After tasting first blood, McIlroy turned the screw with a three-quarter 9-iron into the wind on 17 that found dry land. Taking one club more, Spaun struck it beautifully and on an aggressive line to the pin tucked just over the bunker on the right, but to his vast surprise, the ball sailed through the wind and splashed down long leaving McIlroy in firm control and only needing to avoid disaster from here on out.
Spaun would eventually settle for a triple bogey-six, so the Holywood man, despite a three-putt bogey, took a three-stroke lead to the final hole.
Playing safe, he blasted his driver up the right hand side, avoiding the gaping lake down the left, and plotted his way onto the green in three. Two putts later, he was once again shaking hands as the Players Championship winner.
“Yeah, wind coming out of a completely different direction,” he said afterwards when asked about the difficulty of the conditions for the three-hole playoff. “Yeah, I’m just glad we didn’t have to play 18 in that. Three was enough.
“I feel bad for J.J.; he hit a really good shot on 17 and it just went straight through the wind. I was lucky to do enough to get it done.
“Unbelievably proud and happy to win my second Players Championship. This is the third time I’ve won on St. Patrick’s day, so it’s been a good luck charm for me.”
Along with becoming just the eighth multiple winner of the PGA Tour’s Flagship event, joining the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler, this marks the first time that McIlroy has two tournament wins in the months preceding the year’s first major, and while he wasn’t directly asked about Augusta National and the quest for the career Grand Slam, it’s on everybody’s mind and McIlroy feels that the hard work is starting to pay off once more.
“I’ve worked really hard,” he said. “I feel like I’m a way more complete player than I was a few years ago. Even in conditions like this. That little 9-iron into 17, the little 8-iron into the last there, I said to Harry there, that little shot will take us a long way.
“I feel like I can play in all conditions and anything that comes my way. Really happy that I was able to get it done today.”
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