PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | The biggest argument for reunification might have been the Sunday morning leaderboard of the PGA Tour’s flagship event. “Unheralded” would be a gentle way of describing the roster of challengers at the Players Championship.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy at T5 was the best positioned of only five players in the OWGR top 20 among the top 20 through 54 holes at TPC Sawgrass. There were three players outside the top 200 (Bud Cauley, 251; Danny Walker, 284; Sam Ryder, 201), two more outside the top 100 (Alex Smalley, 133; Ryan Gerard, 184) and six more outside the top 50, including 54-hole leader J.J. Spaun (57th).
“I wasn’t raised or groomed to be a professional golfer,” said Spaun, a realist in a game of dreamers.
There were a lot more dreamers in the hunt at Sawgrass in what was not a dream scenario for the tour, NBC or the average golf fan who skipped church to watch the early coverage as they tried in vain to beat the rain.
McIlroy won his second Players on St. Patrick’s Day in a three-hole playoff that proved anticlimactic, but the value of his victory was anything but.
PAR: Rory McIlroy. It’s ridiculous to criticize the winner who does as many things as well as McIlroy – and he did A LOT of truly special things at Sawgrass all week. Like, ridiculous stuff. But would it kill him to make things easier on himself and just slam a door? After turning a four-shot deficit into a three-shot lead in just 12 holes Sunday, McIlroy’s foot slipped off the gas and he required overtime and another day to get the job done. It’s an agonizingly familiar narrative over the last decade that doesn’t always have a happy ending.
BIRDIE: J.J. Spaun. There’s something deeply refreshing about the lovable 34-year-old grinder who is appreciative of his career blessings and the form he found to go toe-to-toe with McIlroy without wilting. “I guess I kind of blossomed as I took on this journey, whether it was, like, junior golf, then high school golf, then college,” Spaun said. “I didn’t know what my ceiling was, I guess you could say. I still guess I don’t know what it is. … Who knows? The sky’s the limit.”
BOGEY: Scottie Scheffler. A top-20 finish is nothing to sneeze at for most guys, but with an historic three-peat opportunity it was a pretty pedestrian result for the world No. 1 who still seems to be trying to sort things out before his Masters defense next month. He shot a little worse every day and failed to break par on the weekend.
BIRDIE: Tom Hoge. Two years after first establishing the course record (62), he extended the longest active Players cut streak at seven straight and finished T3 with a Sunday 66. Note to self: don’t forget Hoge when picking the Players in next year’s golf pool.
BOGEY: Weather watch. The PGA Tour yielded to Mother Nature and pushed the final-round tee times to Sunday morning and sent threesomes off both sides, but it was not early enough to beat the approaching storm that led to a four-hour delay. A 7:30 a.m. shotgun start was a bridge too far, but starting an hour earlier could have let the playoff finish in prime time Sunday.
BIRDIE: Local knowledge. Two alternates with local ties not only made it in the field but made it into contention. Bud Cauley grew up in Jacksonville and got in when Lee Hodges withdrew. Danny Walker, a late addition when Jason Day got sick, moved to Jacksonville when he got Korn Ferry Tour status in 2019 to take advantage of free access to Sawgrass. Both shot sterling 66s in the wind Saturday, vaulting Cauley into a final pairing and Walker from the cut line into the top 10. They ultimately tied for sixth.
QUAD: Will Zalatoris. The self-proclaimed “major specialist” who hasn’t had a top-10 since last year’s Masters grabbed a share of the lead at 11-under on the back nine Saturday only to implode with a quad-double combo on 14 and 15 en route to 9-over skid on last five holes of the third round.
BIRDIE: Overhanging tree. Two-time Players champ Davis Love III cheered when the diseased live oak in front of the sixth tee was removed in 2014. Ironic that Love was in charge of restoring one of Pete Dye’s original mind games in 2025 by replanting a mature live oak plucked from deep in the woods that forces drives underneath its long, curved bough. “It’s sort of like you’re hitting under a bridge or through a tunnel,” McIlroy said.
BOGEY: Max Homa. It’s painful to see the state of the game of one of the coolest players out there, who hasn’t made an actual cut this season. Here’s hoping he finds it.
BOUNCEBACK BIRDIE: Justin Thomas. The 2021 Players champ played his first seven holes in 2-under and his next nine in 10-over en route to an opening 78. Including birdies on his last two holes Thursday, Thomas made 13 birdies in 19 holes to climb to 5-under for the tournament and closer to the top 10 than the cut line. His Friday 62 tied the course record, but a 73-73 finish left him T33.
BOGEY: Collin Morikawa. Doubling down – unprovoked – on his “don’t owe anybody anything” mindset after everyone moved on isn’t the best PR move. Winning is generally the best way to silence any critics.
MC: Euro depth. More than half the last European Ryder Cup team didn’t play the Players weekend, with Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Nicolai Højgaard and Justin Rose all checking out early (while Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton LIV’d it up in Singapore). The games of Hovland and Fitz are in particular distress.
BOGEY: Creator Classic. The nine-hole Wednesday competition between content creators, a world long driving champ and touring pros (the Bryan brothers) was on a 6-hour pace to finish at TPC Sawgrass. One guy was AimPointing a 3-footer for double (he missed). As McIlroy said: “I’m happy for the people that enjoy it, but I enjoy something else.”
BIRDIE: Akshay Bhatia. The rail-thin 23-year-old showed remarkable resilience, especially in the third round when five bogeys and a double that would have derailed most golfers didn’t seem to ruffle him as he hung tough and set up a serious Sunday challenge against McIlroy and Spaun.
DQ: Luke Potter. The Texas junior won his first collegiate event on Monday at The Hayt invitational across the street at Sawgrass Country Club. The next day he heckled Rory McIlroy on the 18th tee, mocking his 2011 Masters meltdown. McIlroy took Potter’s teammate’s phone and turned it in to security, who escorted the pair out. Potter apologized, but that will haunt his tour aspirations.
TRIPLE EAGLE: Chandler Phillips. The Players rookie became the first in history to make three eagles in a single round with 3s on par-5 16th, second and ninth holes – the last coming after he made triple on the par-3 eighth. He only made birdie on 11 to miss completing the par-5 eagle slam.
PAR: Jordan Spieth. There is rarely a dull moment with Spieth, who blended pitch-out eagles with more gruesome results in colorful scorecards. “I feel like I’d like it to be boring,” he said two days before a full wind-up fairway wood heave (unintentional, he claims) down the 16th fairway en route to a double that ended his hopes. A Sunday 78 buried him in 59th.
ACE: First “ones.” Collin Morikawa’s caddie J.J. Jacovak aced the par-3 17th hole on Wednesday during the annual caddie competition – the first in the tradition’s 21-year history. Later that same practice round, Players rookie Alejandro Tosti made the first ace of his life and celebrated by jumping in the water.
BIRDIE: World Feed. The new PGA Tour Studios is delivering what international golf fans want by producing a dedicated broadcast exclusively for partners outside North America. With a third of the Players field comprised of non-Americans, it’s the right thing to do.
BOGEY: Tiffany cuff links. While it’s a beautiful gesture and a lovely keepsake from the PGA Tour commissioner to all first-time Players participants, does any young tour player in 2025 even know what cuff links are? A Rolex would be a timeless treasure.
BIRDIE: Merch. The massive merchandise tent at the Players teemed with not only paying patrons but 28 different brands – a drastic departure from the relative exclusivity of preferred retailers found in the shops at majors.
BIRDIE: Rickie Fowler. The tour pro showed up for and spoke at a celebration of life program the PGA Tour set up on Monday for longtime USA Today/Golfweek journalist Steve DiMeglio, who lost his hard battle with cancer on New Year’s Day. Commissioner Monahan also attended to pay his respects to one of the industry’s best relationship builders who is deeply missed, and he opened his annual press conference with a remembrance of DiMeglio.
BOGEY: PGA Tour Champions. While the senior circuit may get to play host to rookie Tiger Woods’ next official start when he’s recovered from his ruptured Achilles tendon, it should not expect Rory McIlroy to commit in 2040. “Something has went terribly wrong if I have to compete at golf at 50,” McIlroy said.
BIRDIE: Garry Smits. Smitter, as he’s long been known to his media colleagues, has covered 40 of the 51 Players Championships for the hometown Florida Times-Union – the longest tenure at what in Smitter’s heart has always been the first of golf’s “majors.”