Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland celebrated St Patrick’s Day by winning a three-hole aggregate playoff against JJ Spaun to capture his second title at The Players Championship on Monday morning.
McIlroy took a one-shot lead when he birdied the par-five 16th hole, and the task of protecting that advantage became much easier when Spaun hit his tee shot over the famed island green at the par-three 17th and into the water.
Spaun struggled his way to a triple-bogey six and dropped to three-over, trailing by three after McIlroy made a three-putt bogey. Both players missed to the right of the fairway at the par-four 18th, and the tournament was all McIlroy’s once Spaun’s third shot narrowly missed the green.
McIlroy finished up with a bogey and finished the playoff at one-over. McIlroy, 35, picked up the 28th victory of his PGA Tour career and his second of the year, following the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His first Players Championship victory came in 2019, and he is the eighth player to win the prestigious event – often called golf’s “fifth major” – multiple times.
Spaun, 34, is stuck on just one victory in 228 tournaments in his PGA Tour career. But he continued a stellar start to the season this week by notching his third top-three finish, following a T3 at the Sony Open and a T2 at the Cognizant Classic.
On Sunday, Spaun shot a 72 after holding the overnight lead and McIlroy posted a 68 to get to a 12-under 276. Spaun had a 30-foot birdie putt to win on the 18th but left it three inches short.
Tom Hoge mixed seven birdies with a lone bogey en route to a 66 to share third place at 10-under with Akshay Bhatia (70) and Lucas Glover (71). Danny Walker (70), Bud Cauley (74) and Canada’s Corey Conners (71) were a further stroke back in a tie for sixth.