Saturday at the Players Championship delivered plenty of drama, with many of the bigger names going backwards on the leaderboard, while five players did not even manage to break 80 at TPC Sawgrass.
The winds did wreak a fair amount of havoc on day three at the Players Championship. Overnight leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia quickly fell off the summit – with the latter just about managing to keep himself in the mix before the final round.
Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young were amongst those whose third round scores began with an eight.
Elsewhere, Scottie Scheffler‘s level par round means that he has fallen a further shot off the lead. And Collin Morikawa‘s hopes of bouncing back from disappointment at the Arnold Palmer Invitational have surely been dashed after his 77.
Rory McIlroy backed to win the Players Championship for the second time on Sunday
It is J.J. Spaun who leads the way by one over Bud Cauley. Meanwhile, four shots behind Spaun is Rory McIlroy, with the Northern Irishman looking to win at TPC Sawgrass for the second time in his career.
It was the greens, rather than the wind, which troubled McIlroy on day three in Florida, with the 35-year-old posting a 73. Nevertheless, speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard opted for McIlroy when asked to name his winner ahead of the final round.
“I think Lucas Glover is playing really well right now. What J.J. Spaun did today, if he does that tomorrow, he’s going to win. I don’t know that anyone can track him down,” he said.
“But Rory McIlroy, as you pointed out, he’s the one with the pedigree. He’s the one that seems to have the most confidence right now. When he has that walk about him and that look in his eye, it’s there right now. That doesn’t mean he’s going to get it done, but he’s already won on a really difficult golf course this year under very similar conditions at Pebble Beach against a very similar field. All the lines are there, you are what your record says you are and right now, that would mean Rory McIlroy.”
What McIlroy needs to do at TPC Sawgrass with a golden opportunity ahead of him
With conditions set to be difficult once again on Sunday, it is hard to know where to put the line in which you write off anyone on a worse score. Scottie Scheffler is five under par and seven back, but he came from five behind to win in 2024.
Danny Walker was able to jump 57 places on Saturday having only just made the cut. There is less likely to be a big advantage on Sunday however, with the players grouped in three-balls due to concerns about the weather later in the day.
If McIlroy is able to get off to a fast start, many will be expecting him to kick on and perhaps run away with the crown just as he did when battling Xander Schauffele at the Wells Fargo Championship last year.
But none of the four names ahead of him on the leaderboard were over par in the trying conditions on Saturday. So the last thing McIlroy can afford to do is get at all complacent.
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