They are the two players who have beaten Rory McIlroy in playoffs on the PGA Tour as J.J. Spaun gets ready for showdown at The Players

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Rory McIlroy will have to negotiate a playoff if he hopes to win the Players Championship for the second time in his career, with the Northern Irishman tied with J.J. Spaun after 72 holes at TPC Sawgrass.

Rory McIlroy will have mixed feelings about being in a playoff at the Players Championship. On the one hand, he will be particularly disappointed that he failed to capitalise on a three-shot lead on the back nine on Sunday. However, he will also feel a sense of relief after J.J. Spaun left a birdie putt to win on the final green agonisingly short.

McIlroy has not been involved in a playoff in a standard 72-hole strokeplay tournament on the PGA Tour since 2019, when he beat Xander Schauffele to win the WGC-HSBC Champions event.

He also clinched the 2016 Tour Championship after additional holes against Kevin Chappell and Ryan Moore. And his victory alongside Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic last year came in a playoff.

The two players to beat Rory McIlroy in a playoff on the PGA Tour

But what will give Spaun hope is that McIlroy did lose the first two playoffs he had on the PGA Tour – as well as five on the DP World Tour.

The first came in 2012 at the Wells Fargo Championship – an event which had seen McIlroy enter the big time by winning two years earlier. On that occasion, it was Rickie Fowler who beat McIlroy and D.A. Points, with Fowler hitting a stunning approach on the first extra hole.

“Rickie just went straight after it and hit a great shot. Couldn’t have landed it any better. I didn’t have the guts to play the shot he did and he went and pulled it off so he deserved it,” McIlroy told The Whistle about that showdown the following year.

And it was a similar set of circumstances which saw the European lose out at the 2014 Honda Classic, with Russell Henley being the man to win with a birdie straight away.

Ryan Palmer and Russell Knox were also involved in the playoff after they had also finished on eight under par. Once again, McIlroy had won the same event two years earlier.

How McIlroy and J.J. Spaun played the final three holes at TPC Sawgrass during the Players Championship

With McIlroy boasting such an underwhelming playoff record on the DP World Tour too, Spaun can take plenty of confidence into Monday.

Spaun played the final three holes in two under par for the week, while McIlroy did slightly better at three under par. So it really does feel like the contest could go either way.