Tournament conducted its three-hole playoff under sunny skies and a large crowd that watched McIlroy beat J.J. Spaun
Players Championship 2025: Playoff gusty winds at No. 17
The Players Championship playoff is whipped by 30 mph winds along the green at No. 17 ahead of the deciding 2025 tiebreaker at TPC Sawgrass.
Monday finishes for professional golf tournaments are typically disliked by officials, networks, players, and fans.The 2025 Players Championship required a Monday finish due to a Sunday thunderstorm that suspended play.Despite the anticlimactic playoff, the event was considered a success due to good weather, strong fan turnout, and dedicated volunteers.
Monday finishes are normally dreaded by professional golf tournaments.
Everyone hates them. Tournament officials have to get volunteers to come back an extra day. TV knows the tournament will likely be covered on Golf Channel and lose the ratings battle to soap operas and talk shows. Players are a bit grumpy about having to play stop-start golf the day before, and then having to return early. And since most fans don’t factor in the extra day when they buy tickets or make plans, they miss out because they have to return to work.
The Players Championship isn’t any different. Before the 2025 tournament, there were eight Monday finishes, six when the tournament was at either the Sawgrass Country Club or the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
One weather week was so bad in 2005 that had Fred Funk not made a 6-foot knee-knocker of a par putt at No. 18, there would have been a four-way playoff on Tuesday.
In 2022, most of the first two days were lost and the first round wasn’t completed until Saturday. The 70 players who made the cut didn’t conclude their third round until Monday and Cameron Smith won with daylight fading.
But for once a Monday finish will be remembered for positive reasons: a sunny day, albeit windy, with a bright blue sky, a three-hole playoff with a multiple major champion (and the 2019 Players champion) vs. a major champion in waiting, and a crowd of around 6,000 people, prompting winner Rory McIlroy to say to caddie Harry Diamond, “obviously no one works in Jacksonville.”
“It changed the narratives of Monday finishes,” said 2025 Players chairman Tyler Oldenburg. “You don’t want to have to do it, but we were well-prepared, the weather was great, and it went off without a hitch. I don’t think we’ll ever look back on that day as a negative.”
Marc Hassan, the 2026 Players chairman who was the first vice-chairman last year, agreed that multiple factors made it work.
“The weather was wonderful, it was another Rory McIlroy victory on St. Patrick’s Day [McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, won his first Players in 2019 when St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Sunday] and the turnout of fans was great.”
When the two players were walking to the 17th green after McIlroy birdied No. 16 and J.J. Spaun parred, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan took a look around and commented, “This is really fantastic.”
Sunday’s storm set up the Monday finish
For the better part of all four rounds, the 2025 Players was conducted under good weather. However, rules officials got a dire forecast for Sunday afternoon and moved up the tee times to try and beat thunderstorms heading East.
Players teed off in threesomes between 8 a.m. and 10:01 a.m. on Sunday, using both the No. 1 and No. 10 tees. Estimates were that the storms would arrive around 3 p.m. but they moved faster and play was suspended at 1:15 p.m. with the final trio of Spaun, Bud Cauley and Lucas Glover at No. 11.
By this time, Oldenburg and Hassan were in action, getting their committee chairmen prepared for a course evacuation on Sunday afternoon and the possibility of a Monday finish.
As Oldenburg explained, volunteers indicate when they register for the week whether they are available to work for a Monday finish.
“We populate a list, then tell the committee chairs during the week to remind those people to keep a Monday finish in the back of their minds,” Oldenburg said.
Oldenburg said the number of volunteers is adjusted based on the number of players and holes needed to complete the tournament on Monday. As it turned out, only a minimum number was needed.
Spaun’s missed putt brought Monday into play
After a four-hour weather delay, play resumed with Spaun on 11 and McIlroy at No. 12. McIlroy birdied the short par-4 and Spaun bogeyed the par-5 to give McIlroy a three-shot lead.
But McIlroy couldn’t close the deal. He bogeyed No. 14 and missed birdie attempts on the last four holes. Spaun hit a marvelous shot to within inches of the hole at No. 14, nearly chipped in for eagle at No. 16 to tie McIlroy and then pushed his drive into pine straw to the right of the 18th fairway.
By this point, tournament officials had already announced that if the three-hole playoff was required, it would be on Monday. Spaun then hit his second shot onto the 18th green and left a 30-foot attempt for birdie and the championship short, in the heart of the cup, inches away.
Three holes at the Stadium Course, 47 minutes
The volunteer staff swung into action. Oldenburg estimated that they needed 350 volunteers to come back on Monday, a number that was easily covered.
And it would be a relatively easy job: only two players, who would play three holes, unless it was still tied. In that case, the two would go back to No. 17 and start sudden death. It was far easier than 2022, when 70 players had to finish the third round, then play the entire fourth round beginning at 11 a.m.
“There wasn’t much ground to cover,” Hassan said. “Obviously, our footprint was much smaller because it was just 16, 17 and 18.”
Volunteers were needed primarily in the parking lot and entrance gates. When the gates opened, however, there was a surprise.
More than 6,000 fans showed up, based on ticket scans, with some getting into the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day by wearing green outfits.
“That was a bit of a surprise,” Oldenburg said. “But the area around those three holes is big enough. It was awesome to see people trying to get the best vantage point and it went off without a hitch.”
The playoff turned out to be the only dud of the day. After McIlroy two-putted for birdie at No. 16 and Spaun parred, the playoff was over, in effect, when McIlroy hit the green and was 29 feet from the hole, and Spaun launched an 8-iron over the green. His shot from the drop area spun back against the collar of the second cut of rough, he chipped 10 feet short and missed his putt for double-bogey.
McIlroy three-putted for bogey and went to the 18th hole with a three-shot lead. He hit his drive right, punched out, hit onto the green and two-putted for bogey and Spaun, who had a 10-foot bogey attempt, didn’t bother finishing the hole.
It took 47 minutes for the two to play the three holes.
“It didn’t end up being very exciting from a golf perspective,” Oldenburg said. “But it was still a great day. I think what it really means is that we have the best volunteers in golf, passionate about the tournament and what it means for local charity, and we’ll do whatever it takes when we’re hit with an unusual situation.”
Hassan agreed that volunteer support for the Monday playoff is one of the positives that came out of the day.
“I’m never surprised when our volunteers come through,” he said.