The 51st edition of The Players Championship is going down to the wire as a tightly-bunched leaderboard and unhelpful weather conditions force many of the world’s best to produce their A-game at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.
J.J. Spaun held the overnight lead on 12-under after an impressive two-under 70 during Saturday, contending with strong winds and pressure from a handful of his rivals throughout.
Bud Cauley and Lucas Glover booked spots in the final trio alongside him as a result of reaching 11-under and nine-under, respectively, while Rory McIlroy (-8) is in the same group as Corey Conners (-8) and Alex Smalley (-9) just minutes ahead.
The Players Championship weather forecast listed thunderstorms as “likely” later in the day, therefore all final-round tee times were moved up and golfers began on either the 1st or the 10th between 8am and 10:01am ET.
Those storms are not expected to arrive until roughly 3pm, however, so the hope remains that the Players can be completed before bad weather disrupts the event.
Whoever reigns supreme, whether it be today or on Monday, will collect $4.5 million in prize money from one of the biggest total prize purses anywhere in professional golf.
PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD
- -12 J.J. Spaun
- -11 Rory McIlroy
- -11 Bud Cauley
- -10 Akshay Bhatia
- -10 Alex Smalley
- -9 Lucas Glover
- -8 Max McGreevy
- -8 Patrick Cantlay
- -8 Stephan Jaeger
- -8 Corey Conners
- -8 Danny Walker
