McIlroy tops crowded field to win Players
Northern Irishman breaks his yearlong winless streak on St. Patrick’s Day
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It wasn’t enough that the best players in the game had to get the better of a TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course that can double as a 7,189-yard migraine headache to win The Players Championship.
That a $2.25 million paycheck awaited the winner. That 15 players including A-list stars were stampeding to the finish line, seven of whom held at least a share of the lead during the final round.
Nope, the Sunday blanket of pressure involved another tormenting factor to be conquered — the elements. But the swirling winds, occasional rain and bitter temperatures just added to the heart-racing theater that featured one show-stopper after another in the final hours of the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
When The Players’ curtain was finally drawn, and the thrills and chills blew out to the nearby sea, four-time major champion Rory McIlroy was holding the new gold trophy.
In winning his first Players, the former Boy Wonder finally broke through to end a yearlong winless streak that was full of so many close calls. With clutch shots throughout the back nine — a birdie from a fairway bunker on the 11th, another birdie from a fairway bunker on the 15th and a two-putt birdie on the 16th — McIlroy held off local favorite Jim Furyk to win by one shot.
McIlroy fired a final-round, 2-underpar 70 to finish at 16 under. Furyk, who at 48 was playing in his 23rd Players, closed with a 67.
Eddie Pepperell and Jhonattan Vegas each shot 66 to finish in a tie for third, two shots back. Dustin Johnson (69), Brandt Snedeker (69) and Tommy Fleetwood (73) tied for fifth, three shots back.
The 29-year-old from Northern Ireland came into The Players with five top-6 finishes in five starts this season as he tried to win his 15th Tour title. But all was good, he said over and over, that demons were not haunting him. He was in a good place, he’d often say, that a new perspective he took to the course was as important as any club in his bag. Now he’s in a great place.
“This is probably the deepest field of the year,” McIlroy said. “I’m just thankful it was my week to win. This is one of the tournaments I desperately wanted to win. It has the deepest field; it’s played on an iconic golf course. And these names on the trophy are unbelievable.”
McIlroy started Sunday one shot out of the lead set by Jon Rahm and doubled the par-4 fourth when he dumped his second shot into the water hazard guarding the green. But he got rolling with birdies at the sixth and ninth and then shot 3-under 33 on the back nine.
He took the outright lead with a birdie on the 12th from 12 feet but relinquished the lead with a bogey on the 14th. On the 15th, however, his second shot from 181 yards out of the fairway bunker set up a birdie from 14 feet, and he grabbed the outright lead again on the par-5 16th when he two-putted from 19 feet.
He escaped the dangerous par-3 17th with a two-putt par and protected his one-shot lead on the 18th with a textbook par on the water-protected hole.
The ever-changing leaderboard had McIlroy, Furyk, Rahm, Fleetwood, Pepperell, Abraham Ancer and Ollie Schniederjans grabbing at least a share of the lead. Other prominent players in the picture included Snedeker, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott and Brian Harman.
It was a day of high drama, where Vegas made a 70-foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole and then missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th. Fleetwood made eagle on the 16th from 3 feet but then knocked his tee shot into the water on the next hole. And Pepperell, by the way, made a 50-foot putt for birdie on the 17th just a few minutes before Vegas canned his stunner.
Furyk had his own stunner when he knocked his approach on 18 to 3 feet to tie for the lead. Two weeks ago, Furyk didn’t think The Players was an option, but a tie for ninth in the Honda Classic two weeks ago qualified him for this event.
“I knew how well I was playing and wanted some opportunities to get out there on the golf course,” Furyk said. “That’s the way I treated the whole week, really just an opportunity. A shot here, a shot there maybe could have been a little different, but ultimately left it all out there.”
So, too, did McIlroy.