Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Players Championship in a three-hole playoff over J.J. Spaun after the two had finished the regulation 71 holes locked together on 12 under ;par 276 at TPC Sawgrass in Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday.
In doing so, the Northern Ireland golfer, who will climb to world number one in the rankings, became the sixth player in the event’s history to have on the PGA Tour’s showpiece event in a knockout and the eighth to have won the Players more than once, the list also including his good friend and business partner Tiger Woods (2), Jack Nicklaus (3) and most recently Scottie Scheffler (back to back in 2023 and 2024).
McIlroy (67-68-73-68) fought back from a difficult and windy third day at Sawgrass that scuppered the chances of Indian-American star Akshay Bhatia (67-66-75-50) to finish alongside Spaun and necessitating the sixth playoff in the event’s history. For his part, Bhatia finished in a tie for third on 10 under 278 with fellow-Americans Tom Hoge and Lucas Glover.
In the three-hole playoff first introduced in 2015, McIlroy, 35, birdied the first hole (the 16th) while Spaun parred. On 17 and 18, McIlroy had consecutive bogeys while his US opponent went three over on the 17th and conceded the 18th. McIlroy improved to 4-2 in playoffs while Spaun ended 0-1. It was also McIlroy’s 28th PGA Tour title and his second win from four Tour starts this season. He had started the day four shots back of 54-hole leader Spaun.
“It feels amazing. Someone just asked me there how was my morning, and I said, it was stressful. But yeah, no, I'm super happy, super proud to win this event for a second time,: McIlroy said at the post-tournament press conference.
“Not a lot of people have done that over the 51 years of The Players. I go back to 2009 when I first set eyes on this golf course, and it certainly wasn't love at first sight. I've had to learn to play this golf course and adapt my game to it in some ways. Yeah, to win for a second time is awesome.
“I didn't expect there to be so many people out there today. It created a great atmosphere. Certainly J.J. and I really appreciated that.”
McIlroy admitted he had the shakes as he stood over the ball as he and Spaun returned on Monday morning for the playoff. “Yeah, honestly, standing over that tee shot on 16 this morning is the most nervous I've been in a long time. So I think that will stand to me, feeling like that and being able to hit the golf shots that I need while your stomach is sort of not feeling great and your legs are a little shaky and your heart rate is racing.
“To have to go through that today, it's nice to have that in recent memory for some of the tournaments coming up for sure. Then I would have preferred not to have played in such gusty conditions this morning. I'm definitely thankful that we didn't have to play 18 holes in that. It was only three. But yeah, that was as tough as the course had played all week I felt like.”
On what had changed in his game over the years, McIlroy said, “I'm a better putter. I'm better around the greens. I can flight my ball better in the wind. My ability to shape shots both ways.
“Yeah, I'd say those are the things. Really I'm managing myself more around -- by no means did I have my best stuff this week, but I was still able to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That's a huge thing.
“I would say I was a little disappointed last night (at not completing an outright victory), but I also was mindful that I couldn't feel that way, that I needed to reset. Once I got back to the hotel, I just tried to sort of forget about it and had some room service, watched a little bit of Devil Wears Prada and went to bed. That was basically it.
“Then when I woke up this morning -- I woke up at 3:00 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I was -- I was as nervous as I can remember. So yeah, there's a lot of thoughts that are racing through your head and you're trying not to look at your phone and you're trying to sleep, but I was up.
“I was a little anxious this morning, and I just knew I needed to get off to a good start, especially I knew the wind was going to be up. I knew some of those shots were going to be really, really tough. I just -- I was just really focused on trying to make good swings.”
For Bhatia, 23, it was a third top-10 finish of the season in his seventh start after finishing in a share of ninth place at the Genesis Invitational; and sole ninth at the Mexico Open.