J.J. Spaun Leads Players Championship After Brutal Winds Batter Field at Sawgrass

The forecast all week called for a gusty third round and the weatherman did not disappoint, writes Bob Harig. Players will tee off early on Sunday to beat incoming storms for what should by a trying final round.

Spaun tees off on the par-3 17th hole Saturday at Sawgrass. / Jeff Swinger-Imagn Images

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The sunny skies, green grass and vibrant crowd masked the meanness that prevailed Saturday at TPC Sawgrass and the iconic Stadium course, where a leaderboard of mostly grinders emerged atop the leaderboard of the PGA Tour’s flagship event.

Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and Sepp Straka give the tournament some Official World Golf Ranking firepower but they are among a dozen contending players who lack the same name recognition, led by J.J. Spaun, who managed to avoid the disasters that confronted so many while shooting 2-under 70 to lead by one shot with 18 holes remaining.

Spaun, 34, a one-time Tour-winner in 227 career starts, did it in the presence of McIlroy, the second-ranked player in the OWGR, who had his own struggles on the windswept course, dropping four strokes back after a 73.

“I’ve played this course in some in some pretty heavy winds before,” said two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who shot 72 and finds himself seven shots back and tied for 16th. “This was actually not the worst wind that I've played it in. I think it was maybe three or four years ago we had that one day where it was blowing gusts over 40, close to 50 miles an hour.

“It's just a tough golf course, and the areas are small to hit it in, especially when it gets this windy they get even smaller. It was challenging.”

The forecast all week called for a windy, gusty third round and the weatherman did not disappoint. Starting late morning, the wind picked up and never really relented, making the course known for all of its treachery on an easy day even more demanding.

There were just six scores in the 60s, led by the 66s shot by Bud Cauley — who got into the field as an alternate and trails Spaun by one — and Corey Conners.

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Cauley, who used to live in the area and played the course often, said with a laugh: “If it was blowing this hard, I probably would have just gone home."

Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover is three back and in a tie for third with Alex Smalley.

“I thought anything around par would be good given the conditions,” said Spaun, whose lone victory came at the 2022 Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, which is typically among the most blustery events on the Tour schedule.

Glover witnessed the calamity that can occur on a day like Saturday.

He played the third round with Will Zalatoris, who after a birdie at the 12th hole was tied for the lead at 11 under. He proceeded to play the last five holes in 9 over par, with a quadruple-bogey 8 at the 14th hole and a double-bogey 5 at the 17th. Zalatoris shot 78 and dropped from the lead to a tie for 38th.

“I’ve been that guy who’s doing it,” said Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champion. “You don’t say anything. You just stay in your little bubble and leave him alone and shake his hand and tell him to shake it off when you're done.”

As for the likelihood of such struggles, Glover said: “A day like today? Absolutely. You've got balls blowing all over the place, putts getting blown by the wind, balls getting knocked down, balls getting stood up. When it's gusty like this, there's some luck involved even when you hit good shots.”

There were some other tough days. Akshay Bhatia (who dropped to a tie for fifth) and Min Woo Lee played in the final group and shot 75 and 78, respectively.

Collin Morikawa was just two shots out of the lead to begin the day and shot 77.

McIlroy, who played with Spaun, was also two back and couldn’t close the gap, 73 to fall four behind in a tie for fifth.

“I feel like I played better than I scored,” McIlroy said. “All the bogeys I made were really soft. Three-putt on 5. Sort of made a mess of 12, three-putted 13, three-putted 17.

“I feel like that's one of the hardest things. They slowed the greens down today for obvious reasons, and I feel like I didn't adjust very well to that. Then some of the chip shots around the greens, when you start to get downwind, I got a little tentative with some of those, as well.

“Most of the dropped shots were from around-the-green mistakes rather than tee to green. I felt like I hit the ball pretty well, controlled my flight. It was nice to make a birdie on 18 at least and see one putt go in. Not out of it by any means. The wind is supposed to still be blowing tomorrow, so yeah, it was nice to birdie that just to get one closer to J.J. on the last.”

It is also supposed to rain Sunday, perhaps heavily. Tournament organizers have moved up the tee times with the players going out in threesomes off both tees between 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Normally the leaders would tee off around 2:30 p.m.

That will make for a possibly trying day to determine the winner of the $25 million tournament.