Did J.J. Spaun get unfair advantage at The Players 2025? Drop ball controversy explained

J.J. Spaun made a big comeback on Sunday to tie with Rory McIlroy atop The Players Championship 2025 leaderboard. The 34-year-old golfer, who was three shots behind the Northern Irishman after a four-hour rain delay at TPC Sawgrass, is set to tee up at the playoff on Monday. However, his impressive round was clouded with a drop ball controversy.

Spaun’s second shot on the 9th hole on Sunday had fans and pundits questioning the rules. For the unversed, Spaun blasted his approach on the par-5 deep into the right rough while being one stroke back of the lead. His ball came to rest with a sprinkler head in his stance. This meant the player could take free relief as it was a ‘man-made obstruction.’ A ‘relief’ meant the he could take the drop within a club length of the ball and no nearer to the hole.

According to Rule 16.1a of the Rules of Golf, the player can get relief if “your ball touches or is in or on an abnormal course condition” or “an abnormal course condition physically interferes with your area of intended stance or area of intended swing.” The 2022 Valero Texas Open winner used this to his advantage and dropped it again on a sprinkler head to take a free drop again.

Following the two drops, Spaun was free to chase McIlroy’s lead on the fairway.

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Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay explains Spaun's drop ball controversy

NBC Sports’ on-course reporter and legendary caddy Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay later explained that J.J. Spaun found another sprinkler head within a club length of his first drop. The golfer used this to twist the rules in his favor and dropped the ball on the sprinkler head. He then took another drop, also within a club-length and no nearer to the hole.

Owing to the rules, the golfer found himself on the fairway. He rolled in a controversial birdie putt to re-tie Rory McIlroy for the lead.

Bones Mackay said, as quoted by Golf.com:

“It was fascinating. J.J. got up there and his ball was in a horrible lie. He was standing on a sprinkler, but still nowhere near the fairway, so he took relief and within that club length was another sprinkler. He intentionally dropped it in the sprinkler, got a second club length away from that and got himself into the fairway.”

It is pertinent to note, Spaun’s operation at The Players' final round was technically legal as it only twisted the words stated on the rules book. However, fans and pundits pointed out that his drops fundamentally changed the nature of his third shot, giving him an ‘unfair’ advantage.

A shot that could’ve been a challenging par-save became a relatively easy birdie for the golfer, who is now headed to the playoffs with equal chance to win.