The Players Championship 2025 playoff rules and format explained

The Players Championship 2025 will have a playoff to determine the 51st winner of the tournament. The PGA Tour event's final fourth round was scheduled for Sunday, March 16, but poor weather affected the play.

Despite a four-hour delay, the players completed their game. But after 72 holes of play, there was a tie for the lead between Rory McIlroy and JJ Spaun, resulting in a playoff. However, due to darkness, the playoff was postponed to Monday, March 17.

The Players Championship playoff will be held in an aggregate three-hole format, meaning both players will play all three holes - 16th, 17th, and 18th of TPC Sawgrass - to win the event. However, if the results remain uncertain and the players again tie the score, the game will have a sudden-death playoff.

The tournament’s fourth-round leaders will continue playing until a winner is determined. The sudden-death playoff will start on the 17th hole, and players will head to the 18th if required. If they still have the same score, the playoff will continue on the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes.

Notably, this would be the sixth playoff in The Players' history, with the last coming in 2015 when Rickie Fowler won the tournament. Meanwhile, this would be the ninth time The Players had a Monday finish and the first since 2022.

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A look into the provisional leaderboard of The Players Championship 2025

After 72 holes of gameplay, Rory McIlroy and JJ Spaun are tied for first place at 12-under, just two strokes ahead of Tom Hoge, Akshay Bhatia, and Lucas Glover.

Danny Walker settled in sixth with Corey Conners and Bud Cauley, while Patrick Cantlay tied for 12th. Last year’s winner, Scottie Scheffler, settled in T20 place, while Xander Schauffele finished 72nd at 13-over par.

Here is the leaderboard of The Players after Sunday's round:

• T1 Rory McIlroy -12
• T1 J.J. Spaun -12
• T3 Tom Hoge -10
• T3 Akshay Bhatia -10
• T3 Lucas Glover -10
• T6 Danny Walker -9
• T6 Corey Conners -9
• T6 Bud Cauley -9
• 9 Robert MacIntyre -8
• T10 Collin Morikawa -7
• T10 Davis Thompson -7
• T12 Jake Knapp -6
• T12 Patrick Cantlay -6
• T14 Aaron Rai -5
• T14 Tommy Fleetwood -5
• T14 Denny McCarthy -5
• T14 Sam Ryder -5
• T14 Sepp Straka -5
• T14 Alex Smalley -5
• T20 Keegan Bradley -4
• T20 Ryan Fox -4
• T20 Joe Highsmith -4
• T20 Matt McCarty -4
• T20 Daniel Berger -4
• T20 Shane Lowry -4
• T20 Scottie Scheffler -4
• T20 Min Woo Lee -4
• T20 Max McGreevy -4
• T20 Stephan Jaeger -4
• T30 Harris English -3
• T30 Will Zalatoris -3
• T30 Russell Henley -3
• T33 Justin Thomas -2
• T33 Taylor Moore -2
• T33 J.T. Poston -2
• T33 Rico Hoey -2
• T33 Kurt Kitayama -2
• T38 Davis Riley -1
• T38 Justin Lower -1
• T38 Taylor Pendrith -1
• T38 Si Woo Kim -1
• T42 Jesper Svensson E
• T42 Mac Meissner E
• T42 Matt Kuchar E
• T42 Billy Horschel E
• T42 Tom Kim E
• T42 Hayden Springer E
• T42 Chris Kirk E
• T42 Ryan Gerard E
• T50 Jacob Bridgeman +1
• T50 Beau Hossler +1
• T52 Sahith Theegala +2
• T52 Byeong Hun An +2
• T54 Joel Dahmen +3
• T54 Camilo Villegas +3
• T54 Matthieu Pavon +3
• T54 Carson Young +3
• T54 Charley Hoffman +3
• 59 Jordan Spieth +4
• 60 Jhonattan Vegas +5
• T61 Austin Eckroat +6
• T61 Will Chandler +6
• T61 Chandler Phillips +6
• T61 Sungjae Im +6
• T61 Trey Mullinax +6
• T61 Cameron Young +6
• 67 Emiliano Grillo +7
• 68 Isaiah Salinda +8
• T69 C.T. Pan +9
• T69 Sami Valimaki +9
• 71 Rickie Fowler +12
• 72 Xander Schauffele +13