Who won the Players Championship? Exploring final leaderboard for one of the PGA Tour's biggest tournaments

The Players Championship is a celebrated event on the PGA Tour schedule. It is considered, unofficially, the fifth major tournament. As such, it has a prestige that most other tournaments just don't have, and it routinely brings out the best competition. That led to one epic tournament that saw one champion crowned. Here's how everyone did this weekend.

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Who won the Players Championship?

After four incredible rounds, here's how the Players Championship leaderboard looked:

• WIN: Scottie Scheffler, -20
• T2. Brian Harman, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark; -19
• 5. Matt Fitzpatrick, -16
• T6. Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama; -15
• 8. Ludvig Aberg; -14
• T9. Sahith Theegala, Maverick McNealy; -13
• T11. Joel Dahmen, Taylor Montgomery; -12
• T13. Corey Conners, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Nate Lashley; 011
• T16. Sam Ryder, Sepp Straka, Doug Ghim; -10
• T19. Harris English, Shane Lowry, Dylan Wu, Kurt Kitayama, Alex Noren, Adam Schenk, Rory McIlroy; -9
• T26. Mackenzie Hughes, Chris Kirk, Nick Taylor, Matti Schmid, Matt NeSmith; -8
• T31. Ben Martin, Mark Hubbard, Sungjae Im, Taylor Moore; -7
• T35. Denny McCarthy, Jimmy Stanger, Lee Hodges, Tommy Fleetwood, Aaron Rai, Jason Day, Brice Garnett; -6
• T42. Grayson Murray, David Lipsky, C.T. Pan; -5
• T45. Adam Scott, Ryan Moore, Jake Knapp, Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau, Austin Eckroat, Sam Burns, J.T. Poston; -4
• 53. Andrew Putnam, -3
• T54. Min Woo Lee, Francesco Molinari, Zac Blair, Martin Laird, Cameron Young, Sami Valimaki, Tom Hoge, Emiliano Grillo; -2
• T62. Thomas Detry, Viktor Hovland; -1
• T64. Seamus Power, Max Homa, Tyler Duncan, J.J. Spaun; Even
• T68. Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay, Chan Kim, Peter Malnati, +2
• 72. Gary Woodland, +3
• 73. Keith Mitchell, +4

Scottie Scheffler was somehow able to defend his crown, and he continued to show why he's the top-ranked golfer in the world. He put on a stunning display (eight under) in the final round to eke out a victory, becoming the first defending champion to defend their Players title.

Scottie Scheffler won the Players Championship

Matt Fitzpatrick and Maverick McNealy had really strong performances, albeit in a losing effort. They both entered the final round at 13 under, which was a bit back of the lead and ended up fifth and T9 respectively.

It was not an uneventful weekend for Rory McIlroy, even if he didn't win. He survived a bit of controversy in round one, which saw a 12-minute delay and argument over his ball placement, to tie for the lead before fading a bit in the latter rounds.

The two tee partners who questioned McIlroy, Viktor Hovland and Jordan Spieth, didn't do all that well. Spieth didn't make the cut, and Hovland placed towards the back end of those who did with a bit of a disappointing performance.

Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy at the Players Championship

Sadly, it was not a great weekend for all involved. As mentioned, Spieth missed the cut, as did Webb Simpson, Lucas Glover, Luke List, Akshay Bhatia, Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young and several others.