Former Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk rolled back the years to set up the chance to become the oldest winner in Players Championship history on a roller coaster final day at Sawgrass.
Furyk began the day five shots off the lead held by Spain’s Jon Rahm and made the worst-possible start with a bogey on the first in cold, overcast conditions.
However, the 48-year-old rebounded immediately to eagle the par-five second and birdied the fifth, 10th and 11th to join Rahm in the lead on 14 under par, with Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer a shot off the lead.
McIlroy and Fleetwood were both one over par for the front nine, with Fleetwood recording eight straight pars after three-putting the first and McIlroy following a double-bogey on the fourth with two birdies and a bogey.
Former world number one Tiger Woods had already completed a closing 69, his best round of the week, to end on six under par.
“My score didn’t really indicate that going into the final day, but I was hitting the golf ball well,” Woods said. “I’m frustrated at lipping more putts out than I think I have in a very long time. (It’s) just one of those weeks where nothing really got rolling enough to get me going.”
Woods will now have a week off before contesting the WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin, where he could play up to seven matches in a five-day span.
“I’ve got a week off after that,” said Woods, who withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a neck injury. “I’m hoping that I can play all the matches. That would be great.”
Speaking about his preparations for the Masters at Augusta National, Woods added: “It’s right on track. I’m able to shape the ball both ways, which I’m going to need there. I just need a few more putts to go in, but that’s it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here