Spaun takes lead at The Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — J.J. Spaun survived a wild, windy and round-wrecking Saturday at The Players Championship. His 25-foot par putt swirled all the way around the cup on the 18th hole for a 70 and a one-shot lead over Bud Cauley. Lucas Glover was three shots behind and his final hour about summed up the day. He went double bogey, eagle, double bogey. Trouble was everywhere on the TPC Sawgrass with 25 mph wind. Rory McIlroy was four behind after a birdie on the final hole. Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler bogeyed two of his last three holes and was seven shots behind.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — J.J. Spaun only had to look at the video boards around the TPC Sawgrass to appreciate the chaos going around him Saturday in The Players Championship.

Will Zalatoris was tied for the lead and then his name was gone after an astonishing stretch of 9-over par on the last five holes. Lucas Glover fell back, and then he was there again, and then sliding. A double bogey-eagle-double bogey stretch will do that.

So imagine Spaun’s relief when his final putt on a wild, windy, round-wrecking day swirled 360 degrees around the cup and dropped for a par. He had a 2-under 70, the best score of the final 10 groups, and a one-shot lead over Bud Cauley.

Spaun made his share of mistakes, just not that many and none too egregious.

“I was hitting really good quality golf shots from tee to green and just giving myself looks and not really being in stressful situations,” Spaun said. “Keeping the ball in front of me, keeping it in the short grass for the most part. I was just trying to hit it close to pins, but only when we knew we had the right club and the right wind to do so, and if not, then we were just going to hit it to 30 feet and try to make one.

“I think that’s the key to playing in really tough conditions, especially around a course like this.”

What so many others wouldn’t give for that.

Cauley, whose body was crushed in a car crash during the Memorial in 2018, took a big step toward a long recovery. He teed off two hours earlier — still facing a bulk of the wind — and finished with three birdies on his last four holes for a 66.

That put him in the final group with Spaun and Glover, whose crazy finish ended with a 71.

“It’s pretty razor thin around here anyway,” Glover said. “And then you add in 25, 30 miles an hour with some gusts, it shrinks things even more. I did a good job where I was missing for the majority of the day, and there was a couple holes where you just can’t miss.”

Spaun was at 12-under 204. Glover and Alex Smalley were three back.

There was plenty of heartache, not including the five rounds in the 80s, the worst of it an 85 by Emiliano Grillo. The Argentine started the second round just five shots behind and ended 19 shots out of the lead.

Zalatoris was briefly tied for the lead when he stepped on the 14th tee. He played the final five holes in 9-over par — a quadruple bogey on the 14th, a double bogey on the 15th, a ball in the water on the 17th for double bogey and a bogey at the last. It added to a 78.

He went from tied for the lead to 10 shots behind in the span of about an hour.

Rory McIlroy made birdie on the final hole to salvage a 73 and perhaps his chances, leaving him only four shots behind.

“Most of the dropped shots were from around-the-green mistakes rather than tee-to-green,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I hit the ball pretty well, controlled my flight. 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.”

Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler wasn’t so fortunate. He was hanging around and poised to get closer until he went from the pine straw left of the par-5 16th fairway to a bunker, then another bunker under a large tree and wound up with a bogey.

He three-putted from long range for bogey on the 17th, tossing his ball into the water. He hit what he thought was a perfect wedge on the 18th only to see it roll off the back of the green. He had a 72.

A year ago, Scheffler birdied his last three holes to get within five shots and wound up winning with a 64. This time he played bogeyed two of the last three and was seven behind.

Is that too much?

“I’m not really thinking about it too much right now,” he said. “I’m just a bit frustrated with the finish but hoping to come out of the gates a little bit better tomorrow and turn things around.”

The forecast was for more wind and enough rain that the PGA Tour moved up the tee times to send players off in threesomes from both sides Sunday morning.

Akshay Bhatia, who shared the 36-hole lead with Min Woo Lee, put up a good fight after a miserable start, going from a birdie on the opening hole to a bogey-bogey-double bogey stretch that sent him spiraling down the leaderboard. He shot 75 and still wound up with a chance, four shots behind. Lee shot 78.

Collin Morikawa had more of a slow bleed with eight bogeys that sent him to 77, leaving him eight shots behind.

The group at 7-under 209 included Patrick Cantlay and Danny Walker, who left Friday evening after a three-putt that looked as though it would cost him the cut. But he made it on the number, teed off first before the wind arrived and posted a 66.

Walker didn’t get into the tournament until Jason Day withdrew Thursday morning. Now he’s in the mix with so many others, chasing the $4.5 million prize from a $25 million purse that includes a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.