Despite wild winds, this one-time Tour winner has climbed to top at Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – With the wind whipping and swirling on Saturday and scores soaring at TPC Sawgrass, Pete Dye’s House of Horrors finally bared its teeth. J.J. Spaun stood on the practice tee before his tee time and said he’d be pleased to shoot even-par 72. He did two better, carding five birdies and posting 2-under 70 to take a one-stroke lead over Bud Cauley heading into the final round of the 2025 Players Championship. Spaun’s record at TPC Sawgrass entering this week had been atrocious: three missed cuts, a withdrawal and T-69 the one previous time he played the weekend. So how does he explain being at the top of the leaderboard this week?

“I don't know. I think just playing it so many times and not playing great, like knowing what to not do, I guess, kind of is paying off,” he said.

J.J. Spaun plays a shot on the 18th hole during the third round of The Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 15, 2025 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

It was a day for grinders and flighting shots and scraping out pars.

“The golf course and the weather won,” said NBC’s Kevin Kisner.

Two players went out early before the wind picked up and the fangs of the course began to do their damage and posted 6-under 66. Corey Conners did so first and improved to 8-under and T-5 and his score was matched by Bud Cauley, who moved to Jacksonville at age 5 and attended the Players as a kid. He called it the best round he’d ever played at Dye’s Stadium Course and when asked if he had ever played in more demanding conditions said, “If it was blowing this hard, I probably would have just went home.”

“It's pretty razor thin around here anyway and then you add in 25, 30 miles an hour with some gusts, it shrinks things even more,” said Lucas Glover, who sits T-3. “It makes good shots really good shots. It also can get to people sometimes. Experience tells you that if you don't let it get to you, you've got a better chance of surviving, which is kind of my mindset when it's like this.”

Glover played alongside Will Zalatoris, who shared the lead before making a quadruple bogey at 14, his first such score in 5,324 holes played on Tour. Then he made a double at 15 and ballooned to a 78.

Will Zalatoris smiles on on the ninth hole during the third round of The Players Championship PGA golf tournment Saturday, March 15, 2025 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]

Tied with Glover is Alex Smalley, who shot 72, thanks to a tidy short game that rescued him from trouble time and time again. “The sand pit in the backyard, to the garbage can on the side of the house,” Smalley said. “It was crazy.”

The top of the leaderboard is occupied by players seeking their first victory in the case of Cauley and Smalley and Spaun, who has one Tour title at the Valero Texas Open. “Maybe the game needs a Sea Biscuit long shot tomorrow,” suggested Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner.

War Admiral is lurking in the name of Rory McIlroy, who is four back and T-5 after shooting 73.

“All the bogeys I made were really soft. Three-putt on 5. Sort of made a mess of 12, three-putted 13, three-putted 17,” he said. “They slowed the greens down today for obvious reasons, and I feel like I didn't adjust very well to that.”

Then he added: “Not out of it by any means.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s chances for a three-peat took a hit with bogeys on two of the last three holes, but at T-16 and seven back he’s not out of it yet.

“It was just really tough out there,” Scheffler said.

With more windy conditions expected on Sunday and a forecast for rain, tee times were moved up to try to avoid late-afternoon thunderstorms. It means the course and the weather could win again.

“Rain is fine,” Spaun said.

Spoken like a player who refused on Saturday to let the elements get the best of him.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour's JJ Spaun leads 2025 Players Championship after 54 holes

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