Players 2025: Rory McIlroy in awe of Jacksonville golf fans who showed up in droves for Monday playoff

Yes, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, a fifth day of finding parking near TPC Sawgrass and (most importantly!) a Monday, but Florida golf fanatics still showed up at 9 a.m. sharp for a three-hole aggregate playoff between Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun with the $25 million Players Championship purse on the line. In fact, the crowds were so remarkable on Monday that McIlroy made sure to acknowledge the early-morning masses after his win.

"Yeah, it was incredible," McIlroy admitted in his post-Players presser. "I was walking up 16 fairway, and I turned to my caddie Harry, and I was like, I can't believe how many people are here. Obviously no one works in Jacksonville."

This may have incited a laugh from the media center, according to The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig, but it was clear that the World No. 2 was impressed by the hordes that showed up for the “fifth major.”

It wasn't just your run-of-the-mill Florida sunshine either with blustery conditions wreaking havoc, especially for J.J. Spaun, whose tee shot on 17 airmailed the island green entirely.

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“There were more people there this morning than yesterday after the rain delay!” added TrackingScheffler, the Scottie Scheffler golf tracker who even recorded Rory’s final putt.

Just perusing through the Getty Images, it looks like the closing stretch on Sunday at the Players, not an early Monday playoff. Needless to say, Floridians show up for golf, no matter the time or place … or their bosses.