The Players Championship heads to Sunday’s final round with the most clustered leaderboard in its history, by a wide margin. There are 30 players within five shots of the lead, currently held by Chris Kirk at 10-under. There were 20 within five shots in 1982, but this year’s bunched-up board obliterates that mark.
The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass: Sergio Garcia, Justin Thomas jump up clustered leaderboard
It’s anyone’s game (except Tiger’s) with 18 more holes to go at The Players.
The leaderboard is populated with many young players from the southeastern United States who are used to playing on this Bermuda grass. Kirk is a Georgia product and may be tough to overtake on Sunday. He’s won on Tour three times before, nearly won the FedExCup last year, and probably should have been on the USA Ryder Cup team. Kirk made three straight birdies from Nos. 15-17 to make a late move and break a six-way tie (at the time).
Kevin Kisner, another UGA product, and Ben Martin, a Clemson grad, are both making their first Players appearances and held the clubhouse lead at 9-under until Kirk came in behind them. And then there’s Bill Haas, a Wake Forest alum and the most accomplished player of the the group right at the top. Haas quietly posted a 4-under 68, and while he’s got a lengthy resume, he has yet to finish in the top 10 at any major or The Players. That should probably end on Sunday.
The course played the easiest it has all week, and that was evident by some of the numbers thrown up on the board early in the morning. As the leaders warmed up on the range, the bottom half of the leaderboard posted birdie after birdie. Nobody had more than Justin Thomas, the exciting rookie from Alabama who set a new Players record with 10 birdies on his card. Thomas started his round with four straight red numbers. The pace obviously slowed down from there -- he made a bogey after hitting a tee shot directly into a fan’s cup holder. But he added four more birdies on the back nine, including one at the most difficult 18th.
Thomas’ 7-under 65 is the round of the tournament so far and it rocketed him 41 spots up the leaderboard. He’s had an extremely impressive start to his first season, and is definitely a young personality the Tour wants to embrace. Getting him in the mix late on Sunday would be a boost, even if the larger public does not yet know much about him.
Right there with Thomas at 8-under is Sergio Garcia, who seems to show up every year at The Players and contend on Sunday. He has his struggles at the majors, but for whatever reason Garcia loves TPC Sawgrass. His game has not been that sharp through the first quarter of the season, but it was improving coming into the “fifth major.” The 2008 Players winner posted an inward 32 (with a bogey) to charge up the board and into the top 10. Given his track record here, you have to think he’ll push the leaders at some point on Sunday.
A few of the big names in that cluster on the first page include Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel. The press has rammed the players poll that had Fowler as the “most overrated” into the ground this week, but it is nice to see him playing so well at yet another big event on the heels of that drama. Fowler had an up-and-down round, dropping down the board on his front nine but then making a run on the back to get in the house with a 1-under 71.
Horschel had a similar rollercoaster round. At one point, the reigning FedExCup champ held a share of the lead on his front nine and it looked like he would zoom past everyone else. His inward nine, however, was a disappointment and he said as much after the round. He’s struggled on the side of the course, which is traditionally the easier one to score on. A Horschel birdie at the island 17th, however, had the mix of Gators, Noles, and Dawgs in the crowd charged up for different reasons.
The world No. 1, Rory McIlroy, is still in the hunt, and if scoring conditions are anything like Saturday then he’ll have his opportunities to put a scare in the leaders playing behind him. He’s four shots back of Kirk, the same margin he faced on Saturday. Here’s where the entire field stands with 18 more holes to play:
| Place | Player | Score | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 |
| 1 | Chris Kirk | -10 | 70 | 68 | 68 |
| T2 | Kevin Kisner | -9 | 73 | 67 | 67 |
| T2 | Ben Martin | -9 | 68 | 71 | 68 |
| T2 | Bill Haas | -9 | 72 | 67 | 68 |
| T5 | Justin Thomas | -8 | 73 | 70 | 65 |
| T5 | Sergio Garcia | -8 | 69 | 72 | 67 |
| T5 | Scott Brown | -8 | 72 | 67 | 69 |
| T5 | David Hearn | -8 | 67 | 71 | 70 |
| T5 | Jerry Kelly | -8 | 71 | 65 | 72 |
| T5 | Kevin Na | -8 | 67 | 69 | 72 |
| T11 | Chesson Hadley | -7 | 71 | 72 | 66 |
| T11 | Pat Perez | -7 | 71 | 70 | 68 |
| T11 | Ryo Ishikawa | -7 | 71 | 69 | 69 |
| T11 | Billy Horschel | -7 | 68 | 72 | 69 |
| T11 | Derek Fathauer | -7 | 68 | 72 | 69 |
| T11 | Rickie Fowler | -7 | 69 | 69 | 71 |
| T17 | Jhonattan Vegas | -6 | 75 | 69 | 66 |
| T17 | John Senden | -6 | 73 | 70 | 67 |
| T17 | Bubba Watson | -6 | 71 | 70 | 69 |
| T17 | Rory Sabbatini | -6 | 70 | 71 | 69 |
| T17 | Adam Scott | -6 | 72 | 69 | 69 |
| T17 | Ian Poulter | -6 | 71 | 69 | 70 |
| T17 | Rory McIlroy | -6 | 69 | 71 | 70 |
| T17 | Brian Harman | -6 | 71 | 69 | 70 |
| T17 | Zach Johnson | -6 | 71 | 68 | 71 |
| T26 | Martin Flores | -5 | 73 | 71 | 67 |
| T26 | Bo Van Pelt | -5 | 70 | 72 | 69 |
| T26 | Patrick Reed | -5 | 72 | 70 | 69 |
| T26 | Charles Howell III | -5 | 68 | 72 | 71 |
| T26 | Branden Grace | -5 | 71 | 67 | 73 |
| T31 | David Toms | -4 | 73 | 71 | 68 |
| T31 | Luke Guthrie | -4 | 74 | 69 | 69 |
| T31 | George McNeill | -4 | 73 | 70 | 69 |
| T31 | Stephen Gallacher | -4 | 72 | 70 | 70 |
| T31 | Joost Luiten | -4 | 71 | 70 | 71 |
| T31 | Martin Kaymer | -4 | 69 | 72 | 71 |
| T31 | Charley Hoffman | -4 | 67 | 74 | 71 |
| T31 | Cameron Tringale | -4 | 69 | 71 | 72 |
| T31 | Russell Henley | -4 | 70 | 70 | 72 |
| T40 | Steve Stricker | -3 | 69 | 75 | 69 |
| T40 | Geoff Ogilvy | -3 | 72 | 72 | 69 |
| T40 | Jamie Donaldson | -3 | 70 | 72 | 71 |
| T40 | Hideki Matsuyama | -3 | 67 | 74 | 72 |
| T40 | Jim Furyk | -3 | 70 | 70 | 73 |
| T40 | Sang-Moon Bae | -3 | 72 | 68 | 73 |
| T46 | Freddie Jacobson | -2 | 70 | 74 | 70 |
| T46 | Graham DeLaet | -2 | 75 | 69 | 70 |
| T46 | K.J. Choi | -2 | 70 | 74 | 70 |
| T46 | Matt Every | -2 | 74 | 70 | 70 |
| T46 | Russell Knox | -2 | 72 | 70 | 72 |
| T46 | Nick Taylor | -2 | 72 | 70 | 72 |
| T46 | Henrik Stenson | -2 | 72 | 69 | 73 |
| T46 | J.B. Holmes | -2 | 70 | 71 | 73 |
| T46 | Marc Leishman | -2 | 69 | 71 | 74 |
| T55 | Brendon de Jonge | -1 | 73 | 71 | 71 |
| T55 | Scott Langley | -1 | 72 | 72 | 71 |
| T55 | James Hahn | -1 | 70 | 73 | 72 |
| T55 | Charl Schwartzel | -1 | 71 | 72 | 72 |
| T55 | Robert Streb | -1 | 70 | 73 | 72 |
| T55 | Robert Allenby | -1 | 70 | 72 | 73 |
| T55 | Brendon Todd | -1 | 68 | 72 | 75 |
| T55 | Troy Merritt | -1 | 68 | 71 | 76 |
| T55 | Chris Stroud | -1 | 70 | 69 | 76 |
| 64 | Erik Compton | E | 74 | 70 | 72 |
| 65 | Graeme McDowell | 1 | 73 | 70 | 74 |
| T66 | Bryce Molder | 2 | 72 | 71 | 75 |
| T66 | Louis Oosthuizen | 2 | 70 | 73 | 75 |
| T68 | Padraig Harrington | 3 | 71 | 73 | 75 |
| T68 | Tiger Woods | 3 | 73 | 71 | 75 |
| T68 | Dustin Johnson | 3 | 72 | 72 | 75 |
| T68 | Ernie Els | 3 | 73 | 70 | 76 |
| T68 | Vijay Singh | 3 | 71 | 72 | 76 |
| T73 | Webb Simpson | 5 | 69 | 74 | 78 |
| T73 | Alex Cejka | 5 | 69 | 73 | 79 |
| 75 | Scott Stallings | 9 | 71 | 72 | 82 |
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