Best Finish By Winner at The Players Championship
Which winners of The Players Championship have earned those victories with the lowest final-round scores, or best down-the-stretch scoring? Let's look at both to see the best finishes that led to victory in this huge tournament.
The Players Championship was first played in 1974, and moved permanently to The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in 1982. It is often referred to as "the fifth major" of men's professional golf.
Best Final-Round Scores by Players Championship Winners
In the tournament's history so far, only four golfers who won the tournament had final-round scores of 65 or lower:- 64, Fred Couples, 1996: Couples entered the final round tied for fourth place, four strokes off the lead. Then he scored 64 and wound up winning by four.
- 64, Davis Love III, 2003: Love was tied for third, two strokes off the lead, following the third round. His final-round 64 gave him a two-stroke victory.
- 64, Scottie Scheffler, 2024: Scheffler became the third champion to close with 64 in 2024, after beginning the final round five strokes behind the leader. He wound up winning by one stroke.
- 65, Jack Nicklaus, 1976: Nicklaus was the first golfer to win The Players Championship with a final-round score of 65 or lower in 1976, before the tournament moved to TPC Sawgrass. Nicklaus' win, the second of three times he won this tournament, happened at Inverrary Country Club. He was tied for the third-round lead and won by three after scoring 65 in Round 4.
Best Score Over Final Four Holes By Winner
Another way of looking at the best finish by the eventual winner of The Players Championship is to look only at the tournament's famous closing stretch, its final four holes. Those holes are the par-4 15th, par-5 16th, the island-green, par-3 17th, and par-4 18th. Par for those four holes is 16.What is the lowest score made over those four holes in the final round by the golfer who won the tournament? Rickie Fowler holds that record with a score of 5-under-par 11 in 2015. Fowler scored birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie on the four holes to tie Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. He then won the three-hole, aggregate-score playoff.
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