Lucas Glover shot nine birdies including four in a row from the 15th, as well as three bogeys, to close with a 6-under 66 and take a share of the lead at The Players Championship.
“15 I had a great number, so that was a green light. 16, if you hit it in the fairway you feel like you should make a 4. I drew a good lie in the left rough. 17 I happened to know a putt from years past hitting it there and over-reading it. Then 18, wind switched; I had help all of a sudden. It was an 8-iron number and ended up hitting 9. Then gravity kind of took over for me and pulled it down there to the left, which it does to that hole location if you just get the right number,” said Glover.
“The thing about this place is there’s always some really good scores and always some really bad scores. It’s razor thin. The margins are razor thin here, akin to say Augusta or Bay Hill. You get off just a little, you can make big numbers in a hurry.
“So I happened to have a bunch of good numbers today and a bunch of good yardages and was able to be aggressive and I putted great. But any time you get off to a good start it gives you confidence.”
The American holds his eighth career first-round lead/co-lead on Tour, his first since the 2023 ISCO Championship where he finished 5th. He is 0-for-7 in converting to victory. He is playing in his 552nd career Tour start, the second-most of any player in the field (most: 566/Matt Kuchar).
66 marks Glover’s second-lowest score in 44 rounds at TPC Sawgrass having shot 65 twice. His best finish this season was T3 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Compatriot J.J. Spaun carded a bogey-free round to take his sixth career first-round lead/co-lead but first since the 2023 The Sentry where he finished T5. He is 0-for-5 in converting to victory.
“I don’t know what was going on this morning. I was looking at scores as I was getting ready to come out here, and there wasn’t a lot of low numbers, and a lot of people over par. It was just kind of one of those days where you just kind of take what the course gives you. Fortunately, not making a lot of mistakes and playing relatively stress-free golf kind of pushed me over the edge to playing really well.
“Bogey-free anywhere is really nice, good way to start the week off.”
Spaun has had two top-three finishes in eight starts this season (T3/Sony Open in Hawaii, T2/Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches) and one victory in 227 starts on Tour at the 2022 Valero Texas Open.
Colombian Camilo Villegas fired eight birdies and two bogeys to take his fourteenth career first-round lead/co-lead, most recently at the 2021 Valero Texas Open where he finished T17. He is 2-for-13 in converting to victory.
“You’ve got to be cautious here,” said Villegas. “It’s a tricky golf course. You’ve got to keep it in play. Aggressive, reckless can bring big numbers quick, and you’ve got to avoid those.”
T3 in his tournament debut in 2006 was Villegas’ lone top-10 in eleven starts at The Players. He has won five times on Tour, most recently at the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
2019 Champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland lies in a share of fourth place after making two bogeys and opening with a 5-under 67, his second consecutive year opening the event with a 67 or better. He recorded a first-round 65 in 2024 (T19 finish) and owns four top-10s at TPC Sawgrass, but none since his victory.
Two-time defending champion and World number 1 Scottie Scheffler of the United States opened with a 3-under 69 and is three shots off the lead at T20 as he seeks to join Jack Nicklaus as the only three-time winners of The Players (1974, 1976, 1978) and first at TPC Sawgrass. The last player to win the same PGA Tour event in three consecutive years is Steve Stricker (John Deere Classic/2009-11).
The first round was suspended at 7:34 p.m. with five players yet to complete their round. The first round will resume at 8:50 a.m. Friday. The second round will begin as scheduled at 7:40 a.m.
