Raymond Floyd became the first player to win The Players Championship in a playoff in 1981.
His victory over Barry Jaeckel and Curtis Strange came in a sudden-death showdown – the same playoff format which many PGA Tour events adopt too.
One year later, the event moved to the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass which has become the forever home of The Players.
In golf, a playoff is needed if there is more than one golfer tied on the same score at the top of the leaderboard at the end of regulation play.
All those years ago, Floyd was tied with Jaeckel and Strange on three-under-par before Floyd won the playoff on the first extra hole on the par-3 15th at Sawgrass Country Club and when the tournament was called the Tournament Players Championship.
There have been just five playoffs in the history of the tournament. Sandy Lyle, K.J Choi, Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler also won having been tied with other players at the top after 72 holes.
After the 2013 season, The Players Championship playoff format was changed and this change still applies in 2025 – the year Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun were forced into a Monday playoff.
The pair were tied on 12-under-par after 72 holes but because the final round had already been delayed by four hours with weather, there was no time for the playoff on Sunday.
So what are The Players Championship playoff rules?
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Here are The Players Championship playoff rules…
From 2014 onwards, The Players Championship has adopted a three-hole aggregate playoff format, instead of the sudden-death format, whereby the player who has taken the least amount of shots after those three holes is crowned the winner.
Extra holes have only been needed once since this change was made. In 2015, Fowler beat Garcia and Kevin Kisner to win his first title at Ponte Vedra Beach.
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This trio finished on 12-under-par after four rounds. The playoff began on the 16th hole and after three holes, Fowler and Kisner were tied on one-under-par.
Garcia dropped out, so the American pair headed to the 17th hole and the same three holes were scheduled for sudden death.
Fowler made birdie, which was his fifth birdie at six attempts at the hole that week, to take the title.
Before that KJ Choi beat David Toms in a playoff in 2011. Both players found the green on the first extra hole and both lagged up to what should’ve been tap-in range. Choi holed for par but Toms missed from about three feet to surrender the title to Choi. This was the fourth playoff in the history of the Players Championship.
In 2008, Garcia won a playoff against Paul Goydos. After Goydos hit his tee shot in the water on 17, Garcia’s shot trickled to four feet from the hole and the playoff was over and done with fairly conclusively.
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