Rory McIlroy will face the unheralded JJ Spaun in a three-hole playoff for The Players Championship at 1 pm Irish time today after he carded a 68 to the Californian’s 72 to leave them tied on 12-under.

Only Tiger Woods (2001) and Scottie Scheffler (2024) won the tour’s signature event and a green jacket in the same year, and McIlroy hopes he will have a chance to join them at Augusta National next month.

On a day when thunderstorms delayed play for four hours, meaning there wasn’t enough light for the three-hole aggregate playoff over the last three holes, McIlroy had to make a testing four-foot par putt at the 18th to set the target at 12-under after his approach to the last came up 76 feet short.

Spaun had drawn level with him on 12-under with a birdie at the 16th, but the bearded American came up one revolution short with a 30 footer for victory and a cheque for $4.5m.

"I feel like I had a chance to go home with a trophy tonight,” McIlroy said. "But, you know, I'll get a good night's sleep and reset and try to win it tomorrow.”

Four behind Spaun overnight, McIlroy (35) reduced the deficit to just one shot with a sensational birdie-eagle start, rolling in an eight footer at the first and a 10 footer at the second after two sensational strikes.

Spaun, who has just one tour win on his CV, bogeyed the fifth to make it a three-way tie for the lead with McIlroy and Akshay Bhatia on 11-under.

McIlroy bogeyed the seventh after bunkering his approach from the edge of a divot and sending his third over the green. But he took advantage of a good break at the 234-yard eighth where his tee shot kicked down off the back of a bunker to 15 feet and rolled in the putt to tie for the lead again.

As Spaun bogeyed the eighth, Bhatia birdied the ninth to tie for the lead with McIlroy on 11-under.

Spaun birdied the ninth to regain a share of the lead but McIlroy birdied the par five 11th from 13 feet to go one clear on 12-under when play was suspended due to an approaching thunderstorm.

As for the weather delay, McIlroy said: "Once we got back out there, I made the perfect start again with a birdie on 12.

“And then on the way in, I feel like I gave myself chances to close the door and win this golf tournament And I didn't quite do that.

"So, you know, gonna have to do it the hard way and stay one more night and try to do it tomorrow.”

As for what it would mean for him to win his second Players Championship, he said: "Yeah, it would mean an awful lot. There's not many multiple Players champions.

"Even Scotie has won the last two years. And, you know, I’ve spoken a lot about the fact how much I admire Scottie. It would be nice to get two like him and Tiger as well, I guess.

"But I have to put that out of my head and just play three good holes in the morning, and hopefully that's good enough.”

Play was delayed for four hours but within eight minutes of the restart, McIlroy was three clear.

The Holywood star resumed by hitting a wedge to 13 feet at the 12th and rolling in the putt as Spaun three-putted the 11th for bogey in the match behind.

The Co Down man handed that shot back at the 14th, where he had to chip out to the fairway and he then saw his lead reduced to a single shot when Spaun hit his approach stone dead at the same hole.

McIlroy had a putt to go two clear at the 15th but missed from less than six feet, then opened the door when he failed from 11 feet for birdie at the 16th. Spaun made no mistake there, chipping dead from left of the green to draw level on 12-under as McIlroy two-putted the 17th for his par after spinning up against the collar of rough, 14 feet from the hole.

At the 18th, McIlroy faced a knee-knocking four-footer for par that brought back memories of his US Open misses last year.

But he made no mistake and dodged a bullet when Spaun’s putt for victory came up just short.

Spau said he gained self-confidence from playing the last five holes in two-under to match McIlroy on 12-under.

"I think this amount of pressure is the most I've ever been under,” the 34-year-old said. "So to really kind of fight through the adversity on the front nine, and to hit some clutch shots and make some good birdies coming in, really kind of gives me that boost of confidence that I that I need, and self belief.”

McIlroy is focussing on making “five good swings” on the three playoff holes and Spaun believes it will take birdies to win.

“Definitely some birdies,” he said. "You know, he's a great player. He's going to be tough to beat. But this final stretch, 16, 17, 18, anything can happen. So I just happy to have a chance at it tomorrow.:.

Shane Lowry was pleased to close with a five-under 67 to tie for 20th on four-under before he plays the TGL semi-finals on Tuesday and heads to Tampa for the Valspar Championship and his final warm-up for the Masters.

“I feel like I kind of rescued a half-decent week,” said Lowry, who made six birdies and a double bogey at the eighth (his 17th) before play was suspended, then came back out and two-putted the ninth for a closing birdie.

“I felt like I've played pretty nice all week, but if any mistake was to be made, I made it. But that's just this golf course.

“When you're playing the best tournaments on the best golf courses, it's just hard sometimes. I'm proud of the way I went out there today.

“I rushed the shot at the eighth, trying to get finished, but I hit a great shot into nine and two putted that and I’m going to sneak a top 25, which is never a bad week, and get some world ranking points.”

Lowry plans to go Augusta the week before the Masters, where McIlroy will be fancied to challenge for that green jacket.

If Lowry was smiling, Tom McKibbin was laughing all the way to the bank after he took his earnings from his first four LIV Golf starts to a cool $2.58 million (€2.36m).

The Holywood star (22) tied for 25th at LIV Singapore and his Legion XIII outfit finished second in the team event, which means he is now close to surpassing €2.82m he’s won in 49 appearances on the DP World Tour.

After making $1.03m on his debut at LIV Golf Riyadh, where he tied for 15th and Legion XIII won the $3m team title, he was seventh in Adelaide ($470,500) and second again in the team event ($375,000).

He tied for sixth in Hong Kong to pick up another $561,875 before claiming $187,500 for his tied 25th finish in Singapore and another $375,000 for his share of the runner-up prize in the team contest.

The $3m top prize went to Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs, who claimed their third successive team win by three shots from Legion XIII.

Chile’s Joaquin Niemann shot a six-under 65 at Sentosa to win the individual title by five shots from Brooks Koepka on 17 under and win $4m, while McKibbin finished on two-under after a 70 with Graeme McDowell ($50,000) 53rd in the 54-man field on 10-over after a 74.

It was a second win in three starts for Niemann (26), who moves to the top of the Individual Champion points standings and into position to earn an exemption into June’s U.S. Open at Oakmont.

“Today was one of those days,” said Niemann, who won by three shots in Adelaide. “Everything went my way.”

The Fireballs won despite an ailing Garcia, who came down with bronchitis and had a temperature of 39.1C on the eve of the tournament.

He shot level par for the week, but his three teammates, led by David Puig’s solo fourth at 10 under, stepped up to rally from an eight-shot deficit to start the final round.

Manon De Roey of Belgium with her trophy. Credit: Tristan Jones / LET

“This week was a tough week because I've been sick all week and haven't been able to help the team as much as I would have liked to,” Garcia said. “To see the performance that my teammates put in to be able to get this win was pretty impressive.”

On the Ladies European Tour, Belgium’s Manon De Roey made a clutch birdie at the 18th hole to win the Australian Women’s Classic and become a three-time LET winner.

She shot a one under 69 to pip England’s Cara Gainer by a shot on nine-under-par at Coffs Harbour.

She won €45,000 as Kildare’s Lauren Walsh shot 74 to tie for 16th (€4,994) on two-under.

Anna Foster also shot 74 to tie for 53rd (€1,125) on four over.

Meanwhile, England’s Joshua Berry came through a four-man play-off to claim a maiden HotelPlanner Tour title in the Kolkata Challenge at Royal Calcutta.

Berry signed for a one over 73 to tie with Norwegian Andreas Halvorsen, Austrian Lukas Nemecz and Om Prakash Chouhan from India on 11-under before birdieing the second extra play-off hole to win.

Laytown and Bettystown’s Alex Maguire shot 71 to tie for 46th on level par.