Final Round Tee Times For The Players Championship Moved Up Due to Storm Forecast

Tee times for the final round of The Players Championship have been moved up in anticipation of storms forecast to hit Florida on Sunday.

The PGA Tour made the announcement while Saturday's third round was still in progress, explaining that the tee times will run between 8am and 10.01am ET (12pm-4.01pm GMT) in threesomes off the first and 10^th tees.

That is in the hope that the TPC Sawgrass event finishes on Sunday as scheduled, rather than the prospect of a Monday finish for the first time in three years.

The storms, which have wreaked havoc across central and southeast US in recent days, are expected to reach northeast Florida on Sunday afternoon between 3pm and 5pm, with strong winds and heavy rain expected.

In 2022, the PGA Tour’s flagship event finished on Monday after weather delays, with the third round not even concluded by the end of Sunday. That left the last groups needing 27 holes to finish before Cameron Smith eventually took the title.

While it won’t be as congested this year, the PGA Tour is doing everything it can to avoid prolonging proceedings and crown a champion in its traditional Sunday finish.

The first two days of this year’s tournament were played in calm conditions, but by late in the third round, strong gusts of wind had become evident, even as the sun still shone, with the forecasted of gusts up to 30 mph arriving as expected.

Before Saturday’s action, one of the players in the field, Billy Horschel, was already anticipating a tricky final two rounds, saying: "The wind we're expecting to project the next two days is going to be one helluva challenge. You always want it to be tough, but when you start getting wind conditions like that, quality golf shots don't always turn out well."

While that now seems almost certain, the PGA Tour will be hoping that its decision to move up the tee times can an at least ensure play doesn't go into a fifth day.