English eyes are smiling: Harris English surges in Players Championship final round
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Shut out of the money for a decade at The Players Championship, Harris English landed a hefty pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day.
On a day when spectators in Irish green lined the fairways of the Players Stadium Course, who's to say there's no room for a dash of English cheer?
Starting from the early groups, English unleashed a Sunday surge with a final-round 66 to temporarily jump onto the midday leaderboard and finish 9-under for the week at The Players Championship.
For the resident of St. Simons Island, Ga., who last collected a payday at The Players in 2013, just making the cut for the weekend was a welcome change to a decade-long First Coast slump. But the way English was swinging the club Sunday, he felt he could have attained even more.
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"I knew I was playing well and got it going today, and it was one of those rounds that could have been a 59, 60, 61," he said. "But I just didn't quite get it going with the putter."
He began Sunday in a tie for 51st, but by the time he finished off a par at the 18th, he had climbed well within the bracket for a six-figure payday to cap what is far and away his most successful week to date in Ponte Vedra.
English began with a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 1 and an eagle from 8 feet, 4 inches on No. 2, following with birdies on Nos. 4, 6 and 7 to complete the front nine in 30 before the momentum slowed.
English might have enjoyed the luck of the Irish at the 18th, where his tee shot drifted rightward toward the woods. But he played out of trouble to find the green within 17 feet and two-putted for par.
Luck has been a commodity in scarce supply for English in his last dozen years at the Stadium Course.
"For me, it's off the tee out here," he said. "If you can put the ball in play and in the fairway, you can attack the flags, and I can use my iron play to get to certain flags. But if you're in the rough a lot, hitting in bad spots, it's just, it just compounds out here. You try to get it back and you start making doubles and it's just hard to get it back."
In 2012, after a second-round 67, he occupied the second-to-last group for the third round alongside eventual winner Matt Kuchar. But his off-target drive on No. 1 of that round beaned a volunteer — a witness at the time told the Times-Union that the impact sounded like a ball striking a tree trunk — inflicting a bloody injury that sent the victim to Baptist Medical Center Beaches.
English, shaken, followed with a triple-bogey at No. 2 and finished that tournament 79-77. Since then, until this week, he hadn't broken 70 at The Players.
The last time English made the cut at the Players Stadium Course was 2013, when his 3-under 285 tied for 33rd place and earned him $52,487.50. Since then, he came up empty on visits each year from 2014-2019 and again in 2023, a tournament derailed by an opening-round 78.
While a third-round 75 already left the former Georgia Bulldog with too much ground to make up to seriously challenge for his fifth PGA Tour victory, his strong Sunday brings rewards in FedEx Cup points and a more sizable slice of the $25 million purse.
Born in Valdosta, the 34-year-old owns four victories in his PGA Tour career and entered the weekend 26th in the Tour's money list and 20th in the FedEx Cup standings. He's already notched four top-10 finishes this season and would have had a fifth if not for a final-round 77 in last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
"I felt free out there, I was attacking and I was trying to go as low as I could," English said. "Haven't had the best record here, but definitely have a lot to build on from this week of how to play this course. Obviously got to be hitting the ball well, but it's nice to see some good stuff happen out here."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Players Championship 2024: Harris English surges in Sunday final round
