Sam Ryder sets THE PLAYERS record with 27 birdies

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Sam Ryder didn’t have his most consistent stuff at the 50th PLAYERS Championship, but no player brought more firepower.

Ryder made 27 birdies for the week at THE PLAYERS, setting the record for most birdies in a tournament at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course. Ryder surpassed the record of 26 birdies, set by Fuzzy Zoeller (1994 in a runner-up showing) and matched this week by Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy had a chance to tie or surpass the record in the last four holes Sunday, but he finished par-par-par-bogey to fall one short of Ryder’s mark. McIlroy finished 9-under for the week, well off the leading pace.

Ryder finished the week with rounds of 70-69-70-69, good for a 10-under 278 total and a top-20 finish in his adopted home region of Northeast Florida. He didn’t contend for the title, but he earned a piece of history at TPC Sawgrass.

“That just goes to show it was an emotional roller coaster, but it's cool,” Ryder said. “It's always cool to have a record.”

The Orlando-area native played collegiately at Stetson University, just over an hour’s drive from TPC Sawgrass, and he felt the crowd’s energy throughout the week. For any of his fans doing a “beers for birdies” type of game, it would have been an active proposition.

Ryder, 34, practices frequently at TPC Sawgrass and is comfortably firing at flags here. It showed.

“It’s the strength of my game, iron play, (and) this place, I'm very comfortable,” he said. “I live here, I play here all the time, I'm aggressive when I'm in the fairway. I feel like when I hit fairways, I was ready to attack. The greens were soft … and I knew everyone was making a lot of birdies, so my attitude was to be aggressive. I tried to remind myself of that today, and it came back to bite me a couple times, but all in all happy with the way it went.”

Four players had previously carded 25 birdies in a single PLAYERS: Greg Norman (1994), Rickie Fowler (2012), McIlroy (2014) and Harold Varner III (2018).