Spaun takes his birdie putt first, from around 20 feet. Up the hill and he doesn’t hit it. Three feet short – slightly cautious.

Chance for McIlroy to take a lead on the first hole in this matchplay scenario. Six feet or so, maybe. And McIIroy makes it! Birdie on the first hole of this play-off for the favourite – calmly rolled in.

Spaun tidies up his par but he now trails by a stroke.

After first of three play-off holes:

Spaun splashes out of the greenside bunker but it doesn’t release and roll down to the hole as intended. It’s ok but nothing more. Outside chance of a birdie

McIlroy is about 35 feet away and set his eagle putt trundling towards the hole. He wants it to swing left to right but it doesn’t turn and races past the hole. That’s not a great putt – work to do for the birdie

Spaun playing first and out of the right rough, he pushes it. His heart will have been in his mouth as it looked headed towards the water down the right but bounces on dry land and lurches forward into the bunker. That will be a bit of a relief for the underdog.

Meanwhile, after a mega drive, McIlroy is only left with 180 yards into the green – that’s just a flick of the 9 iron for the Northern Irishman. Decent enough shot, safely into the heart of the green and he’ll have a long-range look at an eagle. He’s chewed up a 540-yard par five with a drive and a 9 iron – very impressive.

Very much advantage McIlroy

McIlroy picks the driver out of his bag for this opening drive. The 16th is a par five and McIlroy is trying to eat up as much of the distance on the hole with one shot.

Flushes it down the middle of the fairway. A marker laid down to JJ Spaun.

Spaun also taking driver and his drive bounces on the short stuff but takes a couple of bounces into the rough. He’s well back of McIlroy – advantage to the Northern Irishman

OK, we’re not far away from the McIlroy vs Spaun showdown getting underway. It’s a glorious morning at Sawgrass and this should be a lot of fun.

They’re milling about on the 16th tee as we speak. Remember, they’ll play the 16th, 17th and 18th and the player with the lowest aggregate score from those holes will win.

Rory McIlroy – as the player who finished his final round first – will have the honour and tee off first on 16.

If you’re looking for good omens for McIlroy this afternoon, then his only previous Players Championship title – won back in 2019 – also came on St Patrick’s Day.

A thrilling final round at Sawgrass saw McIlroy recover from an early double bogey to card a closing 70 and finish on 16-under, one stroke ahead of Jim Furyk, who missed out on becoming the oldest winner in tournament history.

Birdies at 15 and 16, before safely negotiating the tricky 17th and 18th were enough for the Northern Irishman to pip Furyk’s clubhouse target and he admitted that winning ‘golf’s fifth major’ was a huge moment for him.

McIlroy said: “It’s very special. I just tried to treat it like any other day. Even though I’ve had all those close calls this year, they didn’t mean anything. If anything they were good for me, I called them ‘remote misses’, it gives you even more hope to go forward and go again. I think all those experiences this year led me to this point and ultimately they were good for me because it got me over the line today.”

McIlroy got off to a good start at the Championship, carding seven birdies and two bogeys at Sawgrass to end the opening day just a shot behind joint leaders Lucas Glover, JJ Spaun and Camilo Villegas.

But the day was mostly notable for the Irishman’s response – or lack of response – to a heckler during a practice round earlier in the week.

The final, extra day of action at TPC Sawgrass takes place today, live on Sky Sports.

The play-off gets underway at 1pm UK time (9am local time).

The three-hole play-off will be staged across the iconic closing holes at TPC Sawgrass with the aggregate score across 16, 17 and 18 determining the winner. McIlroy is aiming to become a two-time Players champion.

“It would mean an awful lot, there aren’t many multiple Players champions,” he said. “Scottie [Scheffler] won the last two years, it’d be nice to get two like him, and two like Tiger 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.”