PGA Tour making massive change to The Players Championship final round

After a relatively calm first couple of days at The Players Championship as far as the weather is concerned, the wind picked up something fierce on Saturday as the third round on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass progressed.

Those who were fortunate enough to play in the morning didn't have much to deal with, but those at the top of the leaderboard in the afternoon wave were forced to deal with gusts of up to 30 miles per hour at times.

Naturally, that led to some what we'll call interesting shots, some of which found the water at the famed par-3 17th, which was playing downwind most of the afternoon.

And as things are only expected to get worse on Sunday in Ponte Vedra Beach, the PGA Tour has effectively been forced to make some drastic changes to the final round.

The PGA Tour has moved up final-round tee times at The Players Championship due to forecasted stormy weather

At roughly 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, the PGA Tour released a statement announcing that final-round tee times would be moved up several hours to account for the inclement weather that's projected to hit Northeast Florida between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday afternoon.

Typically, groups of two would tee off from the first tee only, with the leaders starting their day at roughly 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

With this change, though, groups of three will now tee off at both the first and 10th tees at TPC Sawgrass from 8:00 a.m. to 10:01 a.m. Eastern. As such, the final group should hopefully reach the 18th by the time the storm arrives, as the PGA Tour is clearly attempting to avoid a Monday finish.

As for how to watch Sunday's final round of The Players, television coverage will begin on Golf Channel at 10:00 a.m. Eastern with NBC taking over at noon. For those streaming, Peacock will provide live simulcasts of both television broadcasts.