PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Min Woo Lee of Australia and Akshay Bhatia upstaged the biggest names in the game as they surged into a tie for the second-round lead at The Players Championship on Friday.
On another day of ideal scoring conditions at a sunbathed and relatively calm TPC Sawgrass, Lee and Bhatia each fired 6-under-par 66s to post 11-under totals of 133 in the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
J.J. Spaun was alone in third one stroke back after carding a 68 while World No. 2 Rory McIlroy (68), two-time major champion Collin Morikawa (65) and Alex Smalley (67) were grouped at 9 under.
First-round leader Lucas Glover followed his opening 66 with a 70 to finish alongside Will Zalatoris (66) at 8 under, a stroke in front of Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (66) and Jake Knapp (68).
World No. 1 and reigning champion Scottie Scheffler, who is bidding for an unprecedented third successive Players victory, stood at 5 under after returning a 70.
The biggest fireworks of the day came from World No. 9 Justin Thomas, who rebounded from an opening 78 by equaling the tournament record of 62, first set by Tom Hoge in the third round of the 2023 edition. Thomas racked up a single-round record 11 birdies in a blistering display — marred only by a bogey at the par-4 18th, where his second shot ended up in water.
“That was one of the best rounds I’ve played, for sure,” two-time PGA Championship winner Thomas told reporters after totaling only 24 putts. “Mentally, that was the biggest thing. I felt like I did an unbelievable job of just staying, keeping my eyes forward, keeping my blinders on, not looking backwards, forwards, anything like that. … I putted the ball beautifully, too. Just one of those days.”
Lee birdied his opening hole, the par-4 10th, and then parred the next four holes before going into overdrive. Fueled by pinpoint iron play, he birdied six of the next nine holes to surge to the top of the leaderboard, and produced his only blemish of the day with a bogey at the par-5 ninth.
“I just hit it really close,” the 26-year-old Lee said about his round. “Nearly holed it on three, and that was a really good shot. Clipped the hole. Felt really good over the ball. Just really good numbers and rolled some putts in. Today was solid again and hopefully two more of them.”
Lee, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour, is still chasing his first victory on the PGA Tour. His best finishes have been runner-up spots at the 2024 Cognizant Classic and the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Bhatia, a 23-year-old Californian who has triumphed twice on the PGA Tour, was overall happy with a round that included eight birdies and two bogeys. He was frustrated, though, after pushing a 9-iron approach from the middle of the fairway into the right rough en route to a dropped shot at the first, his 10th hole.
“When you get out here and you get off to a pretty good start, which I did (Thursday), you can kind of start playing more and more conservative, just because you know how important it is to make pars on certain holes,” the left-hander said. “… I’m pretty annoyed I made a bogey with a 9-iron. That was my first bogey of the tournament.
“It’s just been an intense focus kind of week for me. I feel like that was my goal to start the week. It takes so much to win golf tournaments, especially a Players Championship, so I just got to carry that mentality into these next couple days.”
McIlroy, who won the Players Championship in 2019, was just one stroke off the pace overnight and he made a blistering start to the second round. He chipped in from 26 feet to birdie his first hole of the day, the 10th, and picked up further shots at the 12th, 14th, 16th and 18th to reach the turn in 5-under 31.
Driving the ball much more accurately than he did in the opening round, the Northern Irishman also birdied the par-5 second but he stumbled over the closing holes with bogeys at the sixth and ninth.
“(I) hit it much better off the tee,” said McIlroy, who hit only four of 14 fairways on Day 1 but found 11 on Day 2. “I got it in play much better and then from there was able to give myself some opportunities and obviously make some birdies early. Couldn’t quite continue that on to the back nine, but it was much better off the tee.”
World No. 4 Morikawa, a frustrated figure after losing a three-shot lead with five holes to play at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, chipped in for birdie on two successive holes, the par-4 fourth and the par-4 fifth, en route to his 65.
“I really just took advantage of when I did hit good shots,” said the 28-year-old Californian, who carded nine birdies in Friday’s second round. “I putted really nicely. Also I didn’t try fighting it too much. I knew it wasn’t quite exactly how I was hitting it, and you just make do. It was obviously nice to make a couple chip-ins … to just keep the momentum going.”
After two days of good scoring conditions at TPC Sawgrass, the third-round field will be bracing for a Saturday forecast that predicts steady winds of 15-20 miles per hour with gusts of up to 30 mph.
“It’s going to be pretty challenging this weekend,” said Scheffler, who played the first two rounds in star-studded company with McIlroy and World No. 3 Xander Schauffele. “The golf course was definitely gettable the first two days. I wasn’t able to take advantage of it the way that I would have hoped to.
“Yeah, going into tomorrow and Sunday, definitely be some opportunity there with the conditions changing.”
Friday’s cut fell at 1-under-par 143. Notable players who won’t play the weekend included former World No. 1 Justin Rose of England (even par), Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (even par), fifth-ranked Ludvig Aberg of Sweden (2 over), Adam Scott of Australia (2 over), Viktor Hovland of Norway (4 over), Max Homa (6 over) and Tony Finau (8 over).
World No. 8 Wyndham Clark withdrew midway through his second round due to a neck injury.
–Mark Lamport-Stokes, Field Level Media
