Day Two at The Players Championship has wrapped up and two young PGA Tour stars sit atop the leaderboard. Min Woo Lee, one of the most entertaining players on the planet, and Akshay Bhatia, who won last year’s Valero Texas Open, sit atop the leaderboard at 11-under par after posting a pair of 66s.
Here is everything you need to know.
Round 2 Scores:
T1. Min Woo Lee -11 — 67-66
T1. Akshay Bhatia -11 — 67-66
3. J.J. Spaun -10 — 66-68
T4. Rory McIlroy -9 — 67-68
T4. Collin Morikawa -9 — 70-65
T4. Alex Smalley -9 — 68-67
T7. Lucas Glover -8 — 66-70
T7. Will Zalatoris -8 — 70-66
T9. Tommy Fleetwood -7 — 71-66
T9. Jake Knapp -7 — 69-68
T11. Sepp Straka -6 — 70-68
T11. Billy Horschel -6 — 67-71
T11. Four others -6
Takeaways:
Min Woo Lee, Akshay Bhatia eye biggest win of their careers
Min Woo Lee turned in a near-flawless round with seven birdies and one bogey on the par-5 9th, his final hole of the day. The Aussie is a must-watch, exacting a combination of flair and power nobody else possesses. He can hit any shot he needs to, which explains why he has had so much success at TPC Sawgrass this week.
“Felt really good over the ball,” Lee said.
“Just really good numbers and rolled some putts in. Today was solid again and hopefully two more of them.”
Akshay Bhatia also shot a 6-under 66, as Bhatia made eight birdies and two bogies. He made an adjustment to his driver ahead of the tournament, which has helped so far.
“Just went back to my older driver and then I went back to a shaft I played four years ago and it’s a little longer and so it’s kind of been a nice recipe,” Bhatia said.
“Then working pretty hard on technique. I have a good feel this week with my coach. Also feel like I put a mini driver in play this week, which has been a nice attribute to some of the awkward holes for me which when I need to turn it left-to-right. So just kind of a nice setup for me this week.”
Bhatia and Lee will comprise the final pairing on Saturday as both stars eye the biggest win of their careers to date.
Justin Thomas matches course record
Justin Thomas turned in a historic performance by making 11 birdies, which set the Players Championship record for most birdies made in a round. But he would have had the course record by himself if not for a bogey on the 18th hole. His second shot from the rough, in which he had to navigate the trees and hit a punch shot, found the water.
“I just wanted to make another birdie, and then once I missed the fairway, birdie is kind of out of the question and then I was trying to hit something short of the green there and the rough grabbed the face enough to have it shoot out straight left, and with the momentum of that ball, it’s obviously going in the water,” Thomas said of what happened on the 18th.
“But I very easily could have hit it where I wanted to, hit a really good pitch or chip and a really good putt and not gone in and made the same score. I’m in no way, shape or form letting that dwell on the great round I had today.”
Had Thomas made a par on the 18th, he would have shot an 11-under 61. Instead, he posted a 10-under 62, which matched the course record set by Tom Hoge two years ago. Funny enough, Thomas played alongside Hoge that day.
Thomas is at 4-under for the championship and seven strokes back of the lead going into Saturday’s third round.
Rory McIlroy re-discovers groove off the tee
Rory McIlroy hit only four fairways on Thursday, but somehow managed to open with a 5-under 67. He then went straight to the driving range to try and figure out his misses, practicing well into the night.
The move to do so paid off, as McIlroy drove the ball beautifully on Friday. He hit 11-of-14 fairways and ranked fifth among the field in strokes gained off the tee.
“I was just getting a little underneath it, just getting a little too much sort of side bend coming down, sort of in transition,” McIlroy said when asked what he worked on at the range.
“So just trying to keep my right side a little higher and just try to cover it a little bit more was really the thought.”
McIlroy had five birdies on his front nine and held a share of the lead at one point, but he cooled off on his back side with a 1-over 37. He sits at 9-under overall, two back of Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
