Players Championship R2: Wyndham Clark opens up huge lead at TPC Sawgrass

Players Championship round two leaderboard

W. Clark -14, X. Schauffele -10, N. Taylor -10, M. Fitzpatrick -9, M. McNealy -9, M. Schmid -8, S. Scheffler -8, C. Conners -8, T. Hoge -8

Selected others

R. McIlroy -6, C. Morikawa -4, L. Aberg -4, S. Lowry -3, T. Fleetwood -2, P. Cantlay -2, J. Thomas +1, J. Spieth +2

Wyndham Clark opened up a four-stroke lead at the halfway stage of the Players Championship. 

Clark made eight birdies and one bogey on the way to his second consecutive round of 8-under 65 at the flagship PGA Tour event. 

The 2023 U.S. Open champion became the first in Players Championship history to shoot 65 or lower in each of the first two rounds.

He leads fellow American Xander Schauffele and Canada's Nick Taylor by four strokes. 

World number one and defending champion Scottie Scheffler battled his way to a 69 despite struggling with a neck injury. 

Rory McIlroy endured a frustrating day, ultimately returning a scorecard of 1-over 73 to trail Clark by eight strokes. 

McIlroy came under fire earlier in the week after taking two drops his playing partners Viktor Hovland and Jordan Spieth appeared to disagree with. 

Spieth has since told the media that 'everything is good' with McIlroy. For his part, McIlroy insisted his conscience was clear. 

"Look, I think all anybody wants is for you to put the ball where it should go," he told reporters. 

"And in our sport you just get -- especially on a golf course like this or last week, you get some situations where it can be really tricky on knowing for sure.

"You normally err on the safe side and then you pick where you're virtually certain where it did cross, and I think that's what Rory chose both times."

Hovland battled his way to a second round of 69 to make the cut by one stroke whereas Spieth's 74-72 saw him head for an early exit. 

Justin Thomas, the 2021 champion, also missed the cut. 

What the players said...

Wyndham Clark

Matthew Fitzpatrick

Scottie Scheffler

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