Two unexpected golfers upstage stars, share second-round lead at Players

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.

World No. 9 Justin Thomas 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.

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."

Friday's cut was projected to fall at 1-under-par 143 with former World No. 1 Justin Rose of England, fifth-ranked Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Adam Scott of Australia and Viktor Hovland of Norway among those in danger of missing out.

--Mark Lamport-Stokes, Field Level Media