Players Championship: Wyndham Clark leads with Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy in contention

US Open champion Wyndham Clark holds a wholesome four-shot lead on the midway level of the Players Championship after carding a second seven-under-par 65.

Xander Schauffele and Nick Taylor are on 10 beneath, with Matt Fitzpatrick and Maverick McNealy a stroke additional again.

World primary and defending champion Scottie Scheffler battled via a neck harm to enhance to eight beneath.

Rory McIlroy combined 5 birdies with 4 bogeys and a double bogey as he slipped again to 6 beneath with a 73.

The world quantity two, who was joint in a single day chief with Clark and Schauffele, is eight pictures off the lead regardless of making 15 birdies in his opening 36 holes. Clark had 16 birdies in his opening two rounds.

McIlroy struggled to match the management he confirmed on Thursday as he scrambled his means across the iconic Sawgrass course.

He had three bogeys and three birdies in his opening six holes then one other birdie on the ninth was cancelled by a bogey on the 12th.

Although the Northern Irishman knocked in a 16-foot birdie putt on the subsequent, a wayward drive into sand led to 2 extra pictures happening the 14th.

While he toiled, Scheffler confirmed exceptional resilience to publish 5 birdies in his 69 regardless of taking part in a lot of the spherical in discomfort.

The American, who began on the 10th gap, stated: “I hit a shot on my second gap and I felt slightly one thing in my neck.

“Then I attempted to hit my tee shot on 12 and that is once I might barely get the membership again. So I bought some therapy, perhaps it loosened up a tiny bit, however a lot of the day I used to be just about labouring.

“I did what I might to remain in the event and hopefully it’s going to loosen up and then I’ll have the ability to make considerably regular swings.

“The means I used to be getting across the course, the best way my neck was feeling, I did not know if I used to be going to have the ability to proceed taking part in, so yeah, good struggle on the market.”

The 28-year-old, who received final week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational by 5 pictures, is trying to turn into the primary participant to win successive Players titles in the 50th staging of the PGA Tour’s flagship event.

But he’ll go into Saturday’s third spherical six adrift of Clark, who received earlier this season at Pebble Beach.

Clark holed 5 birdies in six holes to edge away from the sphere and knocked in two extra in his remaining 4 holes to take management of the event.

“My iron play’s been very stable, I’ve rolled in a handful of putts and then I’ve actually been mentally sturdy, so I’d say all of these issues are why I’m sitting the place I’m proper now,” stated the American.

Fitzpatrick, the person Clark succeeded as US Open champion, constructed on his opening spherical of 66 by charging into the lead on 10 beneath with 4 birdies in six holes across the flip.

But he chunked his second from deep tough into water on his 13th gap as he dropped two pictures. A birdie on the par-five ninth, his final gap, noticed him signal for a 69.

“Anything can occur over the weekend, so it is nearly attempting to remain affected person, simply hold doing what I’m doing and go from there,” stated the Sheffield-born participant.

Olympic champion Schauffele adopted his opening 65 with a 69 that included a double bogey after discovering water on the par-five 11th and an eagle three on the lengthy 16th after hitting his second shot to 9 toes.

He was joined on 10 beneath late in the day by Canadian Taylor, who birdied the 15th and 16th holes as he carded a 68.

And Open champion Brian Harman catapulted himself into contention with a 65 to maneuver to seven beneath.

The notorious 17th claimed but extra victims, with Beau Hossler hitting the 1,000th ball in the historical past of the event – because it moved to Sawgrass in 1982 – into the water that nearly surrounds the inexperienced of the par-three gap.

England’s Justin Rose additionally fell foul of the opening. He was in contention to make the lower when he stood on the tee on one beneath however put two balls in the lake as he made a ruinous quadruple-bogey seven that despatched him to a few over par.

Two gamers will return on Saturday to finish their second rounds after darkness curtailed play as soon as once more however each have possibilities of making the lower, which is about to exclude all these at stage par or worse.

That means Rose will be a part of the likes of American duo Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in lacking the ultimate two rounds.

However, Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune will tee off on the par-five ninth, his remaining gap, on stage par, figuring out he should at the least make birdie to make the lower.

Canada’s Ben Silverman has a extra exterior shot. He is at one over however has performed two pictures on the ninth and should gap from 109 yards for eagle to make the weekend.