Led by another blazing-hot performance with his putter, the reigning U.S. Open champion is two rounds from further cementing his place as a star in professional golf.
Wyndham Clark will carry a four-shot lead into Round 3 at TPC Sawgrass, the second consecutive week he’s led an elite field at the halfway point of a big event in Florida. A week ago at Bay Hill, Clark was part of a six-way tie for first through 36 holes before finishing second to Scottie Scheffler.
Here are the top tidbits to know from Round 2 of The Players Championship.
1. By opening with consecutive rounds of 7 under, Clark is the first in Players Championship history to shoot 65 or better in back-to-back rounds at TPC Sawgrass. He’s the fourth man in this event’s history to be 14 under or better through two rounds. Each of the previous three went on to win: Greg Norman in 1994 (-14), Jason Day in 2016 (-15) and Webb Simpson in 2018 (-15).
Clark’s combination of consistent approach play and lights-out putting will be near-impossible to beat if it keeps up. He has hit at least 15 greens in regulation and gained three or more strokes putting in both rounds this week. Since ShotLink began tracking strokes gained in 2003, not only is Clark the only player to ever do that in back-to-back rounds at TPC Sawgrass, but he’s also one of two players to have more than one round like that at all. Sergio Garcia did it twice, eight years apart (2013 and 2021).
Clark has gained at least three strokes on the field putting in each of the first two rounds this week. He has now done that 10 times in the past two seasons, tied with Taylor Montgomery for the most such rounds in that span.
The lead is four for Clark heading to the weekend. #THEPLAYERS | @Wyndham_Clark pic.twitter.com/lf2im5pNT3
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERS) March 15, 2024
2. Entering the 2023 Players Championship, Clark was 116th in the Official World Golf Ranking and had yet to win on the PGA Tour. In 127 starts up to that point, he had more than four times as many missed cuts (48) as top-10 finishes (11). In his first four full seasons on tour, he ranked in the top 50 in scoring average just once and was never better than 67th in strokes gained total.
A year later, his career is completely unrecognizable when juxtaposed with where he was then. For one thing, he’s trying to become the second reigning U.S. Open champion to win The Players, joining Tiger Woods in 2001. A win this week would give him four in a little over 10 months, with each coming against elite fields — three signature events and a major championship.
3. Clark is the third player to lead this championship by four or more through 36 holes. Day led by four in his victory, and Simpson led by five. Though the history of the event doesn’t say so, a four-shot lead at the halfway point is far from a done deal on the PGA Tour. Over the past 15 seasons, players who have led by exactly four shots through 36 holes on the tour have gone on to win 40 percent of the time.
You don’t have to go back far to find a world-class player unable to convert in an elite event: Patrick Cantlay led the Genesis Invitational by five entering the weekend last month but finished tied for fourth, four shots behind Hideki Matsuyama.
4. Xander Schauffele (-10) leads the group behind Clark after carding a Friday 69. Schauffele has just one score of bogey or worse through 36 holes: a double-bogey 7 on the 11th hole Friday. He is 16 under par in his last four rounds at TPC Sawgrass, racking up more than 13 strokes on the competition tee-to-green in that span. Through two days, Schauffele is well inside the top 10 in the field in strokes gained approach, greens in regulation and scrambling.
Schauffele has trailed through 36 holes in five of his six individual victories on the PGA Tour. None of those wins, trailing or not, has come since the beginning of last season: His 15 top-10 finishes are by far the most of any player on the PGA Tour in that span without a victory.
5. Nick Taylor played his last four holes Friday in 2 under to get into a tie for second entering the weekend. Before this week, the 35-year-old Canadian had never been better than in a tie for 38th through two rounds at TPC Sawgrass. More than 150 feet of putts made and 13 birdies later, only one man is better than Taylor heading to Saturday at one of the game’s biggest events.
Fifth birdie of the day for @NTaylorGolf59!#THEPLAYERS pic.twitter.com/2c8qbbKrLH
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERS) March 15, 2024
Taylor has been outstanding with his irons through two rounds, ranking in the top three in the field in strokes gained approach and average proximity to the hole. Friday on the back nine alone, he hit six approach shots inside 20 feet, turning three of those opportunities into birdies. Taylor trailed by 7 through two rounds in his historic win last summer at the RBC Canadian Open.
6. Though most of the conversation about Scheffler on Friday revolved around his aching neck, the world No. 1 managed to piecemeal together a score of 69, his 25th consecutive round under par to begin the 2024 PGA Tour season. Scheffler’s putting was not as sharp in Round 2, as he snapped a personal four-round streak of gaining strokes on the greens dating back to last week in Orlando. He still pelted 14 greens in regulation Friday, giving him 29 for the week. Only Clark has hit more.
This will be the 28th time in the past three tour seasons that Scheffler has been in the top 10 through 36 holes of a tournament, eight more than anyone else in that span. Scheffler has overcome deficits of six or more entering Round 3 to win twice in his PGA Tour career.
7. Accurately calibrated driver in hand, Matt Fitzpatrick is driving the ball more like the man who won the U.S. Open two summers ago in Massachusetts. Through two days, he leads the tournament in strokes gained off the tee, a metric he entered the week ranked 93rd in for the season. The former U.S. Amateur champion has hit 13 drives this week of 310 yards or farther. He entered the week averaging just under 293 yards on all of his drives in 2024.
It makes sense, then, that Fitzpatrick has been outstanding on the par 5s this week, carding a score of 9 under in just eight holes. Through two days, only Matti Schmid (-10) has been more prolific on the par 5s at TPC Sawgrass.
8. Rory McIlroy had a wild Round 2, exploring all kinds of scoring possibilities on his way to a round of 73. McIlroy went the first six holes of the round without carding a par, tying the longest such streak of his PGA Tour career. Though his five birdies were merely half of what he piled up Thursday, the mistakes killed his momentum: four bogeys and a double.
Rory was just 2-for-7 scrambling in the second round. After leading the field in strokes gained putting in Round 1, he lost strokes to the field on the greens Friday, missing four putts inside 10 feet.
9. Though neither of the previous two men to lead this championship by four or more entering the weekend failed to go on to win, plenty of players have made big weekend runs to capture the Players title. Just three years ago, Justin Thomas was seven off the pace entering the third round but shot 64-68 on the weekend to win. Si Woo Kim was six back when he stunned the golf world back in 2017.
Since 1995, nearly one-third of Players champions were four or more back entering Round 3.
10. By finding the 17th green Friday, Chris Kirk has now played all 41 rounds of his Players Championship career without hitting a single tee shot there into the water. That ties Jason Dufner for most career trips to 17 without rinsing a single shot since tracking began in 2003. Kirk is tied for 14th entering the weekend with a chance to take the title all to himself Saturday.
Through two days, there have been just 24 balls in the water at hole No. 17. For perspective, there were 47 and 43 in the first two rounds in 2022 and 2023, with the high being 71 in 2007.
(Photo of Wyndham Clark: David Cannon / Getty Images)
