Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are ready to embrace a tougher TPC Sawgrass test after getting themselves in contention heading into the weekend at The Players Championship.
McIlroy followed an opening-round 67 with a four-under 68 on Friday morning, where he briefly held the solo lead before two bogeys in his last four holes dropped him back to nine under and two behind clubhouse leaders Akshay Bhatia and Min Woo Lee.
The Northern Irishman was playing in the marquee group alongside Xander Schauffele and world No 1 Scheffler, who is on five under and six strokes off the halfway lead for the second successive year as he chases a historic three-peat at The Players.
Winds are expected to strengthen over the weekend and bring gusts over 30 miles per hour for the later starters over the next two rounds, with Scheffler hoping the change in conditions can help him move up the leaderboard.
“It’s going to be pretty challenging this weekend,” Scheffler told reporters after his second-round 70. “The golf course was definitely gettable the first two days and I wasn’t able to take advantage of it the way that I would have hoped to.
“Going into tomorrow and Sunday, [there will] definitely be some opportunity there with the conditions changing. The wind moves around a good amount out here.
“If you go to like a course like where The Open Championships usually are, you could play the ball on the ground. Around this place you can’t really. At times it can feel like you’re guessing a little bit on the wind, and you hopefully guess right more often than you’re wrong.”
McIlroy is looking to become just the seventh player to win multiple editions of The Players, having claimed victory in the 2019 contest, with the world No 2 already enjoying success in windy conditions at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this season.
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“I’m looking forward to it,” McIlroy said about the impending test. “I think it’s going to be really important to try to flight your ball and keep it under the tree line.
“I think once it gets above the tree line here it can start to really get hit by it [wind]. It does swirl a little bit, but I think when the wind is so strong, it will be a little more consistent. This course is challenging enough, but with a wind like that, I’m excited for that challenge.”
McIlroy found just four fairways off the tee during his opening round but saw huge improvements on Friday, where he chipped in on his first hole of the day and made six birdies in his first 11 holes.
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“Much better,” McIlroy added. “Hit it much better off the tee. I think I hit more fairways in six holes today than I did in 18 yesterday.
“Got it in play much better and then from there was able to give myself some opportunities and obviously make some birdies early. Couldn’t quite continue that on to the back nine, but it was much better off the tee.”
Schauffele completed the marquee group and continued to be unimpressed with his own performance, in just his second event back from injury, with the two-time major champion needing a final-hole birdie to salvage a one-under 71 and give himself a chance of making the weekend.
When asked about what was wrong with his game, Schauffele said after his second round: “Everything. Not hitting it close enough, to duffing chips, to missing every fairway, to hitting fairways to missing greens.
“It’s pretty gross, to be completely honest. So if I can eke out this cut, that would be nice. But the game feels pretty bad. I’m not sure if it’s something setup related or something that I’m not doing or not doing on the course that I do on the range, but it feels pretty bad.”
Scheffler showing cracks in his game?
Sky Sports Golf’s Nick Dougherty, speaking to Sky Sports News about Scheffler’s start and his hopes of winning The Players for a third consecutive year:
“He’s been untouchable, I hate to say it, almost Tiger-esque, for a year Tiger-esque. Nobody has been to that standard since Tiger was in his pomp.
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“Nine wins last year including that gold at the Olympics. He won the Masters, he won this as well in back-to-back fashion. If he won this it would be three wins at The Players, which nobody has done other than the great Jack Nicklaus.
“However, there are perhaps a few cracks appearing, certainly across the first couple of events. He was a slow starter to his season, once he’s got rolling it’s been really good but it’s not been pinnacle Scottie Scheffler yet.
“If he catches fire across the weekend he’s more than capable of getting the job done. So far though he’s looked a bit tetchy, a bit of frustration on his face – small things but signs we didn’t see last year when he was soaring.”
Who will win The Players? Watch throughout the weekend live on Sky Sports? Coverage continues on Saturday from 1pm on Sky Sports Golf, with 10 extra feeds – including Featured Holes, Featured Groups and bonus coverage – on Sky Sports+. Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.
