With most of the leaders coming from the late/early side of the draw, it looked like a sleepy Friday afternoon might be on the horizon at TPC Sawgrass. Then Justin Thomas caught fire.
One day after a bewildering 78, Thomas shot a 62 to — yes, realistically speaking — vault himself back into this Players Championship. Here are the top numbers and notes to know from Day 2 at TPC Sawgrass.
1. Thomas made 11 birdies, the most in a single round at the Players Championship. The 62 tied the tournament course record, set by Tom Hoge two years ago in the third round. Coupled with Thomas’ 10-birdie round of 66 in 2015, JT is the first in Players Championship history with multiple rounds making double-digit birdies.
Perhaps no player in this era has the ability to go crazy-low as often as Thomas. Friday was his 13th round of 62 or lower on the PGA Tour since 2015, most of any player in that span.
2. Thomas’ preposterous 16-shot turnaround is the largest from Round 1 to Round 2 in a Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. The previous mark was 15 strokes, achieved by the colorful Kiradech Aphibarnrat in 2019 (84-69). The abysmal nature of Thomas’ ball striking on Thursday cannot be overstated: He ranked dead last in the field in strokes gained off the tee (-4.98) and strokes gained tee-to-green (-6.65). On Friday, he was among the very best in those metrics.
On approach shots Thursday, Thomas averaged 47 feet, 6 inches from the hole. He was nearly 27 feet better on average than that in the second round. Thomas is seven back of the co-leaders, the same position he sat in through two rounds in 2021 when he went on to win.
3. Before Thomas lit a birdie blowtorch, a pair of rising stars solidified their place on top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend. Akshay Bhatia made eight birdies — four on each side — to card 66. At just 23 years old, Bhatia is the youngest player to hold the 36-hole lead or co-lead in a Players Championship at this venue.
It’s the third time the American has held a share of the 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour in the last calendar year. One of those leads was a six-shot advantage in San Antonio where Bhatia wound up holding off Denny McCarthy in a playoff. Bhatia has been brilliant through the bag through two days this week, sitting fourth in the field in strokes gained putting, top 20 in ball striking and 10-for-12 scrambling around these difficult greens.
Akshay Bhatia is the co-leader at The Players. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
4. Tied with Bhatia is Min Woo Lee, who missed only two fairways and four greens to also fire a 66. Lee, who is among the leaders in the sport in driver ball speed, dialed back his biggest weapon a touch on Day 2. After leading all players in average distance off the tee on Thursday, he ranked 41st on Friday, hitting three more fairways in the process.
This is Lee’s sixth 36-hole lead worldwide as a pro and first on the PGA Tour. Brother of two-time LPGA major champion Minjee, Min Woo has three DP World Tour wins but a while to go to catch up to his older sister. A big weekend in Florida would help get him a little closer. Lee was tied for third here two years ago entering the weekend before finishing in a tie for sixth place.
5. PGA Tour vet J.J. Spaun, 34, is alone in third place at 10-under par, enjoying easily his best performance to date at The Players Championship. Spaun, who has made just two bogeys through two rounds, averaged four bogeys or worse per round in his career at TPC Sawgrass entering the week. An enormous uptick in his scrambling numbers has helped — he’s 9-of-11 this week after getting up-and-down at a 42 percent rate in five previous starts here.
Like Bhatia, Spaun is a past winner at TPC San Antonio, another demanding ball-striking test. He had one close call earlier this season, holding a one-shot 54-hole lead at the Sony Open before finishing in a tie for third place.
6. Rory McIlroy is just two shots back after another pummeling of TPC Sawgrass’ back nine. After playing it in 9-under through two rounds this week, McIlroy is now 56-under on the back nine here since 2013, 20 shots better than any other player in that span. Like many past years, though, the front nine has proved significantly more difficult for the 2019 Players Champion. McIlroy is even par on the front this week, putting him a tidy 62 strokes behind his performance on the other half of the course since 2013.
McIlroy cleaned up his driver play on Friday: One day after hitting just four fairways, McIlroy hit 11 and ranked in the top five in the field in strokes gained off the tee. Florida continues to be welcoming for McIlroy’s putting, as he’s now gained about 8.5 strokes on the greens in the last two weeks on tour. No player from Europe has won this championship more than once, something McIlroy can change this week.
A little chip-in to start the day. #THEPLAYERS | @McIlroyRory
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERS) March 14, 2025
7. Collin Morikawa is also just two off the lead entering the weekend. Seven days ago, he was three off the pace entering the third round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he wound up in second place. Morikawa got hot on the greens on Friday, making more than twice as many feet of putts (103 feet, 8 inches) as he did in Round 1 (47 feet, 5 inches). His ball striking continues to be excellent, as he’s fifth in strokes gained tee-to-green this week.
The last player to win The Players Championship the week after finishing runner-up on the PGA Tour was Jack Nicklaus in 1978.
8. Scottie Scheffler is six back entering Round 3, which is exactly where he sat through two rounds a year ago when he became the first player to win this championship in back-to-back years. Scheffler shot a 2-under 70 Friday, snapping his record streak of consecutive rounds in the 60s at this event at nine. Still, the dream of joining Nicklaus as the only three-time winners of this championship is very much alive, especially with high winds and volatility expected in the next two rounds.
Scheffler lost strokes to the field off the tee in Round 2, something he had not done at TPC Sawgrass in four years. He’s also had negative strokes gained putting in each of the first two rounds this week. All that, and he’s still unquestionably in the mix with two rounds to go.
9. Several pre-tournament darlings were sent packing after missing the cut. Hideki Matsuyama (74-70) entered the week with one of the best resumes of anybody in recent seasons at this championship. Ludvig Ǻberg (71-75) finished in the top 10 here in his debut a year ago and already has a win in 2025. Michael Kim (75-69), arguably the hottest player on tour the last month, saw his streak get the Dye treatment.
10. Harris English achieved the improbable Friday: make consecutive 2s on the 17th and 18th holes at TPC Sawgrass. A birdie on the island green isn’t all that outlandish, but there had been only six eagles at the famed 18th since 2000 in Players competition. English added to that short list in Round 2, holing a shot from 181 yards.
English is the first player to make consecutive 2s at the 17th and 18th holes at TPC Sawgrass since Glen Day did it in the opening round in 1998.
(Top photo of Justin Thomas: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
