PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The second round of The Players Championship is almost in the books at TPC Sawgrass. Friday’s round was suspended due to darkness at 7:30 p.m. and will pick back up at 7:40 a.m. on Saturday morning. Only one group remains to finish. Here are some of the sights, sounds and notables from Friday.
The nuts and bolts
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Wyndham Clark is threatening to turn the 50th Players into a runaway. Clark fired his second straight 7-under 65 and leads by four over Xander Schauffele and Nick Taylor. Clark is 14 under through two rounds.
The big names who missed the cut
Justin Thomas, the 2021 Players champ, finished 1 over and missed the cut. Webb Simpson, the 2018 Players winner, finished even and won’t be around this weekend. Billy Horschel (1 over), Jordan Spieth (2 over) and Ryan Fox, who had a hole-in-one on 17 in the first round, was 4 over on Friday and missed the cut at 1 over.
Saturday is sold out
The Players always stresses for fans to buy admission and parking tickets early because they tend to sell out. Parking sold out before the tournament for Saturday but stadium passes for the third round were officially sold out Friday afternoon. Fans who don’t have tickets can try and purchase through The Players verified resale site through Ticketmaster here. As of 9 p.m. on Friday night, there were tickets available priced at $136 and higher.
Trevor makes young fan’s day
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has made The Players an annual stop since he arrived in Jacksonville as the top draft pick in 2021. On Friday, Lawrence and his wife, Marissa, were taking in the action in a chalet on No. 17 with fans milling around trying to get his attention. Lawrence waved from time to time before a couple boys managed to get a man’s attention in the front of the chalet. They threw up a hat, which the man grabbed and took to Lawrence. He signed it, handed it back to the man who then tossed it back down.
John Schmidt tossed his hat up and Trevor Lawrence signed it for him.
— Jamal St. Cyr (@JStCyrTV) March 15, 2024
I love the fact that even after getting an autograph from Trevor he says that Travis Etienne (@swaggy_t1) is his favorite player.🤣 https://t.co/OVk1DnbZlo pic.twitter.com/zuBq49Xhmw
John Schmidt, 10, was the lucky fan who came away with Trevor’s autograph. He and two friends were so excited to get the hat that they scrambled away from the commotion to go try and show it off to their families.
“It’s awesome. It’s amazing. I did not meet him. I threw my hat over there and somebody let me use their Sharpie. And they gave it to Trevor and Trevor autographed it,” Schmidt said.
Scheffler banged up, but still contending
Defending Players champion Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, fired a solid 3-under 69 on Friday and sits at 8 under for the tournament. He’s six strokes behind leader Clark, still in contention. But nothing was easy or painfree Friday for Scheffler.
After a birdie on No. 13, Scheffler had the honors on the tee shot on the following hole. But he let playing partners Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler go in front of him. The reason — Scheffler had significant neck pain that required him to have a physical trainer work on him.
He needed more medical attention on Nos. 14 and 15, too, his fifth and sixth holes of the day.
“Yeah, I hit a shot on my second hole today [the 11th] and I felt a little something in my neck, and then I tried to hit my tee shot on 12, and that’s when I could barely get the club back,” Scheffler said. “So I got some treatment, maybe it loosened up a tiny bit, but most of the day I was pretty much laboring to get the club somehow away from me.”