PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Wyndham Clark is quickly becoming a world beater, and with Scottie Scheffler fighting some “neck discomfort” this might be another week where Clark tops a stout field.
Canadian Nick Taylor, however, is right there through two rounds at The Players Championship as he looks to challenge for a title at TPC Sawgrass against the PGA Tour’s best.
Taylor, who won the WM Phoenix Open earlier this season, sits tied for second through two rounds alongside Xander Schauffele, and the pair is four back of Clark.
Clark, who won last year’s U.S. Open and took the title at the rain-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (a Signature Event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 calendar), fired a 7-under 65 for the second straight day. His 14-under 130 total tied his 36-hole career low on the PGA Tour.
Earlier this season, Clark set the course record at Pebble Beach after a 12-under 60 in the third round.
“I guess I’ve been breaking some records recently, which is pretty neat,” Clark said. “More than anything I’m just super excited that kind of had a ho-hum front nine and then turned and really just got into a nice zone and felt really good on the greens and shot an awesome number.”
Clark, who has won three times on the PGA Tour in the last 10 months, was hesitant to say he’s been any sort of big-game hunter. In fact, he pointed to Scheffler, as world No. 1, and his impressive run of late as something he’s trying to chase.
Scheffler shot a 3-under 69 on Friday and is in the mix, six shots back of Clark. But concerning for Scheffler was how much physiotherapy he was receiving on the golf course. His group was put on the clock at one point as Scheffler’s neck got massaged by PGA Tour physio through most of the holes on his front nine. Scheffler gave a few comments to a PGA Tour official after his round but otherwise went straight to the Tour’s physio trailer for more treatment.
Scheffler said on his second hole of the day he “felt a little something” in his neck and when he tried to hit his tee shot on No. 12 (he started on the back nine) he could “barely get the club back.”
“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,” Scheffler said.
“The way I was getting around the course, the way my neck was feeling, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to continue playing, so yeah, good fight out there.”
While Scheffler was labouring, Nick Taylor was cruising.
Although Taylor made a bogey on the par-3 3rd, he rattled off three straight birdies after that and added another on the par-5 9th. In fact, after each of Taylor’s three bogeys on Friday he bounced back with a birdie on the very next hole.
TPC Sawgrass demands precise ball-striking, and Taylor is doing exactly that so far – he sits third in strokes gained: approach to green through 36 holes.
“It’s a very visually intimidating golf course. It doesn’t matter honestly how well you’re swinging. You’ve got to really commit to your targets because you can have doubt at times and that’s where I think you can have some loose shots,” Taylor said. “I did a pretty good job today scaling back the clubs where I knew I’d probably swing a little freer, so I’ve done pretty well with that, so I need to keep doing that.”
Fellow Canadian Corey Conners was steady through the morning wave and is tied with Scheffler and two others through 36 holes at 8 under. Conners shot his second 4-under 68 in a row, highlighted by a 63-foot eagle on the par-5 11th for the second straight day.
Conners admitted to Sportsnet he made a “few mistakes” that led to bogeys, but, he had enough circles on the scorecard to stay in the conversation heading into the weekend.
“Felt like I did everything pretty solid again. I hit a lot of really good shots, and it was nice to see some putts go in,” Conners said.
“Feels good, obviously. Off to a nice start which was what I had hoped for the first few days. I saw Wyndham had another pretty low round so I still have some work to do, definitely, but I feel good about the game, and we’ll see what happens this weekend.”
Play was called at 7:30 p.m. ET due to darkness. Mackenzie Hughes sits at 1 under through 36 holes and will make the cut on the number.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont. is one of two golfers left to complete their second rounds. Silverman has 109 yards left on the par-5 9th and if he holes that shot Saturday morning he will make the cut.
Silverman shot a 3-under 33 on his first nine but had a disastrous start to his second nine going bogey-bogey-double on Nos. 2-4 to send him tumbling down the leaderboard.
Adam Svensson, Adam Hadwin, and Taylor Pendrith fell outside the cutline.