Jason Day may have wrapped up a return to The Masters as Min Woo Lee continued his stunning debut at a weather-interrupted Round 2 of The Players Championship in Florida.
Lee is in a share of third just two strokes off the lead of eight-under shared by South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Canada’s Adam Svensson with three holes to complete in his second round, the 24-year-old one of 72 players still on the golf course when the weather system hit and forced the suspension of play.
Starting his round from the 10th tee, Lee bogeyed 17 and 18 for the second straight day but worked his way back up the leaderboard with birdies at 2 and 5 to get to six-under.
“17 and 18, hopefully I can play those two better on the weekend,” said Lee, who three-putted the infamous 17th after finding the water on day one.
“Tee to green really good. Putting was OK.
“Especially 16, 17, 18 (the wind) was very swirly. It’s the most exposed area so you’re probably going to get the most wind.
“It was tough, but that’s part of this course, it’s not supposed to be easy.
“Go out there and make sure it doesn’t get to you, get to the nerves, and just keep hitting good shots.”
Day is two strokes behind Lee in a share of eighth at four-under following consecutive rounds of two-under 70.
Like Lee, Day began his second round on the back nine and made strong early progress, picking up birdies at 10, 12 and 14.
He made bogey at the par-5 16th for the second day straight and made a second double bogey at the par-4 7th, taking his tally for those two holes alone to six-over.
Birdies at 5 and 9 limited the damage done as he looks to solidify his climb inside the top-50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Top-10 in each of his past four starts on the PGA Tour, Day has rocketed from 112 to 43 in the ranking, his safe passage to the weekend at TPC Sawgrass likely to bring with it another boost in the form of a late invitation to Augusta National.
When he was victorious at The Players in 2016 Day was regarded as the best putter in the game and is slowly inching towards regaining that status.
RIGHT: Bezuidenhout has just four holes to play in the second round and is tied at the top. PHOTO: David Canon/Getty Images.
“I did a really good job of leaving myself in the correct positions and then getting up-and-down, and my putter has improved drastically since the last two years,” Day explained.
“My technique got off a long way there for a moment, and I couldn’t even start my putts on line.
“Every time I’d look down at the hole, look down at where I was aiming, I’d hit the putt and it would start half an inch to an inch left every single time.
“I got that sorted, and then the technique itself is really nice. The next thing is just like keep repping it out, and sooner or later the confidence will come back with the correct speed.”
Co-leaders Bezuidenhout and Svensson are among the players yet to complete their second rounds that will return to do so on Saturday morning.
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The pair both started their rounds on the more difficult back nine, with Bezuidenhout making four birdies against no bogeys through 14 holes after a first round of 68.
Svensson was also bogey-free through 11 holes, the Canadian making back-to-back birdies after making the turn at the 1st and 2nd holes before play was suspended on Friday.
“Tee to green really good. Putting was OK … It was tough, but that’s part of this course, it’s not supposed to be easy.” – Min Woo Lee.
American Ben Griffin is the best placed of the players to complete 36 holes, the 26-year-old sharing third with Lee and Collin Morikawa who is one over for the second round through 11 holes and six-under for the tournament.
Of the remaining Australians, Cam Davis is in T15 at three-under with seven holes on the front nine yet to play to complete his second round while Aaron Baddeley (T33, one-under) made it through just seven holes before the rain hit and Adam Scott is even par on both his round and for the tournament with seven holes to play in his second round in a share of 39th.
Harrison Endycott is on the cut line of one-over but will have the chance to hit back after dropping three shots through eight holes, but Lucas Herbert won’t be around for the weekend after rounds of 82-85 that will also harm his chances of earning a last minute invite to Augusta.
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