Lee Westwood takes Route 66 to a half-way lead as Matt Fitzpatrick accumulates a 68 card; Bryson DeChambeau is four from the lead but Rory McIlroy misses the cut; watch the final two rounds live on Sky Sports The Players from 1.30pm Saturday and Sunday
Last updated: 12/03/21 11:52 pm
Lee Westwood leads by a man after 36 holes at the Players Championship
Lee Westwood took a spotless golf tour at TPC Sawgrass to lead Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick after the second round of the Players Championship.
The 47-year-old Englishman took advantage of Florida’s easiest scoring conditions to give a card to six under-66s that lifted him to nine-under-135 at the half-way stage of the PGA Tour’s main event.
He is led by a Fitzpatrick man with Sergio Garcia and Chris Kirk one beat later, while Bryson DeChambeau is in a group of six tied for fifth place on six under.
But there was no fight Friday from defending champion Rory McIlroy as he could only add a three-over 75 over to his 79 wins on Thursday as he finished on 10 overs and missed the cut by 10.
Westwood, who finished second at DeChambeau at Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, started four behind Garcia after opening 69 but made good early progress by narrowing putts from 16 and nine feet to birdie his first two holes – the 10th and 11th.
Westwood has finished fourth, fifth and sixth at TPC Sawgrass in the past
He then played some hard par golf for the next eight holes before grabbing the par-five in second place after going close to eight feet.
The world No. 31 then drained a 30-footer for a birdie in the third and followed that up from 12 feet in the fourth before finishing off a brilliant day’s work with the sixth birdie at the ninth close.
Westwood, who shared the TPC Sawgrass halfway lead with Luke Donald in 2005 before finishing tied-22nd after 80 in the third round, now has six unbeaten runs in the tournament since 2000, most any player.
Fitzpatrick placed second in a row 68 and spent the entire day or near the top of the board after Westwood started to match with birdies at 10th and 11th with another following at the 15th.
The 26-year-old was putting up well and, after another second birdie, dug a 32-footer to fourth to par.
Matt Fitzpatrick is running after winning the PGA Tour
His good work was highlighted by a poor second that cost him a bogey at fifth and he fired another shot at eighth but showed his mistake by answering with birdies each time to secure a place alongside Westwood in the last group Saturday.
Garcia had led by two overnight after his 65 on Thursday, but could only add a par-level 72 to his overall number, despite still being a lively tour for the Spaniard.
The peak of his run came at the 11th par-five where he was just two inches away from making an albatross with his second shot from 222 yards.
But there were also some low points with four putts, including a miss from around a leg as he made his fifth bogey of the day at the 15th.
0:34 Sergio Garcia drank whiskey from an unlikely albatross at the 11th par-five, leaving a tap-in eagle
0:26 Garcia missed a series of close-range buttons in the second round … including one from almost a leg!
He eliminated that, however, to birdie both 16 and 18 to keep tabs on Westwood.
Kirk, who has been in shape a few weeks ago, found one better than Westwood as he matched Garcia’s opening at 65, his round with a six-hole stretch from the 15th where he made five birdies and an eagle- holes at the par-four. first.
DeChambeau made a poor start with a double bogey at the 10th but collected with five birdies for 69, although he admitted he had been lucky at times.
He is joined by four others in Denny McCarthy (69), Brian Harman (71), Charley Hoffman (68) and Doug Ghim (67), and Sungjae Im (66) from South Korea.
McCarthy was one of two players who drilled a hole-in-one during the day with an eight-iron into the 165-yard third, while Brendon Todd matched McCarthy with the first ace of course -life A five-timber PGA Tour into the 213-yard eighth.
0:28 Denny McCarthy jumped up on the board after firing a hole-in-one in the third par-three
0:52 Brendon Todd made the second hole-in-one of the day at the 12th
I, at the same time, marked it with a run of six 15th-century birds that matched the competition record for the biggest wins that followed.
Jon Rahm fired on 68 worlds that led him to four under, and Dustin Johnson’s world 1 could only control 70 after he threw out a mixed bag after three birdies over his first four holes.
He is on a man under, a man behind Shane Lowry in Ireland who did not follow his 68th opening as he struggled to 74.
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Play has been banned due to darkness with around a dozen players still to finish their rounds, but the cut is expected to come at par level which means the likes of Webb Simpson, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Hideki Matsuyama, Francesco Molinari, Robert MacIntyre, Tony Finau, Ian Poulter, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler all miss out on weekend action.
McIlroy was once again looking out of sorts as he went around in 75 hits, bogeys at sixth and seventh ending any hopes of a charge up the board.
He also made a double bog on the 10th after driving into a tree and shot at the 13th, although he went close to eagles twice while fishing for the ninth and the 16th.
Watch the Players Championship over the weekend live on the dedicated Sky Sports channel – Sky Sports The Players. Live coverage continues Saturday from 1.30pm.
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