Players Championship halted by rain on Day 2 as two share lead

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Chad Ramey grew to become the one participant to succeed in double digits below par on the Players Championship. The TPC Sawgrass, as standard, had the ultimate say.

Ramey put two tee pictures within the water on the island-green seventeenth gap Friday for a quintuple bogey that price him a 3-shot lead on a day of untamed swings and, finally, wild climate.

The second spherical was suspended with half the sphere unable to complete due to a storm system anticipated to dump a half-inch of rain on the Players Stadium Course.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa and Adam Svensson of Canada shared the lead at 8-under par, each doing what it takes to remain in entrance on this course. They did not make a bogey Friday — Bezuidenhout by way of 14 holes, Svensson by way of 11 — they usually have just one for the week.

Ben Griffin was the clubhouse chief. The former mortgage mortgage officer, who already had one shut name in Bermuda late final yr, was enjoying an beautiful spherical till taking double bogey on his ultimate gap for a 1-under 71.

Griffin was at 6-under 138. Two-time main champion Collin Morikawa was 6 below by way of 11 holes, whereas Min Woo Lee was at 6 below with three holes left in his spherical.

“Kind of glad this rain delay and thunder came in and let the putter rest a little bit and hopefully come out hot tomorrow,” Morikawa stated.

Players had been to return at 7 a.m. Saturday to complete the second spherical. The third spherical is schedule for threesomes off each tees and will have the ability to end earlier than sunset. That depends upon the tempo of play, and a few of that depends upon Sawgrass.

Jon Rahm missed all of this. The world’s No. 1 participant had a foul abdomen bug and withdrew about half-hour earlier than his tee time. That places his rating in jeopardy, as Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy can overtake him.

The benefit goes to Scheffler, who seemed shaky early and settled into his spherical. He birdied his final two holes of the day earlier than the suspension — Nos. 9 and 10 — to get to five below. He has a 15-foot eagle putt on the sixteenth gap when play resumes.

McIlroy, in the meantime, took a double bogey on the sixth gap and was at 6 over for the match. He had eight holes to attempt to shave off 4 strokes that seemingly can be wanted to make the lower.

Rahm made each lower final yr, and he final missed a lower on the PGA Tour on the Fortinet Championship in September 2021, proper earlier than the Ryder Cup.

The course handed out some brutal punishments within the second spherical.

Start with Max McGreevy, who was 20 pictures worse than his opening spherical. He shot 89, tying the improper sort of course file as the best rating posted on the TPC Sawgrass. The different participant who shot 89 was Michael Campbell within the first spherical in 2003.

Viktor Hovland was 5 below for his spherical by way of 11 holes, even getting a break when his tee shot on the par-3 seventeenth bounced off the wood body of the island and onto the inexperienced. But then he bumped into bother over his ultimate seven holes and needed to accept a 71.

Hovland was at 4-under 140 together with Will Gordon (67) and the resurgent Jason Day (70), a former world No. 1 who’s slowly working his means again. Day started the yr at No. 112 on this planet, and he might take an enormous step this week in assuring he stays within the prime 50 the following two weeks to get into the Masters.

As for Jordan Spieth, he noticed his tee shot within the air on his ultimate gap on the par-5 ninth and figured it was time to wash out his locker. But as a substitute of going into water — it was to date proper the water usually is not in play — it hit a spectator within the leg and bounced again to the green. Spieth hit 3-wood to the collar of the inexperienced and chipped in for eagle.

That allowed him to salvage a 75, and he was protected to make the lower.

“I got an extremely lucky break on 9 or I wouldn’t be playing the weekend,” stated Spieth, who was at even-par 144. “Trying to get that guy’s information and see literally whatever he wants this weekend. Because everything from here on out is because it hit him.”

Ramey opened with a 64 on Thursday and birdied two of his opening three holes to succeed in 10 below, increasing his result in 3 strokes. After his quintuple bogey on the seventeenth, he needed to make a 30-foot putt to avoid wasting par on the 18th, after which dropped one other shot on the primary with a wild drive to the correct. He was 4 below with eight holes left in his spherical.