Clark surges to four-stroke lead
Scheffler dealing with neck injury
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler had his 25th consecutive round under par Friday in The Players Championship, and this was hard work. He felt pain in his neck that required treatment on the course, and he struggled to swing and to stay within range of Wyndham Clark.
Feeling fit or not, that turned out to be the goal for everyone.
Clark was playing in the group behind, oblivious to Scheffler’s injury or anything else. He ran off four straight birdies on the front nine and finished with a 7-under-par 65, one shot short of the 36-hole record at the TPC Sawgrass.
He had a four-shot lead over Xander Schauffele (69) and Nick Taylor (68), who played in the afternoon and had to cope with warm, breezy conditions on greens that remained surprisingly soft on the Stadium Course.
Scheffler was simply happy to be done. He felt something wrong on his fourth full swing of the day, a shot that went left on the par-5 11th that kept him from a good look at birdie. He got treatment before his tee shots on three straight holes and managed a 3-under 69.
“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 through a PGA Tour official. “So I got some treatment, maybe loosened it up a tiny bit. But most of the day, I was pretty much laboring to get the club somehow away from me.”
The hope for Scheffler is he would have free range by the weekend. The concern is that he already was No. 1 in the world and appearing to hit another gear coming off his five-shot victory last week at Bay Hill until this injury interruption.
Clark is proving each week to be a serious challenger no matter Scheffler’s condition.
The US Open champion already shot 60 at Pebble Beach to win in 54 holes because of weather, and he was the only player who mounted any challenge against Scheffler at Bay Hill last week, finishing runner-up.
He got through the back nine on another calm, sunny morning in 1 under and then started hitting everything close to perfect — a wedge to 18 inches on No. 1, a simple upand-down for birdie on the par-5 second, a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 third and a wedge to 4 feet on the fourth hole.
“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 said.
He closed with a birdie for a 30 on the front and was at 14 under. The 36-hole record-holder for The Players is Webb Simpson in 2018.
Schauffele has only one blunder through 36 holes, a hybrid he hit into the water on the par-5 11th that led to double bogey. He got that back with a 7-iron into the par-5 16th for eagle and at least worked his way into the final group.
Former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick had a double bogey on No. 4 that slowed his momentum. He had to settle for a 69 and was five shots behind, along with Maverick McNealy.
Scheffler was in the group at 8under 136, and by the sound of it, he was happy to be there.
Rory McIlroy didn’t make a par until the seventh hole in a wild round of 73 that left him eight shots behind Clark.