On a day where birdies were flying high, a pair of the PGA Tour’s youngest stars shined the brightest. Carding dueling 66s in the second round to reach 11 under, Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia will share the 36-hole lead entering the weekend of the 2025 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
The opportunity will mark the biggest of Bhatia’s young career, while Lee looks to make amends for falling short a couple years ago when he first bursted onto the scene — Lee was featured in the final round of the 2023 Players Championship alongside eventual winner Scottie Scheffler.
“[It was a] big learning curve,” Lee said. “Especially the 4th hole, that’s probably one shot that I regret in my career. It was a wedge that I got steep on, and it’s been the narrative for a long time. My approach play, you know, I just see the ball flight coming in low and I get a little bit too steep. It’s nice to actually just hit it up in the air and trust it.
“That’s a big part of why I’m getting a little bit better with my approach play. Yeah, just I think a bit more level-headed and a lot of learning between then and now. Obviously Scottie won that tournament, and he played really good and just learned to be in that final group.”
Scheffler may not be on the first page of the leaderboard at the halfway point, but his presence remains as he sits only six back at 5 under. Between the world No. 1 and the Nos. 1 on the leaderboard are a number of landmines which Bhatia and Lee will need to skirt.
Rory McIlroy held a share of the lead at various points in his second round but ultimately settled for a 68 to stand at 9 under. He sits two back alongside two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, who looks to bounce back from the disappointment of last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. Morikawa scored nine birdies Friday to shoot 7 under, the second-best round of the day behind only Justin Thomas, who tied the TPC Sawgrass course record with a 62.
While Lee, Bhatia, McIlroy and the rest of the lot were able to take advantage of the cool and calm conditions the first two days, Mother Nature will have its say on Saturday. With the forecast calling for wind gusts up to 30 mph, Moving Day may turn into a survival of the fittest.
“I’m looking forward to it,” McIlroy said. “I think it’s going to be really important to try to flight your ball and keep it under the tree line. I think, once it gets above the tree line here, it can start to really get hit by it. And it does swirl a little bit, but I think when the wind is so strong, it will be a little more consistent. But yeah, this course is challenging enough. But with a wind like that, yeah, I’m excited for that challenge.”
Let’s a take a look at how the second round shook out and what to expect over the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.
2025 Players Championship leaderboard, Round 2
T1. Akshay Bhatia, Min Woo Lee (-11): What a fun final pair on tap with two of the brightest young stars sharing a weekend tee time at the biggest PGA Tour event. Both of these guys are absolutely feeling it on the greens so far — Lee ranks second and Bhatia ranks third in strokes gained putting — and that prowess will be tested on Saturday as the conditions will not only make full swings more difficult but also those on the greens.
3. J.J. Spaun (-10): He quietly has two podium finishes already this season, and he is in position to improve on those this weekend. The tee-to-green leader has been sensational gaining eight strokes on the field in that category and carding only two bogeys along the way. Spaun’s putter will be tested, but if he continues to strike the ball like this, it may not matter.
T4. Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Alex Smalley (-9): The biggest names on the first page of the leaderboard sit at 9 under. McIlroy got as deep as 11 under before he missed five of his last seven greens in regulation and dropped two strokes coming home. He hit it much better off the tee (11 of 14 fairways) but was a hair loose with his irons down the stretch. Meanwhile, Morikawa leaned heavily on his short game highlighted by chip-in birdies on Nos. 4 and 5 en route to a 65.
“I just stayed in it,” Morikawa said. “I can’t say I drove it great or amazing and hit the ball amazing, but I really just took advantage of when I did hit good shots. I putted really nicely. Also, just I didn’t try fighting it too much. I knew it wasn’t quite exactly how I was hitting it, and you just make due.”
T7. Lucas Glover, Will Zalatoris (-8)
T9. Tommy Fleetwood, Jake Knapp (-7)
T11. Sepp Straka, Billy Horschel, Harris English, Jacob Bridgeman, Emiliano Grillo (-6)
T16. Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay and 10 others (-5): It’s been both a relatively standard and uncharacteristic week from the world No. 1. Scheffler has been strong from tee to green and weak on the greens while also making a few course management mistakes typically unbecoming of him. Despite the shortcomings, he is still in this tournament only a half dozen back. And the longer he lurks, the longer his presence grows on this leaderboard.
“At times last year those were the putts that would go in, and the last few weeks seems like they haven’t been,” Scheffler said. “But still doing a lot of good things, hitting a lot of good putts and looking forward to trying to climb the leaderboard over the weekend.”
T29. Justin Thomas, Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young and seven others (-4): Thomas’s first two days at TPC Sawgrass are emblematic of his last two years. The 2021 champion tied the course record with a second-round 62 one day after barely breaking 80 with an opening 78. He will need more of that Friday firepower over the weekend if he is to somehow continue his march up the leaderboard.
T39. Jordan Spieth, Si Woo Kim and eight others (-3)
T49. Denny McCarthy, Keegan Bradley and 13 others (-2)
T64. Xander Schauffele and nine others (-1): For the second straight week, Schauffele sneaks through to the weekend on the number to extend his made-cut streak to 59. He made birdie on his final hole to post 71 and get to red figures for the tournament, but that is where the positives end for the world No. 3.
“Not hitting it close enough, to duffing chips, to missing every fairway, to hitting fairways to missing greens,” Schauffele said. “It’s pretty gross, to be completely honest. So if I can eke out this cut, that would be nice. But the game feels pretty bad.”
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