Players wrap: Min Woo Lee, Akshay Bhatia remain tied with J.J. Spaun, Rory McIlroy close behind

• Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia are tied for first place at 11-under-par.
• Scottie Scheffler, the two-time defending champion, is six shots off the lead going into the weekend.
• Strong winds are expected over the weekend, potentially impacting scores.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It was just a routine Friday afternoon at The Players Championship — except for Justin Thomas' extraordinary tour of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass at 16 shots lower than his first round.

The top of the leaderboard didn't change much and the top three after the morning rounds were still leading by the end of the day: Min Woo Lee (66) and Akshay Bhatia (66) are tied for first at 11-under-par 133, J.J. Spaun (68) is alone in third and 2019 Players champion Rory McIlroy (68) and Collin Morikawa (65) are tied for fourth.

Alex Smalley moved up in afternoon wave

The only player from the afternoon wave who pushed his way into the top five was Alex Smalley, who birdied Nos. 16 and 18 for a 67 that tied him with McIlroy and Morikawa at 9-under. Lucas Glover, who shared the 18-hole lead with Spaun and Camilo Vilegas, birdied his last hole at No. 9 for a 70, and is tied for seventh with Will Zalatoris (66), who is the only player with a bogey-free second round.

And the wind is going to blow on the weekend, out of the South, gusting as high as 30 miles per hour and guaranteed to throw some hijinks into the weekend rounds.

"The wind we're expecting is going to be one helluva challenge, and yeah, you always want it to be tough," said Billy Horschel, who is tied for 11th at 6-under. "But when you start getting wind conditions like that, quality golf shots don't always turn out well."

Justin Thomas thrills the late crowd

At first Thomas was just trying to make the projected 1-under cut, which was going to be tough enough considering his first round 6-over 78.

When he birdied Nos. 1 and 2, he probably had an inner sigh of relief.

But the 2021 Players Championship winner did much more. He birdied three more holes on the front, then four on the back, added two more at Nos. 16 and 17 (with a dramatic dance on the lip of the cup by his ball before it fell in) and went to the 18th tee needing a par to break Tom Hoge's record of 62 set in 2023.

But he pushed a 5-wood into the right rough, punched out too hard and into the water on the left in a shot reminiscent of Players champions Cameron Smith (2022) and Adam Scott (2004), but dropped and pitched the ball from 54 yards out to within inches of the hole, and settled for tying Hoge — who was his playing partner in 2023 when Hoge shot his 62.

Scottie Scheffler still lurking

Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler had a pedestrian 70 and is tied for 16th at 5-under. But the six-shot deficit he faces starting the third round is not insurmountable: it's the exact position he was in at the halfway point last year, and he went 68-64 on the weekend to win by one.

First Coast hopes rest with Horschel, who battled to a 71, a round in which he said he actually hit the ball better than his first-round 67, and Bud Cauley, a former Jacksonville resident now living in Jupiter, bogeyed the 18th for a 71 and is tied for 16th at 5-under.

Harris English of St. Simons Island, Ga., who double-bogeyed the 18th hole in the first round to drop to even par, made an eagle-two in the second round and shot 66 to move to a tied for 11th at 6-under.

Villegas, a former Florida Gator, shot 76, 10 shots higher than Thursday.

Cut claims world top-10 players

The 1-under cut claimed world top-10 players Ludvig Åberg and Hideki Matsuyama, past U.S. Open champion Justin Rose and Scott.

Xander Schauffele made his 59th consecutive cut, the longest current streak on the PGA Tour, on the 1-under number with a 71. He played his last 10 holes at 3-under with no bogeys.