Lee Westwood couldn’t be bothered contesting last year’s Players Championship, but he’s sure glad he decided to play this time after taking the second-round lead on Friday.
The Englishman took advantage of ideal morning conditions to card a brilliant seven-under par 65 at the Sawgrass TPC.
“I picked up where I left off yesterday, played very solidly again. I hit a lot of greens, a lot of fairways and made a couple of putts coming in,” Westwood said after recording a 12-under 132 halfway total.
He led by one stroke from Italian Francesco Molinari (65), Japan’s Ryuji Imada (66) and American Heath Slocum (66).
Westwood aside, the leaderboard was bereft of big names, particularly Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who both shot 71 to fall nine strokes off the pace, equal 46th.
Rory McIlroy, who shot a stunning 62 in the final round to win in Charlotte on Sunday last week, crashed back to earth when he missed the cut by three strokes.
“I felt I hit it good all week and putted well,” said the 21-year-old Northern Irishman, who seems to have struggled to learn the course’s nuances in his two appearances. “Just a couple of slack shots here and there cost me a chance of playing on the weekend. I tried hard on every shot. I just didn’t have it.”
McIlroy said the course “doesn’t really fit my eye that well,” and added that he might not have felt compelled to play but for the US$9.5 million purse.
STUNNING END
A rowdy spectator was subdued with a stun gun by police at the Players Championship on Friday, four days after a teenage fan was detained in similar fashion at a Philadelphia baseball game.
According to police, a belligerent golf fan resisted arrest several times after heckling a player on the 11th hole during the second round at the TPC Sawgrass.
“We asked him several times to cease his activities but this met with a negative result,” Sergeant Chuck Mulligan of the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office said.
“After asking him several times to cease or leave the course, he was told he was being placed under arrest. Again he resisted when officers put their hands on him,” he said. “So he was given what we call a ‘drive stun’ where the cartridge is removed from the device. It’s similar to the old stun gun and is a pain compliance technique.”
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