Christiaan Bezuidenhout carded a two-under-par 70 on Friday at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to reach the halfway mark of the Players Championship on the PGA Tour.
It was a solid, if unspectacular day for the South African which put him on five-under for the tournament in a share of 22nd. But it was a day on which Wyndham Clark fired a second successive seven-under-par 65 to move to 14-under and a four-stroke advantage over countryman Xander Schauffele of the United States and Canada’s Nick Taylor. Matt Fitzpatrick of England and American Maverik McNealy shared fourth place on nine-under, with, amongst others, world number one Scottie Scheffler lurking one stroke further back on eight-under.
Bezuidenhout opened his round with a three-putt bogey on the first hole, but he regained that shot with a birdie on the sixth. But he dropped another on the par-three eighth when he was unable to get up and down after hitting his tee shot long to an awkward stance between two greenside bunkers.
But he came home with no more dropped shots on his card, and three birdies in succession on 15, 16 and the famed island green par-three 17th where he hit his tee shot to three feet.
With play incomplete in the second round, Erik van Rooyen is unlikely to make the cut after a two-over 74 in the second round dropped him to one-over-par through 36 holes. The cut looks likely to be level-par.
Garrick Higgo withdrew from the second round.
