A solid second-round 66 propelled Lee Westwood to the top of the PLAYERS Championship leaderboard at the halfway stage in Florida.
Westwood, who led the Arnold Palmer Invitational field into the final round last week, produced a spectacular performance on Friday to make him a contender for the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.
The Englishman went bogey free for the round by carding six birdies across the 18 holes in what proved to be another challenging day for many big-name players.
Westwood climbed to the top of the field on nine under par after the two rounds, holding a one-shot lead over countryman Matthew Fitzpatrick.
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Fitzpatrick carded a consecutive round of 68, once again throwing his name in the hat to challenge for the win on Sunday.
Chris Kirk and overnight-leader Sergio Garcia are in T3 ahead of the weekend on seven under par, while Denny McCarthy, Bryson DeChambeau, Brian Harman, Charley Hoffman, Doug Ghim and Sungjae Im are all on six under.
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South Africa’s Dylan Frittelli also got himself into contention through a solid second-round display.
Frittelli shot a four-under-par 68 to move to five under for the event and will start moving day in T11.
Louis Oosthuizen moved to two under for his week, following a second-round 69 on Friday, while Christiaan Bezuidenhout remained even for his day, finishing alongside Oosthuizen in T22.
Branden Grace (+3) and Charl Schwartzel (+8) will unfortunately not be in action over the weekend after missing the cut, which was set at even par.
