Scottie Scheffler expects a "challenging" weekend at the Players Championship, having seen his bid for a tournament three-peat stall through a difficult first two rounds.

Two-time defending champion and world number one Scheffler carded a two-under 70 in his second round at Ponte Vedra Beach, having been three under on Thursday.

At five under overall, he is already some six shots back of leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia, while big names including Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa (both nine under) are firmly in the mix.

Having failed to make the most of good conditions on the Florida course on Friday, Scheffler knows things will only get tougher on Saturday, when high winds are expected.

"It's going to be pretty challenging this weekend," Scheffler said after finishing his second round.

"The golf course was definitely gettable in the first two days, but I wasn't able to take advantage of it in the way that I would have hoped to.

"As far as my frustration goes, in the last two days I just felt like I could have scored a lot better. 

"The amount of good putts I hit that just went right around the hole... at times last year those were the putts that would go in, and in the last few weeks it seems like they haven't been."

Growing up before our eyes.

Some familiar faces from their #JrPLAYERS days.#THEPLAYERS | @AJGAGolf pic.twitter.com/D1IeEywyGh

— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERS) March 14, 2025

Scheffler will have the advantage of an earlier tee time on Saturday, as he looks to right an up-and-down start to 2025.

"I don't have to play perfect golf in order to try to win tournaments, and sometimes I try to lean on that a little bit when I'm out there," Scheffler said. 

"But I talk about it a lot. Last year was last year. This year's a totally different year.

"I can remember some of those experiences of playing decent golf when I was injured and so if there's a day where I'm not swinging it so well or things just feel off, I can remind myself of times like that."

Further down the leaderboard, Justin Thomas started Friday in danger of missing the cut but ended his round with the joint-lowest score in the history of the Sawgrass course.

He made eleven birdies and one bogey when carding a 10-under 62, an improvement of 16 shots on his first-round score.

He is one shot behind Scheffler for the week, with Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler also five under.

A 16(!!!) shot improvement from Round 1 to Round 2 to safely make the cut. pic.twitter.com/pua1d25uDB

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 14, 2025