Players Championship second round highlights: Harris English eagle and how No. 17 played

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Highlights from the second round of The Players Championship, at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass:

Shot of the day

The 18th hole of the Stadium Course can drive players to strong drink and Harris English might have been tempted after a double-bogey to end his first round on Thursday. But English returned to the hole on Friday and jarred his second shot from 181 yards out to make an eagle-two. English used an 8-iron with a slight draw to the center-right hole position.

It was the eighth eagle-two in tournament history at No. 18 and the second at a par-4 hole this week.

Hole of the day

No. 18, par-4, 462 yards

The closing hole was pivotal for Harris English in jump-starting his hopes for contending on the weekend, and Justin Thomas’ hopes for breaking the course record ended when he hit his second shot into the water after drive into the right rough.

Jackson Suber, Peter Malnati, Alejandro Tosti and Nico Echavarria made triple-bogeys at the last.

Stat of the day

71.149: The second-round scoring average, which was the lowest since 2016, when the field averaged 71.112.

Quote of the day

“For me, even though I made a lot of birdies [Thursday], I’ll take today’s round of golf. Because the way I felt out there, the way mentally I played, I committed to a lot more golf shots than I did yesterday. Even though I made nine birdies … I put four bogeys in there which were some bad, just really uncommitted golf shots.”

— Billy Horschel on the difference between his opening 67 and Friday’s 71.

Island time: How No. 17 played

With a left-front hole place, the par-3 17th hole was a bit easier than the first round, averaging under par at 2.932. There are nine balls hit into the water, for a total of 20 for the week.

Aaron Rai, who aced No. 17 in 2023, had the only score worse than double bogey when he made a triple-bogey 6.