Smith leads charge at frigid TPC Sawgrass

Cameron Smith is the leading Australian after two rounds at The Players Championship in Florida, but five of his compatriots failed to make the cut in the rain and wind affected PGA Tour event.

Smith is at 4 under after a round of 71, in a share of 11th and three shots off the pace set by Sam Burns and Tom Hoge.

Lucas Herbert is the only Australian to remain in contention for victory, at even par courtesy of a 74.

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This week is all about the weather.

Rain has saturated the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass which led to five hours of delays on Thursday, four hours of play on Friday and a late start on Saturday.

Sunday typically decides the winner. This time it was all about who got to keep playing into Monday evening with the tournament extended a day.

Those that won’t include Australians Jason Day, Cam Davis, Marc Leishman, Adam Scott and Matt Jones and top 10 players Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

Burns bundled up to fight near-freezing temperatures at the start and closed out his second round with a 75-foot eagle putt and an 18-foot par to share the lead with Hoge after 36 holes.

Hoge has been atop the leaderboard for four days at the TPC Sawgrass.

He played golf on only two of those days.

Burns carded a 69 and Hoge a 71 to be 7-under 137.

South African Erik van Rooyen (67) holed a wedge for eagle on the par-5 ninth hole to close out his 67 and leave him one shot back with Harold Varner III, who had a 69.

The top 15 players going into the third round all had the early-late side of the tee times, meaning they faced mostly calm and rain-soaked conditions on Thursday and avoided the ferocious wind that wreaked havoc on the Stadium Course on Saturday.

“I just felt bad for the guys that had to play,” Burns said.

“You never wish that upon your opponents. It’s unfortunate.

“Over your career, you have good waves and bad waves. … There’s only so much you can control out there, and weather is not one of them.”

There’s still a long way to go, and 32 players were within five shots of the lead.

That included workd No.1 Jon Rahm, who played on Sunday morning and shot 72, and Dustin Johnson, who had a 73 on Saturday that felt much better.

The average score was 74.46, about a full stroke lower than it was at the end of Saturday to reflect how much better the conditions were, even in the cold.

Smith leads charge at frigid TPC Sawgrass
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