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 They say you never forget your first, especially if you walk away with more than $1.7 million.
Five players who've yet to win on the PGA Tour are in contention after 36 holes at The Players Championship, including 36-hole leader Alex Cejka who has never held a lead going into the weekend in a Tour event.
Ian Poulter, who is currently in sole second at 9-under-par has never won on the PGA Tour. Same goes for Kevin Na, Jason Dufner and John Mallinger who are all on the first page of the leaderboard.
In the 35-year history of The Players Championship, only one player has ever made this event his first ever PGA Tour victory. That honor belongs to Craig Perks who at TPC Sawgrass in 2002. It remains as his only win on the PGA Tour, and after making only one cut on the PGA Tour during 2006 and 2007, he announced his retirement in November 2007.
Cejka has the inside track on becoming the second player to make The Players his first. He got out early Friday morning and posted the score of 11-under-par. Many players in the field found themselves more than 10 strokes off the pace before their second rounds began.
Cejka again played with his Las Vegas neighbor Kevin Na, and said it was like a Monday practice round because of the sparse gallery of 15-25 people. "I think it's going to all change on the weekend," Cejka said. According to the Associated Press, he'll be playing in the final group on a weekend for the first time Saturday.
Not nearly as accurate as he was off the tee on Thursday, or into the green for that matter, Cejka did his damage on the greens, needing only 23 putts on Friday. He's all bogey-free on the front nine for the week, managing a score of six-under-par on the front nine thus far.
For the week, Cejka is in the top ten in Fairways Hit (23/28), Greens in Regulation (27/36) and Putts Per Round (26.0).
If you were alarmed after Tiger's recent declaration that his distance off the tee has yet to return after his knee surgery, don't dismay; driving distance isn't everything. Only one player among the first 15 names on the leader board is in the top 10 in driving distance. Robert Allenby (9) is driving the ball an average of 299 yards. By the way, Woods is T18 in driving distance at 293.8 per big poke.
The year's first major champion Angel Cabrera, who also has a U.S. Open to his credit, followed up a wild round 1 performance that included an eagle, five birdies, four bogeys and a double with a sparkling 65 to put himself into contention. Cabrera is in a clump of players at 7-under-par, and with a victory at The Players he would become only the second player ever and first since Tiger Woods (2001) to win The Masters and The Players in the same year.
Some players on the other end of the performance spectrum include Anthony Kim and Adam Scott.
Kim, who won twice in 2008, struggled mightily on Friday, shooting an 82. It was only the third time Kim had shot in the 80s as a professional. Two of them have now come at the Players Stadium Course.
Scott finished with a 1-over-par 145, missing the cut by a single stroke. This is Scott's fifth missed cut in a row. The other tournaments include the Transitions Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Masters and Quail Hollow Championship.
Eighty-three players survived the 36-hole cut at The Players, the third most in the tournament's history. That means there will be a 54-hole cut on Saturday to the number closest to 70.
One number to watch over the weekend that could lead to fewer red figures is 91. That's the forcasted temperature for Ponte Vedra Beach on both Saturday and Sunday, which happens to be Mother's Day. The greens at Sawgrass are sure to dry up with a zero percent chance of precipitation in the forecast.
Sounds like good weather for swimming, so why not take a dip into the waters surrounding No. 17. Only six balls found the water off of the tee on Friday, which is the fewest since the third round in 2004 (four).
The average score on No. 17 during Friday's second round was 2.936. The vaunted hole was relatively benign with the breakdown including 25 birdies, 102 pars, 10 bogeys and 3 double bogeys.
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