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Jason Day leads by three at Players, where scoring has been lower than usual

Jason Day of Australia hits his tee shot at No. 11 during the second round of the Players Championship on Friday at TPC Sawgrass.

Jason Day of Australia hits his tee shot at No. 11 during the second round of the Players Championship on Friday at TPC Sawgrass.

(Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
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The course record at TPC Sawgrass nearly fell again — twice, actually.

A day after Jason Day became the fifth player to record a nine-under par 63 at the Players Championship, journeyman Colt Knost stood on the 18th green at 10 under for his round, a two-putt away from a 62.

A little later, world No. 3 Rory McIlroy needed to birdie the par-five ninth — his final hole of Friday’s second round — to reach 10-under himself.

Neither player would make history.

Knost three-putted, lipping out from five feet for par, to settle for share of the record and a nice bounce-back from an opening 72.

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“I was a little nervous over the second one,” the 30-year-old Texan allowed. “I knew what it was for.”

McIlroy had 62 on his radar too. But the four-time major champion, incredibly, took four shots to get up and down from 90 yards to finish with a bogey and a 64 a day after he also finished even par.

“I would have been nice to shoot 62,” said a surprisingly morose McIlroy, who enters the weekend eight under and six shots behind leader Day. “I’m disappointed, but there’s still two more days to go.”

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The way things went the first two days the world’s best players will have two more cracks at a record that has stood since Fred Couples set it in 1992.

Whether anyone can catch Day is another question.

The world’s top-ranked player extended his lead to three shots with four holes remaining in his second round. A two-hour weather delay will force Day and 32 other players to return Saturday and tee off at 9:15 a.m. local time.

Day will face a 107-yard approach on the par-four 15th hole. He then will play one of the most exciting and demanding three-hole stretches in golf — the reachable par-five 16th, the par-three 17th island hole and daunting par-four 18th hole, the third-most difficult this week at TPC Sawgrass.

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“I feel good about how I’m going about my game,” Day said. “But I just got to understand this is like a major, and especially with 16, 17 and 18 anything can happen there. I got to make sure that I’m switched on when I come through that stretch.”

Day leads Irishman Shane Lowry by three shots, is four clear of a trio of players at 10 under and five ahead of a half-dozen players at nine under, including 49-year-old Jerry Kelly.

Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson are both at one under with a few holes to play and in danger of missing the cut, currently at two under.

Though TPC Sawgrass has been a pussycat through 36 holes, Kelly has been around long enough to know Pete Dye’s tricky design should bare its fangs during the final two rounds.

“I just really like the way I’m striking it,” said Kelly, who has missed only four of 36 greens. “I know the greens are going to get tougher for the weekend. They’re going to suck the moisture out of the them and make it tougher for us to hit that many greens.”

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High temperatures, higher winds, no rain and tougher pin placements should coalesce for tougher scoring conditions for the leaders, who will tee off in the afternoon.

“The course really does play so much differently from morning to afternoon,” McIlroy said.

Day, Knost and McIlroy’s bids for 62 each occurred during the morning wave, when the wind was down and the greens were soft after maintenance crews watered the putting surfaces to combat temperatures in the 80s.

Knost hit all 18 greens in regulation and needed only one putt longer than 16 feet — a 22-footer on No. 14 — for any of his 10 birdies.

“It’s definitely softer than we thought it would be, for sure,” he said.

Meanwhile, McIlroy needed only 22 putts. This included 11 as he carded a seven-under 29 on the back nine to tie the day-old record set by Lowry.

If the red-hot scoring pace continues, TPC Sawgrass could yield its lowest winning score since the tournament moved from March to May in 2007. 2010 winner Tim Clark finished 14-under 276 total, but the average winning score has been 12 under.

Day sits at 14-under with 40 holes to go.

“A lot of great players here,” said Cameron Tringale, one of those at 10 under. “You never know what will happen.”

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egthompson@tribune.com

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