Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia posted a pair of 6-under 66s on Friday to vault to the top of the leaderboard at the 51st Players Championship.
Lee has yet to win on the PGA Tour, with his biggest victory to date being the 2021 Scottish Open. The Aussie defeated Thomas Detry and Matthew Fitzpatrick at The Renaissance Club then and has two other DP World Tour victories to his name.
Bhatia, meanwhile, beat Denny McCarthy in a playoff last year to win the Valero Texas Open. His victory at TPC San Antonio punched his ticket to Augusta National the following week, as Bhatia became the first Drive, Chip, and Putt participant to compete in The Masters.
But a win for either one of these players at TPC Sawgrass would vault them into a different tier on the PGA Tour. They are both young, possess tremendous talent, but have yet to win a big event. That could all change this weekend at TPC Sawgrass.
The Players Championship Round 3 Tee Times (ET):
8:25 a.m. — Shane Lowry, Danny Walker
8:35 a.m. — C.T Pan, Justin Lower
8:45 a.m. — Tom Kim, Mac Meissner
8:55 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Xander Schauffele
9:05 a.m. — Rico Hoey, Jesper Svensson
9:15 a.m. — Aaron Rai, Sungjae Im
9:25 a.m. — Russell Henley, Corey Conners
9:35 a.m. — Matt Kuchar, Joel Dahmen
9:50 a.m. — Austin Eckroat, Keegan Bradley
10:00 a.m. — Matthieu Pavon, Camilo Villegas
10:10 a.m. — Byeong Hun An, Kurt Kitayama
10:20 a.m. — Ryan Fox, Denny McCarthy
10:30 a.m. — Hayden Springer, Will Chandler
10:40 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Chris Kirk
10:50 a.m. — Jordan Spieth, Tom Hoge
11:00 a.m. — Ryan Gerard, Joe Highsmith
11:15 a.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Trey Mullinax
11:25 a.m. — Chandler Phillips, Si Woo Kim
11:35 a.m. — Isaiah Salinda, Sami Valimaki
11:45 a.m. — Sahith Theegala, Davis Thompson
11:55 a.m. — Davis Riley, Justin Thomas
12:05 p.m. — Cameron Young, Carson Young
12:15 p.m. — Robert MacIntyre, Bud Cauley
12:25 p.m. — Matt McCarty, Stephan Jaeger
12:40 p.m. — Max McGreevy, Beau Hossler
12:50 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Sam Ryder
1:00 p.m. — Taylor Moore, Rickie Fowler
1:10 p.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Scottie Scheffler
1:20 p.m. — Sepp Straka, Charley Hoffman
1:30 p.m. — Harris English, Billy Horschel
1:40 p.m. — Jacob Bridgeman, Emiliano Grillo
1:55 p.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Jake Knapp
2:05 p.m. — Lucas Glover, Will Zalatoris
2:15 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Alex Smalley
2:25 p.m. — J.J. Spaun, Rory McIlroy
2:35 p.m. — Min Woo Lee, Akshay Bhatia
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
