Lee is in a share of third just two strokes off the lead of eight-under shared by South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Canada’s Adam Svensson with three holes to complete in his second round, the 24-year-old one of 72 players still on the golf course when the weather system hit and forced the suspension of play.

Starting his round from the 10th tee, Lee bogeyed 17 and 18 for the second straight day but worked his way back up the leaderboard with birdies at two and five to get to six-under.

“Seventeen and 18, hopefully I can play those two better on the weekend,” said Lee, who three-putted the infamous 17th after finding the water on day one.

“Tee to green really good. Putting was OK.

“Especially 16, 17, 18 (the wind) was very swirly. It’s the most exposed area so you’re probably going to get the most wind.

“It was tough, but that’s part of this course, it’s not supposed to be easy.

“Go out there and make sure it doesn’t get to you, get to the nerves, and just keep hitting good shots.”

Day is two strokes behind Lee in a share of eighth at four-under following consecutive rounds of two-under 70.

Like Lee, Day began his second round on the back nine and made strong early progress, picking up birdies at 10, 12 and 14.

He made bogey at the par-5 16th for the second day straight and made a second double bogey at the par-4 seventh, taking his tally for those two holes alone to six-over.

Birdies at five and nine limited the damage done as he looks to solidify his climb inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Top-10 in each of his past four starts on the PGA TOUR, Day has rocketed from 112 to 43 in the ranking, his safe passage to the weekend at TPC Sawgrass likely to bring with it another boost in the form of a late invitation to Augusta National.

When he was victorious at THE PLAYERS in 2016 Day was regarded as the best putter in the game and is slowly inching towards regaining that status.

“I did a really good job of leaving myself in the correct positions and then getting up-and-down, and my putter has improved drastically since the last two years,” Day explained.

“My technique got off a long way there for a moment, and I couldn’t even start my putts on line.

“Every time I’d look down at the hole, look down at where I was aiming, I’d hit the putt and it would start half an inch to an inch left every single time.

“I got that sorted, and then the technique itself is really nice. The next thing is just like keep repping it out, and sooner or later the confidence will come back with the correct speed.”

As for his mis-steps on seven and 16, Day was just grateful that a course such as Pete Dye’s masterpiece tends to take chunks out of every scorecard.

“Six-over par at two holes can definitely take you out of a tournament, but luckily enough, it’s THE PLAYERS,” Day reasoned.

“The pressure and everything that we’re playing through this week, you don’t kind of get yourself too far out of it.”

Cam Davis (T15, three-under) has seven holes on the front nine yet to play to complete his second round while Kiwi Ryan Fox is four-under through nine holes and now inside the top 20 in his maiden start at THE PLAYERS.

Aaron Baddeley (T33, one-under) made it through just seven holes before the rain hit and Adam Scott is even par on both his round and for the tournament with seven holes to play in his second round.

Harrison Endycott will have the chance to hit back after dropping three shots through eight holes while Lucas Herbert has work to do following rounds of 82-85.

There is a strong Aussie influence too at the Asian Tour’s International Series Thailand.

Ahead of Saturday’s third round, Victorian Zach Murray is outright fifth and just three strokes back of leader Dodge Kemmer. Kevin Yuan is one shot further back in a share of sixth at 10-under with recently graduated PGA Professional Andrew Dodt tied for 13th at nine-under.

John Lyras and Wade Ormsby are in a tie for 20th at eight-under with Brisbane’s Doug Klein (T28), South Australian Jack Thompson (T40) and Scott Hend, Terry Pilkadaris and Travis Smyth (all T58) also working on the weekend.

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 2 Australian scores
T3           Min Woo Lee (6-under through 15)
T8           Jason Day (4-under)
T15        Cam Davis (3-under through 11)
T33        Aaron Baddeley (1-under through 7
T39        Adam Scott (E through 11)
T53        Harrison Endycott (1-over through 8)
143        Lucas Herbert (23-over)