For comments: ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com

Good Friday morning, golf fans, as day two of the Players Championship gets underway from TPC Sawgrass!

1. McIlroy grabs share of the lead

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach…”Despite hitting two tee shots into the water and being at the center of a controversial drop after the second one, four-time major champion Rory McIlroy opened the 50th Players Championship with a 7-under 65 to grab a share of the first-round lead Thursday.”

• “McIlroy, the 2019 Players Championship winner, was tied atop the leaderboard with Xander Schauffele and reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who had much more uneventful opening rounds at TPC Sawgrass.”

2. Xander and Clark also fire 65

Ali Stafford for Sky Sports…“Schauffele, playing in the group ahead of McIlroy, charged up the leaderboard with five birdies in a six-hole stretch around the turn to make a bogey-free start to the week and set the initial clubhouse target.”

• “The pair held a share of the lead until Clark produced a spectacular back-nine birdie run, where he rolled in from 20 feet at the 15th before taking advantage of the par-five next and birdied the 17th to join the group on seven under.”

3. McIlroy drop debate

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”McIlroy rinsed two tee balls into the water, the first at TPC Sawgrass’ par-4 18th hole and the second on the par-4 seventh. While the former prompted some discussion, the latter produced an especially lengthy back-and-forth between McIlroy and the other two players, as the trio spent more than eight minutes trying to determine where McIlroy should drop.”

• “Initially, the walking ESPN+ reporter said that McIlroy’s caddie, Harry Diamond, said that McIlroy’s ball “absolutely” hit above the red penalty line before kicking into the water left of a long fairway bunker. The one television camera angle showed McIlroy’s ball clearly bouncing once, though it was unclear where exactly it pitched.”

• “That’s an emphatic 250-yard difference,” an announcer said of where McIlroy was looking to drop, and where he’d have to drop, had his ball not crossed in play.”

• “It bounced into the water but we were just trying to make sure that it was above the red line,” McIlroy shouted over to his playing competitors, who were inquiring about his thought process.”

4. Beall: Time for a different system?

Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…”Reputations in golf are a fickle thing, and to compromise them for what may or may not have happened hundreds of yards away is an avoidable gamble. Perhaps McIlroy should have been more open to what his opponents were saying, yet there’s a case that he shouldn’t have had to defend himself in the first place; that should have fallen to a rules official. And the current system isn’t just failing the player whose score is in question. It shouldn’t fall to opponents to police the field, for that responsibility can put them in awkward, uncomfortable positions that can simultaneously put them in an unfavorable light.”

• “Just because this is how golf has always done it doesn’t mean it has to be this way in perpetuity. It’s a change easier said than done, one that requires more rules officials and more cameras, two resources that are not in plentiful supply. But this week the PGA Tour is returning its Every Shot At broadcast option and its new television center opens up a world of possibility for how the tour is watched … and in some cases, reviewed.”

• “Much of the conversation this week has been about the tour product, specifically, how it can be enhanced and refined. But the tour’s primary product is its players, and what the tour wants to improve also needs to be protected. In this case, that means protecting them from themselves. Something so valuable shouldn’t be vulnerable to five minutes.”

5. Tom Kim out with illness

Golf Channel report…”Tom Kim withdrew Thursday after eight holes of the opening round of The Players Championship. The PGA Tour sent out a social media post citing an unspecified illness as the reason.”

• “Kim, who started on the back nine on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, was 5 over par at the time, including two bogeys and a triple bogey.”

6. Owen Wilson poised to play golf’s Ted Lasso

Hollywood Reporter…”The streamer behind Ted Lasso has placed a series order for a show starring Owen Wilson as a former pro golfer who needs to get his life back in order. The Loki star will also be an executive producer of the untitled series, which comes from Apple Studios and creator Jason Keller (Ford v. Ferrari).

• “Wilson will play Pryce Cahill, whose golf career ended prematurely 20 years ago. After he gets fired from his job at a sporting goods store in Indiana and his wife leaves him, Pryce sees a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom as his way back.”

7. AK one of five to miss Macau cut

Paul Higham for Golf Monthly…”Although he was four shots better in his second round, Anthony Kim still came unstuck at the International Series in Macau as he missed his first professional cut in 12 years.”

• “Kim was one of 21 LIV Golf League stars teeing it up at Macau Golf & Country Club, and one of five to miss the cut along with Harold Varner, Danny Lee, Eugenio Chacarra and Graeme McDowell.”

• “The American improved from his opening 74 with a second-round 70, but still finished on four over which saw him miss the cut by eight shots.”

8. Best Driver 2024 is live now on GolfWRX

What’s the best driver of 2024? This year, to answer that question, we have expanded our panel of expert fitters to help you find which of the 2024 drivers is best for your game, breaking down the candidates by clubhead speed.

9. Photos from The Players

• Check out all of our galleries from TPC Sawgrass!