Players Championship 2024 Leaderboard: Live Updates, Top Storylines for Saturday

Wyndham Clark is in control of the Players Championship as it enters the third round.

The 2023 U.S. Open champion carded consecutive 65s to get out to a four-shot lead over Xander Schauffele.

Clark and Schauffele make up Saturday's final pairing at TPC Sawgrass. Nick Taylor and Matt Fitzpatrick will tee off right before them.

A handful of notable golfers will try to use moving day to their best advantage, including Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Hideki Matsuyama.

An average round from Clark is still needed for any golfer to catch up to the leader, but a few low rounds on Saturday could set up some fascinating drama on Sunday.

Wyndham Clark (-14)

Xander Schauffele (-10)

Nick Taylor (-10)

Matt Fitzpatrick (-9)

Maverick McNealy (-9)

Matti Schmid (-8)

Scottie Scheffler (-8)

Corey Conners (-8)

Tom Hoge (-8)

J.T. Poston (-7)

Brian Harman (-7)

Sahith Theegala (-7)

C.T. Pan (-7)

Clark produced two near flawless rounds of golf to kick off The Players.

The 30-year-old carded back-to-back 65s in which he had a single bogey in each round .

Clark created separation from the rest of the field during his second nine holes on Friday. He rolled in four straight birdies from the first to fourth holes and then birdied the sixth and ninth holes.

Clark gets to start Saturday on the front nine, which could be dangerous for anyone attempting to chase him down.

He started his tournament off with four birdies on the front nine on Thursday. He birdies holes Nos. 1 and 2 each day of the tournament.

A fast start could put Clark in excellent position to have the tournament under wraps after 54 holes.

Everyone else in the field hopes his otherworldly form is halted so that the leaderboard is more compact on Sunday.

Scheffler played through most of the second round with a potential neck injury.

The reigning Players champion went in depth about the pain to PGATour.com after the second round.

"The way I was getting around the course, the way my neck was feeling, I didn't know if I was going to be able to continue playing," said Scheffler, who went to get treatment immediately after signing his scorecard. "So yeah, good fight out there."

Scheffler still played well enough to gain three strokes on Friday to remain within striking distance of Clark.

Scheffler could use a fast start on Saturday to not just put pressure on Clark, but to also get into a rhythm and forget about the potential neck injury

Scheffler birdied holes Nos. 2 and 3 on each day of the tournament. A few early birdies could set up some Saturday drama between himself and the other top players on the leaderboard.

A year ago, low scores occurred in waves on Saturday at the Players.

Scheffler moved to the top of the leaderboard with a 65. Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rai also moved into the top 10 with 65s.

That was not even close to the best score of the round. Tom Hoge carded a 62 that launched him up the leaderboard and Sung-jae Im produced a 64.

Clark and others proved low scores are out there at TPC Sawgrass this weekend. One or two players could go lower than Clark's first two round scores to push into the first page of the leaderboard.

McIlroy, Matsuyama, Brian Harman and Sahith Theegala are some obvious options to card low rounds because of their profiles, but do not be surprised if we a lesser-known player, like Hoge last season, come out of nowhere to tame TPC Sawgrass.