Florida, March 14 Sahith Theegala (74), who was co-leader after the first round, slipped down the leaderboard, while Akshay Bhatia (71) made a marginal gain in the second round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
As for the other Indian-origin players, Sudarshan Yellamaraju (73-72) made the cut, finishing in 52nd place, and Aaron Rai, who is of Indian-British origin, missed the cut with rounds of 74-74.
Ludvig Åberg of Sweden posted the lowest score of the day, with a round of 9-under 63, to take the sole lead by two strokes. Åberg started his round on the front nine, making three birdies and an eagle in the first four holes, and then made his second eagle of the round on the ninth hole, putting him 6-under par for the first nine holes.
On the back nine, the 26-year-old made birdies on the 11th, 16th, and 18th holes, and his only bogey of the day came on the 15th hole. Åberg has a total score of 12-under par.
The top two ranked players in the field, Scottie Scheffler (72-73) and Rory McIlroy (74-71), made the cut, and both are tied for 51st place with a two-day total of 1-over par.