PONTE VEDA BEACH, Fla. — Defending champion Rory McIlroy did not break the record for the highest first-round score by a defending Players champion.
He only tied it.
Then, he needed to play his final five holes in the second round on Friday at 1-under, with no bogeys, to avoid the highest 36-hole score for a defending champion.
McIlroy's 79 on Thursday matched Sandy Lyle in 1988 for the worst score for a defending champion and snapped a streak of six consecutive tournaments in which the defending champion shot par or lower in the first round.
The last time a defending champion failed to break par was in 2012 when K.J. Choi opened with a 75.
McIlroy went on to shoot 75 in the second round for a total of 10-over 154. When the cut is official on Saturday morning, he will become the eighth defending champion to miss the weekend at The Players.
The highest score for a defending champion was 12-over 156 in 2007 by Stephen Ames.
While no one has ever won The Players twice in a row, most defending champions have acquitted themselves well in the first round of their title defense.
Twenty-four of the 33 defending champions who played the next year (Jerry Pate in 1983, Steve Elkington in 1998 and Tiger Woods in 2014 did not play because of injuries) shot par or better, led by Si Woo Kim's 67 in 2018. Craig Perks had the next best score with a 68 in 2003 and John Mahaffey (1986), Mark McCumber (1989), Adam Scott (2005), Henrik Stenson (2010) and Martin Kaymer (2015) opened with 69s.
