Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Adam Svensson are surprise leaders at Players Championship

Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa and Adam Svensson of Canada were tied atop the standings at 8 under par when the second round of The Players Championship was called off for the night due to inclement weather on Friday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

The entire afternoon wave (71 of the field’s 143 remaining players) will resume round two Saturday at 7 am at TPC Sawgrass.

That includes co-leaders. Bezuidenhout has four holes to go and Svensson seven. Both players shot 4-under 68 in the first round and were 4-under in their second rounds when play was stopped.

They have a two-shot advantage over Ben Griffin, the clubhouse leader at 6-under-par 138; Collin Morikawa, the two-time major winner with seven holes to go; and Australian Min Woo Lee, who has three holes left.

World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler was tied for sixth with Canada’s Taylor Pendrith at five under, both with several holes to go.

Adam Svensson is another unlikely player to have sat at the top, halfway through his second round.

Bezuidenhout began his round on the back nine and birdied the first two par 5s, numbers 11 and 16, before adding birdie 3 at numbers 1 and 4. He put his approach shot at number 4 just 7 feet from the pin and putt for birdie moved to 8 under shortly before play was suspended.

“Early in the round, I knew it was going to be difficult, but the back nine has some quality holes, and that’s the key here,” Bezuidenhout said. ‘You have to keep the ball on the short stuff, which I did. I was hitting a lot of greens and I’ve had a good putt the last two days.’

Svensson was also warming up when the weather improved. He started his round on the back nine and birdied the par-5s. He then made two in a row on the first par-4 and second par-5.

Svensson said staying focused will be the challenge and the key to a potentially extra-long Saturday.

“I’ve done a lot of 36-hole qualifiers and you get mentally exhausted,” he said. “I just have to get some rest and stay focused and keep having fun because I’m having so much fun.”

Collin Morikawa is one of the highest-profile players chasing the two leaders.

The 28-year-old Bezuidenhout has 10 wins around the world, including three on the DP World Tour, but has yet to claim a PGA Tour title. Svensson, 29, won his first PGA Tour title earlier this season at the RSM Classic in November.

Morikawa started the day in only second after a 65 in the first round. After birdieing the first hole from him, he picked up bogeys on the second and eighth.

Scheffler, vying to claim the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings this week, had just made back-to-back birdies at the par-5 ninth and par-4 10th when play was suspended.

“I wasn’t doing my best, but I made two good birdies towards the end of the round and then obviously the delay will hurt a bit, but I’ll start again in the morning,” Scheffler said.

Chad Ramey led through 18 holes thanks to an excellent 8-under-par 64 on Thursday, but struggled on Sawgrass’ famous No. 17 Island Green. He missed the green not once but twice, and the two penalty strokes plus a two-putt added up to a quadruple bogey 7 that knocked him off the lead at 9-under 5-under.

The second day of play was called off at Sawgrass with many players still off the field.

Another bogey before play was stopped left Ramey at 4-under-par with eight holes to play, tied for eighth with Australia’s notables Jason Day, Norway’s Viktor Hovland and others.

The projected cutoff line as of Friday night was 1-over-par, but that could change Saturday as players move up or down the rankings. Jordan Spieth may have saved his weekend by eagleing his last hole, the par-5 ninth, to salvage a 75 and reach par-even for the tournament.

Notable names on the way to missing the cut include England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (3/147), Matt Kuchar (4/148) and Keegan Bradley (4/148). World No. 3 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland had 2 more over 10 holes and 6 more for the tournament.

Spanish star Jon Rahm, the world number 1 who has already won three events this season, withdrew before starting his second round due to illness. His retirement ended the longest active streak of cuts made on tour at 25.