PLAYERS Championship: Inside the second round

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Surely, you recognize this player. He's having a terrific year. You got it yet? This player is ... Australian star Geoff Ogilvy.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Analysis, notes and numbers from Friday's second round of THE PLAYERS Championship:

FIVE OBSERVATIONS

1. Internationals: Will THE PLAYERS Championship have its 10th international champion on Sunday? Judging from the leaderboard at the halfway point, there's a good chance. You've got Alex Cejka, who was born in Czechoslovakia and landed in Germany when his family fled the Communist regime, in the lead at 11 under. Then there's the colorful Englishman Ian Poulter, bidding for his first TOUR win, at 9 under. The group at 7 under includes Masters champion Angel Cabrera, the big-hitting Argentine, and Kevin Na, born in South Korea, as well as Henrik Stenson of Sweden. My pick? It's Poulter, who has finished T20, T13 and T5 in his last three starts. -- Helen Ross

More PLAYERS

Friday's Round 2 Wrap-up
Live Report: Notes from Round 2
Post-second round notebook
Notables who missed the cut
Stenson gets in the thick of it
Confident Cabrera remains the same
Can Cejka go where Langer didn't?

2. Jason's alive: I'm a little biased because Jason Dufner was my Sleeper Pick this week, but he's also a pretty interesting case study. A couple of years ago, Dufner wasn't happy with his body or his game. He hit the gym hard, lost weight, gained flexibility and as a result has been seeing the results with three top 10s this year. He's also been befriended by Vijay Singh, who lives just down the street from TPC Sawgrass and spends more time here than the range picker. Dufner himself has played the Stadium Course more than 50 times, so even though this is his first PLAYERS Championship, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise he's near the top of the leaderboard. -- Brian Wacker

3. Kim vs. Stadium Course: Anthony Kim has played 206 rounds on the PGA TOUR. Six times, he has shot 78 or higher ... and four of them have come on the Stadium Course, his latest being Friday's 10-over 82. In his last four rounds at THE PLAYERS, going back to last year, Kim is now a collective 22 over. Now, he has too much talent to continue struggling at TPC Sawgrass for the rest of his career. One day he'll get it figured out. But thus far, it's the Stadium Course that's handing out the heavy punishment. -- Mike McAllister

4. Boo's remedy: At every big tournament, there are two players whom the golf writers check in with every day -- Tiger Woods and Boo Weekley. Tiger for the obvious. Best player in the world, never count him out. And Boo? There's not a better quote on TOUR. On any given day, he might talk about the weather, hunting, a gosh-danged putt he misread or -- at Carnoustie for the Open Championship -- how scary it is to be a passenger on the wrong side of the road. His best story so far this week? Use Listerine -- dab it on your arm -- to chase away gnats. And, oh, he also shot 67 Friday and is at 4-under going into the weekend. -- Melanie Hauser

5. Hot putter: Third-year TOUR member John Mallinger finds himself just four shots out of the lead after a 1-under 71 on Friday to go along with Thursday's 66, which was his best score at TPC Sawgrass by six shots. The key for Mallinger this week has been putting, where he's tied for second in putts per round. For the year, he's ranked 80th on TOUR in that category. Aside from a tie for sixth in Houston the week before the Masters, Mallinger hasn't done a whole lot in 2009. But once the short stick gets hot, anything is possible. -- T.J. Auclair

Bomber Report

Longest drives Longest putts Player Hole Length Player Hole Length J.B. Holmes 11 345 yards Bo Van Pelt 11 65 feet, 1 inch Nicholas Thompson 12 343 yards Will MacKenzie 4th 47 feet, 11 inches Andres Romero 9 336 yards Bob Estes 13 45 feet, 4 inches Davis Love III 1 333 yards Hunter Mahan 8 45 feet, 3 inches J.B. Holmes/C. Howell III 6/14 331 yards Mike Weir 1 41 feet, 1 inch

Revealing comments

Alex Cejka 5-under 67 "I didn't really hit the ball as well as yesterday. Yesterday was kind of flawless." Kevin Na 6-under 66 "Alex and I played awesome. As a group, to be 11 under par, that's something." Angel Cabrera 7-under 65 "Yesterday I just wasn't gettng it off the tee in the appropriate shots. Today, I did that well." Robert Allenby 6-under 66 "The good thing is I'm making a lot of birdies. It counteracts a lot of my mistakes." Phil Mickelson 1-under 71 "I'm hitting as well as I have this year ... but I did struggle on the greens today and I have to address that." Ian Poulter 4-under 68 "I enjoy the golf course. I enjoy the test. I enjoy some of the tee shots which capture your attention."

THIS AND THAT

• AM vs. PM: Unlike in the first round when the morning group had the lower stroke advantage, it really didn't matter Friday when you teed off. The morning group's stroke average in the second round was 72.37; the afternoon group averaged 72.39.

• Cejka due?: Despite playing 10,404 holes in his PGA TOUR career, tournament leader Alex Cejka has never won. He has twice finished as the runner-up at a TOUR event (2004 International, 2003 B.C. Open).

• Aversion to pars: In his first 36 holes this week, Angel Cabrera has 14 birdies, 14 pars, six bogeys and one triple-bogey. His 14 pars through two rounds is the fewest of any player making the cut this week.

• 17th update: Just six balls were hit in the water on the famed 17th hole Friday. That's the fewest in any round since the third round of 2004, when just four balls found the water.

• Hole-outs: These players managed birdie or better from off the green Friday -- Daniel Chopra (100 yards from the rough on No. 11 for eagle); Tommy Armour II (six yards from the rough on No. 15 for birdie); Joe Ogilvie (8 yards from the fairway on No. 4 for birdie); Paul Goydos (14 yards from the fairway on No. 2 for eagle).