The Players Championship - Lee Westwood (-11) is your 36-hole leader!! Woods (-3) and Mickelson (-3)

Lee Westwood (-12) moved into the lead after 36 holes of play at the Players Championship. Westwood was one of four players to shoot a 7-under, 65 today and it placed him in first-place, one-stroke ahead of Ryuji Imada (-11, 6-under today), Francesco Molinari (-11, 7-under today) and Heath Slocum (-11, 6-under today).

Round 1 co-leader, Robert Allenby (-8), is tied for sixth-place after shooting a 2-under, 70 today. The man he shared the lead with, J.B. Holmes (-6), finished his round today at even-par and is in a tie for 18^th-place.

The Battle for the World’s #1 Ranking

As the sun set on round 2, it is very unlikely that the golf world will have a new #1 golfer. Coming into the Players Championship, Phil Mickelson (-3), had and still has a chance to overtake Tiger Woods (-3) as the world’s #1 golfer, according to the ranking system.

Mickelson needs to finish in first-place, which after shooting a 2-under, 70 on Thursday and a 1-under, 71 today, is going to make it very tough to mount a massive comeback. Mickelson trails leader Westwood, by 9-strokes entering the third-round.

The other part of this puzzle is that Woods needs to finish tied for fifth or worse. It is looking like that part may be very possible. Woods did have five-birdies in today’s round, but he also had two-bogies and a double-bogey, to finish with a 1-under, 71.

Woods and Mickelson both should be thankful to be playing on the weekend, after nearly missing the cut, which was set at 2-under par.

Notable Players Not Making the Cut

Vijay Singh (-1), failed to make the cut for the third-consecutive tournament (Masters, Quail Hollow) he has entered in. After shooting a 3-under, 69 in round 1, it looked as though Singh had rebounded, but he finished the day with a 2-over, 74.

Singh is the last player to hold the World’s #1 Ranking, since Woods reclaimed it June 12, 2005. Singh took the ranking from Woods on September 6, 2004, after Woods held it for 264 consecutive weeks. Currently, Woods is on a 258 week streak and it looks as though it will be 259 after Sunday.

Henrik Stenson (-1), last year’s winner, failed to make the cut and will not be defending his trophy on the weekend. Stenson shot a 69 and 74.

Last week’s winner, 20-year old, Rory McIlroy (+1), missed the cut after shooting a 73 and 72.

FedEx Cup point’s leader, Ernie Els (+1) will more than likely not be the leader after the Players Championship. He will not be picking up any points this week and Jim Furyk (-2), trails by only 100 points.

Heading to the Weekend

Westwood is in a familiar position; he was tied for the lead with Ian Poulter after two-rounds at the Masters Tournament last month. Westwood ended up finishing in second-place, behind three-time winner, Phil Mickelson.

It was round 3 during the Masters, that Mickelson made his move to the top of the leaderboard, but does he have enough in the tank to climb a nine-stroke deficit? Tune in Saturday to find out.