Xander Schauffele played alongside Rory McIlroy during the first two rounds of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass this week.

However, the fortunes of Schauffele and McIlroy could not have been more different during the first 36 holes of The Players.

The American and the Northern Irishman are the world’s 10th and second best golfers respectively.

However, it was Schauffele who upstaged McIlroy during the first two rounds of The Players Championship this week.

The two-time major winner has posted rounds of 69 and 65, while the 2025 Masters champion labored to a 74 on Thursday and a 71 on Friday.

McIlroy seemed destined to miss the cut at The Players throughout his second round.

However, in spite of the fact that he didn’t have his best stuff, he battled really hard and eventually did enough to make the weekend.

What Xander Schauffele noticed about Rory McIlroy at The Players

McIlroy clearly didn’t have his best stuff during the first two rounds of The Players.

He battled incredibly hard to make the cut and managed to do so by a solitary stroke in the end.

Schauffele was asked by reporters what he made of McIlroy’s performance during the first two days at TPC Sawgrass.

“Yeah, I mean I felt like I was just in my own world, to be honest,“ Schauffele insisted.

“He was grinding. You could tell he was trying to make that cut, and he hit a lot of really good shots coming in to make it.

“So, yeah, I mean, the first two rounds of golf is kind of a positioning battle, and so is tomorrow and a little bit on Sunday too. So just happy to be in this position.“

McIlroy heads into the third round at Sawgrass 11 shots adrift of Schauffele and a further two behind the leader, Ludvig Aberg.

It will take something seriously special for him to win this week, perhaps even a pair of 62s, and unfortunately for him, he just doesn’t seem to be at the level required to shoot in the low-60s right now.

Rory McIlroy provides back injury update after day two at The Players

McIlroy spoke to reporters after his second round 71 at Sawgrass and responded when asked whether his troublesome back made it difficult for him to hit his driver.

“No, because I’m a little more upright with the driver with the longer stuff,“ he said.

“It’s more when I get over it. So chipping yesterday or like when the ball was below my feet is when I — not that I felt it, but it was more — it was okay.

“It was just like I had a hard time trusting it, more so than anything else.

“But today it was, you know, I think having a day where I was like, okay, that was fine, I didn’t really feel anything, I woke up this morning felt fine, so, yeah.“

McIlroy will be hoping that he wakes up pain-free again on Saturday morning.

He needs to go out on day three, attack the golf course and play as aggressively as he can.

McIlroy is probably too far behind to have any chance of winning The Players Championship this week.

That said, if anyone can overcome a 13-stroke deficit with 36 holes to play, McIlroy can. The bigger problem for him is the sheer volume of quality players ahead of him right now.