Tiger Woods saw his hopes of winning a third Players Championship title suffer a major blow on the 17th hole at Sawgrass on day two.

Woods began the second round five shots off the lead but had moved ominously up the leaderboard with birdies on the 12th, 13th and 16th, having started from the 10th tee.

However, the former world number one then dumped two balls into the water on the par-three 17th on his way to a quadruple-bogey seven.

Woods had narrowly avoided the water on the 13th and 16th and made birdie on both occasions, but his luck ran out on the 17th when his tee shot pitched on the green but just trickled off the back edge.

The 43-year-old opted to play his next shot from the drop zone but a pulled approach took one bounce before plunging into the water and after finally finding the green, Woods two-putted from 20 feet.

At one under par Woods trailed leader Kevin Kisner by seven shots, Kisner having picked up four shots in his first 10 holes to lead by one from compatriots Luke List and Keegan Bradley, Scotland’s Russell Knox and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.

Knox had covered the front nine in 32 and also birdied the 10th, while Fleetwood was among the later starters along with Rory McIlroy, who was five under par after an opening 67.