Players Championship 2012 Leaderboard: Adam Scott and Players Who Will Surge

Ian Poulter and Martin Laird are going to have to keep looking over their shoulders as the second round of the Players Championship progresses, because the competition is quickly catching up.

Laird finished the first round in sole possession of the lead after shooting a seven-under 65, and Poulter—after playing "one of the top-10 rounds of golf" he's ever played in the first round on Thursday, according to the Washington Post—will start Day 2 two shots back from Laird.

But with Adam Scott, Zach Johnson and Charlie Wi starting to surge, leaderboard shuffles will ensue throughout the second round.

Here are the players to watch for as the action continues through Friday. 

Adam Scott

After shooting a 68 on Day 1, Scott appears to be back in action.

After a solid performance in the first round, he kept his momentum going early on Day 2, shooting a 53 through 14 holes with four birdies and just one bogey.

Though Scott won the Players Championship in 2004, his experience at TPC Sawgrass has been a struggle for the last several years. Since winning, he's missed the cut twice and has failed to finish in the top 25 in four starts. Now, he's confident that his solid first-round showing will carry over throughout the weekend.

He told The Florida Times-Union's Hays Carlyon, "I’ve played a lot of good golf here. I feel the course sets up well for me. So, I’m confident coming in. My game is in good shape." 

Given his rough history at the course, though, he can't afford any slip-ups and will have to exceed this pace for the entirety of the tournament in order to have a chance of winning when all is said and done on Sunday. 

Zach Johnson

The American underdog improved on a solid Day 1 with an even better second round on Friday, shooting a 50 through 14 holes. He may have entered the tournament with 50-1 odds, but he currently sits all alone in second place at eight under—one shot off Laird's lead.

Johnson birdied three holes on the front nine and four out of five on the back.

Last season, Johnson scored a 12th place finish at TPC Sawgrass and has only has one career win—at the Masters in 2007. His tendency to be inconsistent could come back to bite him over the weekend, however. In his last three tournaments, he's finished in a tie for 69th at the Wells Fargo Championship, second in the RBC Heritage and 32nd in the Masters.

But perhaps this is shaping up to be one of his out-of-nowhere excellent performances. 

Charlie Wi

After a decent one-under showing in the first round, Wi turned things up several notches on Friday morning, shooting a five-under 67 to put himself right back in the top portion of the leaderboard, just three strokes behind Laird.

After registering just two birdies and a bogey on Day 1, he birdied five holes on the front nine and two on the back to surge from 31st place to a sixth-place tie.

This represents a big bounce-back statement for Wi, who missed the cut by one stroke at last week's Wells Fargo Championship. It was his first missed cut since February.

Like Johnson, Wi's recent history has been extremely up and down: Since finishing second at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February, he's finished higher than 29th just once.