Marc Leishman is not a fan of TPC Sawgrass and until Friday his scores reflected it.

Coming into the second round of the Players Championship Leishman averaged 74.2 on the iconic Stadium course in Florida but the Victorian carded a six-under 66 to rocket up 55 places into a tie for 13th at six-under-par.

It was easily his best round on the course, eclipsing a 70 from last year, and gave him a chance to push for a second US PGA Tour victory just five shots adrift of leader Sergio Garcia.

The highlight of the round came on the final hole where he became just the fourth player in tournament history to eagle the 18th, holing out with a 47-degree wedge from 157 metres.

“I was between clubs, between nine iron and wedge and Matty (caddie Matty Kelly) said it’s probably going to finish in the ditch in front of the green but that’s better than long,” Leishman said.

“I said, ‘don’t worry about the ditch, I’m going to hole it’ and then we did so we had a laugh about that.

“As soon as I hit it, it looked like it would be pretty good and it was.”

Perhaps just as stunning as calling it, and holing it, was his 254 metre tee shot with a two-iron, the first time in 10 attempts he’d hit the fairway on the tough, long, finishing hole.

The beautiful draw shot came from the extra work the 29-year-old had been doing on shaping shots in the lead up to the Masters where he led after the first round and contended throughout before finishing in a tie for fourth.

“Augusta has definitely given me confidence, to play good on such a big stage like that, it was great to know that my game holds up under pressure and the swing holds up,” Leishman said.

“This is a great field like Augusta, hopefully I can keep playing well and be thereabouts on Sunday.

“Virtually every hole doesn’t fit my eye at all but today I just thought I’ll go out and look at where I want to hit it and if it goes there awesome if it doesn’t, worry about hitting the next one and it worked pretty well.

“I still don’t think it sets up great for me but today proves I can score well around here.

“There are a lot of right to left tee shots here and I generally hit fades. I had been working on a draw with my three wood for Augusta and have taken a lot of confidence from that, picturing the shots from Augusta here and that’s helped me.”