Matt Kuchar may have saved his Masters with a birdie on 18 during the second round on Friday.
Standing at 3 over, and with the cut projected at 2 over, Kuchar rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on the last hole to shave the one stroke needed off his two-day total and keep alive his chances of advancing for the eighth time in his ninth tournament at Augusta National.
“I’m not a fan of missing cuts so it was awfully nice to see that one go in and get to stay around for the weekend, it looks like,” the former Georgia Tech standout said.
It seemed as if Kuchar would comfortably be in the field before he dropped four strokes on holes No. 10, 11 and 12 to fall to 4 over. He three-putted the par-4 10th for a bogey, put his approach in the water on 11 that resulted in a double bogey and put his tee shot in the bunker on 12 for another bogey.
He bounced back to birdie 13 and give himself a shot at making the third round.
After struggling with his driver on Thursday and hitting just six of 14 fairways, Kuchar bounced back on Friday to hit 11 of 14. But his approaches and putting weren’t as crisp. He hit the same number of greens in regulation (nine) as in the first round and needed 28 putts instead of the 24 stroked on Thursday.
“It was nice to hang in there and grind and hopefully stay for the weekend,” he said.
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