The moods of Augusta National are as capricious as the wind. On days such as Friday, when morning rains are followed by afternoon gusts, the leaderboard is a non-stick surface. Big names on Thursday — Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Trevor Immelman — slid out of view. A rare few — Fred Couples and Marc Leishman — found a bit of traction. Such confusion was the perfect setting for a golfer with a predatory name and nature — Tiger Woods — to make his move.
TURNAROUND ARTISTS
Players who made the biggest improvement or the biggest fall by score from the first to second round:
On the rise; 1st; 2nd; Position;
Nick Watney; 78; 69; T48;
Thorbjorn Oleson; 78; 70; T55;
Branden Grace; 78; 70; T55;
Alan Dunbar; 83; 77; MC;
Falling off; 1st; 2nd; Position;
Sergio Garcia; 66; 76; T14;
Dustin Johnson; 72; 81; T20;
Russell Henley; 72; 81; T81;
Rickie Fowler; 68; 76; T27;
Marc Leishman; 66; 73; T2;
Matt Kuchar; 68; 75; T20;
Trevor Immelman; 68; 75; T20;
Francesco Molinari; 74; 81; MC
Mike Weir; 72; 79; MC
Watney hoping turnaround stands
Nick Watney wanted to feel good about his second-round performance in the Masters. It’s just that the timing and situation didn’t allow it.
When Watney completed play Friday, his 3-over-par score of 147 put him square on the cut line with half the field on the golf course. But no matter what happened after that, the 31-year-old Californian had executed one of the better turnarounds of the day. His 69 represented a nine-stroke improvement over his first round.
“I decided to quit being overly careful and be more athletic,” said Watney, a 10-year pro out of Fresno State. “I’m just not that kind of player that dissects everything, and I was just thinking about swing a lot and where I shouldn’t miss it.
So today I just said, ‘you know, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down with guns a-blazin.”
That strategy served Watney very well until the very end. He was the only player among the early starters to go out in 34 after birdies at 7 and 8. Watney added birdies at 10 and 15 and came to the 18th tee without a bogey on his card.
“It finally bit me,” Watney said. “I got a little too aggressive on the tee shot and clipped a tree.”
Watney was forced to punch out of the woods right, but managed to hit a wedge to eight feet. His putt lipped out.
“So that’s disappointing,” Watney said. “But overall I guess I could have packed it in and been 10 over. Hopefully I’ll still be here. I just hope I have a tee time tomorrow.”
Most likely he will. Augusta National just this year expanded its cut rule to advance the top 50 and those within 10 strokes of the leader. It had been the top 44 since 1962.
If that’s proves to be the case, Watney will have made his sixth consecutive Masters cut.
“It’s the Masters,” he said. “I love it here. The worst thing to me is not getting a chance to compete on the weekend.”
Winds punish Garcia
Sergio Garcia couldn’t decipher the wind during the second round.
He was punished with four bogeys that left him 2 under for the tournament. He shot a 76, 10 shots more than his first-round score.
“You know, those things you can’t really control,” he said. “But even though with everything that happened today, we still are in a decent position to hopefully do something on the weekend.”
Garcia’s woes were illustrated best on No. 15. After hammering a drive, Garcia said he hit a great 3-iron with his second shot into the 530-yard par-5 hole.
But the wind, which didn’t blow during his playing partners’ shots, picked up and knocked Garcia’s approach into the water. He could be seen talking to himself walking down the fairway.
“When that happens it’s difficult to get things going,” he said. “It feels like even your good shots you’re not getting rewarded.”
No Dufnering at No. 11
Jason Dufner did something memorable during the second round: He showed some emotion.
Dufner, normally as reserved as the pine trees that line Augusta National’s course, pumped his fist after rolling in a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 11. It was one of seven birdies that helped him reach 3 under heading into this weekend.
“I’ve got to get the putter going a little bit better,” Dufner said after needing 29 putts Friday. He needed 30 on Thursday.
Dufner had an up-and-down day with a bogeys on Nos. 1, 4, 10 and 12, and birdies on No. 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 13 and 18.
“It seemed like every time I made a bogey, I rebounded with a birdie,” he said.
Dufner said if he can also straighten out his drives he’ll “be right where he wants to be” as he tries to win his first major. He lost a playoff to Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
Words with … Phil Mickelson
Q: How were the conditions?
A: I thought they were perfect. I thought it was a great day for the guys that are playing well to separate themselves. There were under-par scores. There was, you could get into the 60s, if you played well. Although this wind was difficult, the greens were receptive. If you hit a good shot and judged the wind well, you would be rewarded with a good birdie opportunity. I thought that it was a perfect day for the guys that are playing well to separate themselves, and it looks like they are.
Q: If you go low on the weekend, can you can still be right in there?
A: I think so. You're never out on this tournament. You just never know what's going to happen. I've got a little bit of work to do; it doesn't feel far off. My putter is very close. I've hit a lot of good putts that have not gone in that have come very close the first two days. If I can get a couple to fall and hit a few more good shots, I think that I have something in the mid-60s, which I will need tomorrow to get back in it.
Q: You said at 9 that it kind of shook you, what happened at 9?
A: Yeah. I don't know, I don't know what the deal was. That hole I have really struggled on in the past with a wedge in there. I had a gap wedge, I drove it down to the bottom of the hill there, gap wedge to that back pin. And I hit just an awful shot in the bunker. And then I had a pretty easy bunker shot. It was on an upslope, good lie, and I caught it half spin, 15, 18 feet long. So I don't know what happened there, but it threw me and it carried over to the next shot because I hit an awful shot at 10.
Q: What was the club at No. 12?
A: Yeah, it was a bad swing (with a 9-iron). Certainly the wind came up, but it was a terrible swing. If I drove that in the middle of the green, it would have been fine.
Q: Somebody said that the hole locations seemed a little angry. Were they particularly hard?
A: I didn't find that to be the case because I felt like the low pin on (No.) 2 gave us a birdie chance. Low pin on 4 gave us a birdie chance. I thought that that right pin on 7 was, you're going to have 15, 18 feet if you just hit a halfway decent shot. That pin on 8, that back right pin has been softened a couple years ago, and so you can make birdie there; 13's pretty easy birdie pin. But 18's a birdie pin.
Kuchar stumbles again
Second rounds haven’t been good for Matt Kuchar at the Masters.
The Georgia Tech graduate, who is playing in the tournament for the seventh time and fifth as a professional, has never broken 70 in the second round. After a 75 on Friday, he has averaged 73.86 in his second rounds here.
But thanks to his first-round 68 on Thursday, he made the cut for sixth time in seven tries. And, at 1 under for the tournament, will have a slugger’s chance to play himself back into contention.
“It was very tough out there today,” said Kuchar, who finished in a tie for third last year. “Fortunately the greens are still a bit receptive and that helps out a lot. … There were a couple of scary instances out there. But the greens were a bit soft, a little bit slower than what they could be, and that’s helpful.”
Kuchar had to fight to get in with a 75. His tee shot on the par-4 18th clipped a tree up the left side and failed to get to the fairway. But Kuchar was able to reach the green in three and one-putt for par.
“I’m glad to escape with a four,” Kuchar said. “It was a left-to-right wind, and I was trying to hold it up against the wind and got too close to the trees.”
In light of the swirling winds the golfers encountered Friday, Kuchar wasn’t overly disappointed.
“It’s difficult because there are a lot of holes where water is in play,” he said. “So it’s trick. You have to be so precise. … It’s tricky picking clubs for sure.”
Now safely in for the final two rounds, Kuchar said he doesn’t have any radical plans for shooting his way back onto the leaderboard.
“You can only do what you can with the course,” he said. “There’s no sense in being silly. You just play the shot that gives you the best chance to make a reasonable score out here. Your game plan doesn’t change. It’s just a matter of making putts.”
31 on back nine for Cabrera
It was another up-and-down day for Angel Cabrera. Then again, that’s how they all are for him.
The 2009 champion went out in 38 in Friday’s second round but came back in with a 31 to match the day’s best score to that point, 69.
That left Cabrera in contention at 4 under for the tournament and assured him of making the cut for the eighth consecutive year. He missed the cut in three of his first six years here.
“For me the Masters is never easy, never, ever easy,” said Cabrera, a 43-year-old Argentine. “The biggest difference was that on the back nine I was hitting very well off the tee and leaving my second shots close. I was able to make some birdies.”
Cabrera’s Masters competitors have learned to never count him out. That was certainly the case again Friday. Cabrera birdied six of his last seven holes of the day.
His scoring flurry ran contrary to the rest of the field, which struggled with swirling winds late in the day.
“I’m used to playing with the wind in Europe,” Cabrera said. “So I’m not going to say that this is an advantage necessarily for me, but I like playing with wind. … If it is like this (Saturday), sunny and windy, it will be perfect.”
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