AUGUSTA — A total of 54 players made the 36-hole cut from a starting field of 88 after the second round was finished Saturday morning. The cut fell at 3-over-par 147.
Notable players to miss the cut were Bryson DeChambeau (+4), Justin Thomas (+4), Rory McIlroy (+4), Sergio Garcia (+7) and Bubba Watson (+9). Garcia, the 2017 champ, failed to make the weekend for the fourth time in his five appearances since his championship. Representing the LIV Tour, Garcia bogeyed 11 of the 36 holes.
“Everything was not working, unfortunately,” he said.
Garcia was left to be a spectator with close connections to the two favorites going into the third round, fellow LIV member Brooks Koepka and fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm.
“Whoever wins, it will be great,” Garcia said. “Obviously, if Jon wins, it will be amazing for Spain. It will be amazing because he’s a friend of mine. But Brooks is also a friend of mine, and he’s a LIV partner, too. Either of them will be a positive.”
Of the 14 foreign nations with players making the cut, England and South Korea were the most represented with four players each.
Justin Rose, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton all advanced for the British, while Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im all made the weekend for South Korea.
Despite worsening playing conditions throughout the second round, the 147 cut line would up being lower than the Masters average (148.44).
Oldest to make cut
A mere 100 days.
Fred Couples became the oldest player to make the cut at the Masters when he did so this year. At 63 years and 187 days, Couples bested Bernhard Langer, who was 63 years and 80 days when he made the cut in 2020.
Couples finished the second round at 1 over par, tied for 40th of the 54 players to advance.
“You compete with Bernhard all year long on the Champions Tour,” Couples said. “He’s probably been the best player for eight or nine years. He’s phenomenal. I feel like here I can compete with myself to make the cut.
“I can’t compete with Viktor Hovland or Jon Rahm or anybody, but I can compete with myself, and that’s really why I come. That’s what I like to do is make the cut here at an older age.”
Couples said he wouldn’t kid Langer, who missed the cut at 5 over.
“He’s got enough records,” Couples said. “He’ll probably make the cut next year.”
Going out with a golden putter
Sandy Lyle had one final putt to make.
And he did so in style.
Weather halted the second round of the Masters on Friday. Lyle had only a final putt to end his round. It would have to wait.
After a 12-foot putt, he made a two-foot putt in his final competitive Masters, his 42nd, on Saturday morning. He did so with a gold replica of the Ping Pal putter he used for the winning putt in the 1988 Masters.
Lyle took a 4-iron out of his bag to carry the extra putter, thinking it would be used Friday. He finished at 20 over.
“We thought it would be nice to use it on the last hole from a, whatever, 10, 12 feet,” Lyle said. “And I had it presented to me by my caddie and the old royal, here’s the sword, wipe the blood off, that kind of thing. But it didn’t hole a putt though. Lousy putt. But it was just a nice moment to use a putter that I used many, many years ago.”
It now will have a home in his trophy case in Scotland.
Prize money
The Masters announced the prize money for the 2023 Masters on Saturday. There will be a total of $18 million distributed. The winner’s share is $3,240,000. Second place is $1,944,000 and third is $1,224,000. The 25th-place finisher will receive $158,400, and the 50th-place finisher will earn $45,360. The remaining professional will receive money ranging downward from $44,280, depending on scores.
Oosthuizen out
Louis Oosthuizen didn’t come back Saturday to finish his second round. He withdrew, citing injury, with one hole remaining after play was suspended Friday. Oosthuizen was 7 over par and destined to miss the cut.
Heppler welcomes NCAA champ in Masters
The news that the NCAA champion will receive an exemption to future Masters was welcomed by Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler.
“I think it’s incredible,” Heppler said. “A lot of us have felt that the NCAA champion was worthy of that. We just didn’t know if it would ever happen.”
This year the Masters extended a special exemption to Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent. It was the first time the NCAA champion had been accorded that honor. Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced Wednesday that beginning in 2024, the reigning NCAA Division I champion will be a “listed qualification category to receive a Masters Invitation.”
Heppler has been active with the Golf Coaches Association of America for years and was a 2022 inductee into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. But he said the movement to add the NCAA champion to the exemption list was strictly the idea of the Masters.
“There was no conversation or written proposal,” Heppler said. “It came from the club. Chairman Ridley played college golf, and amateur golf has been a big part of his life and big part of the club, going back to Bobby Jones. This was an internal decision.”
The Masters already gives an exemption to the U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up. Heppler said the NCAA field “is comparable” to that of the U.S. Amateur. Most recently, Georgia Tech’s Matt Kuchar (1997), Tyler Strafaci (2020) and Andy Ogletree (2019) won the U.S. Amateur and played in the Masters.
-Staff writers Stan Awtrey, Ken Sugiura, Thomas Stinson and Chris Vivlamore contributed to this article.
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