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 best 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 this year 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.”
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