Things weren’t really that bad, were they?
Si Woo Kim snapped his putter shaft after a three-putt on No. 14. However, the bogey on the par-4 dropped him to only 4 under par for the tournament, three strokes off the lead.
Kim played the final four holes using a 3-wood to putt and shot even par and is tied for fifth.
Kim slammed the putter straight down into the turf as he stood and seethed following the error. The putter bent and, being damaged, needed to be taken out of play.
An approach shot from 148 yards, went over the green by eight yards. Kim putted to five feet. His par putt circled the lip of the cup but remained out.
“Just frustration,” Kim said. “It wasn’t on purpose, but it was broken.”
It was a first for Kim. He was asked if he had ever broken a putter before.
“Not on the course,” he quipped.
Bryson bounce back
One day at Augusta National can make a big difference.
It’s enough to make your head spin. Just ask Bryson DeChambeau.
One of the pre-tournament favorites, DeChambeau opened with a 4-over 76 on Thursday and was in clear danger of missing the cut. A day later, DeChambeau is 1 under par after shooting a 67 and headed to the weekend.
“Yeah, I don’t think you can ever figure this place out,” DeChambeau said. “There’s so many things going on around here. The wind makes it diabolical. It’s flying around through these trees and bouncing off the trees and making it feel into the wind when it should be downwind, and vice versa. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to figure it out, but I’ve just got to be more comfortable.”
Phil makes another cut
Phil Mickelson shot 2 under on the back nine Friday to make the cut on the number. He ended the second round where he started at 3 over par.
Mickelson, playing in his 29th Masters, made the cut for the 26th time in his career. That moved the three-time champion into sole possession of sixth place all-time in cuts made, moving ahead of Ben Crenshaw (25). He trails fifth-place Bernhard Langer (27) by one. Langer missed the cut at 7 over.
“I don’t think about the cuts,” Mickelson said. “I think, OK, coming into this tournament, am I playing well enough to give myself a chance to win? And from a physical standpoint, I was doing that, or I’ve been doing that, haven’t shot the scores. So I have to say how many times will I come into this tournament playing well enough to compete, contend, and win? That’s what I’m looking at.
“Do I think I’ll have a few more opportunities? Yeah, I do, but barring injury and so forth. But I’m seeing a lot of progress, and it’s time I start shooting the scores now.”
Jack Nicklaus is the all-time leader in Masters cuts made, with 37.
Leishman rising
Marc Leishman is the first to admit his play has been intermittently flat this year. He’s carded only two rounds in the 60s in his past five tournaments, placed no higher than 18th (Farmers Insurance Open) in that span.
That explains what his 67 on Friday means to his Masters week. He opens the weekend two shots off the lead.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” he said. “This is why I came here. This is the position I wanted to be in. My game’s finally feeling good.”
You wouldn’t know it watching him limp in from his opening round. He bogeyed three of five holes after making the turn Thursday, finished at 39 and was seven shots off the pace when he left the grounds. Everything changed with a birdie-birdie-birdie start Friday, which he turned into a 33-34 round, his second-lowest score in nine Masters.
“As I showed (Thursday), so much can happen around here,” the 37-year-old Australian said. “No matter where you are on the leaderboard, as long as you’re somewhere near the top, anything can happen, whether you’re leading or five back. You go to that back nine, and it’s game on.”
Wolff DQd
Matthew Wolff got his second round off to a very bad start with a quadruple-bogey on the first hole. Believe it or not, it got worse from there when he was disqualified following the round.
Wolff’s drive on No. 1found the woods on the right – but that wasn’t the problem. He chipped out short of the green. Then the fun started. His chip hit the green but caught the slope and rolled off. His second chip hit the green and rolled off. His third chip hit the green and rolled off. His fourth chip hit the green and stayed, 28 feet from the cup. Two puts later and Wolff went from 4 over to start the round to 8 over after one hole.
Following the round, which was recorded as a 7-over 79, Wolff was disqualified. According to tournament officials, he returned a scorecard with a hole score lower than he actually made on No. 17. He was subsequently disqualified under Rule 3.3b(3).
Na finds magic around Amen Corner
It won’t earn him a piece of commemorative Masters crystal or even a pair of green socks, but Kevin Na accomplished a feat that few others can boast of when he birdied all three holes around Amen Corner on Friday.
The first two came easily. Na’s approach at the 11th stopped seven feet below the hole. His tee shot at the par-3 12th finished nine feet above the hole location.
The 13th was more challenging. His tee shot wound up in the pine straw to the right, and he punched it safely to a spot 35 yards from the green. His approach rolled 12 feet past the hole, but his birdie putt trickled in
Na finished the day with a 2-under 70 and left him easily within the cutline at 1-over 145.
A miserable week for Mize
His 38th Masters is one 1987 champion Larry Mize would like to forget. The Columbus resident, who plays exclusively on the PGA Tour Champions, had rounds of 84-79 and failed to make the cut for the fourth consecutive time.
“It wasn’t good coming in, but I didn’t expect this,” Mize said. “I didn’t expect it to be this bad, but it was. You’ve got to take the bad with the good, so we fought for everything we could get. It was a lot of fight, there wasn’t a lot of good there.”
The lone bright spot was at the par-5 13th hole, where he hit a wedge to within three feet and made his only birdie of the day.
In the fall Masters, Mize opened with 70-77 and missed the cut by three shots.
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