Tiger Woods’ streak of made cuts at the Masters is at stake.
Woods is on the projected cut line at 2-over in the tournament after completing 11 holes on Friday before play was suspended for the day due to inclement weather — with even more rain in the forecast all day Saturday when the second round resumes.
The five-time Masters champion has made 22 consecutive cuts at Augusta National — the longest active streak — dating back to his 1997 Tournament win.
One player who will not have to sweat out the resumption of the second round or the cut line for that matter is Brooks Koepka, who finished his round before play was suspended. Koepka sits at 12-under and holds a three-shot lead over Jon Rahm, who still has nine holes to play. Amateur Sam Bennett, a senior at Texas AM, is the surprise contender, sitting third on the leaderboard at 8-under with his round complete.
Woods’ approach on No. 17 was an adventure as his tee shot went wide right on the par-4 440-yard hole, but battled back to get within six feet of a par, and he missed it, going back to 2-over.
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On 18, another par-4, Woods hit the ball left of the fairway and was left with a 50 foot for par.
Woods finishes his second round at 1-over with two birdies and three bogeys and will likely need players above him to falter to get a new projected cut line so he can play through the weekend.
On the updated leaderboard, Jon Rahm is still two shots from the lead after bogeying 16. Brooks Koepka remains the 36-hole leader at 12-under.
Woods had a chance to make up some ground on the 550-yard Par 5 15th hole, and hit the fairway on his first shot, leaving him 277 yards from the hole. He made a 27-foot put for birdie to give him some breathing room and gave the crowd a nice fist pump. On 16, one of the five holes that has played over par through two rounds, Tiger made a seven-foot putt for par and sits at +1.
Rahm, who finished Friday three shots off the lead, got off to a good start, making birdie on the Par 3 No. 12, and making pars on No. 13 and 14.
Woods got through 12 holes during Friday’s round and started early on Saturday trying to stay above the cut line. On the par-5 No. 13, Woods got in good position with a chance for a birdie from 15 yards out, but settled for par and remains at 2-over. On 14, he made a four-yard put to save for another par.
It appears that Fred Couples will be playing the rest of the weekend at the Masters.
The 1992 champion finished his second round with a bogey, leaving him at 1-over for the championship and inside the projected cut line. That would make the 63-year-old Couples the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta National, beating the mark that Bernhard Langer set during the 2020 tournament by about 3 ½ months.
It also would be the 31st career cut for Couples, trailing only Jack Nicklaus’ record of 37.
– Associated Press
Some of the golfers who have yet to complete their second round have hit the course at the Masters on Saturday after play was suspended on Friday due to inclement weather. Tee times have not been posted for the third round.
A second golfer who plays on the LIV tour has withdrawn from the Masters. Louis Oosthuizen, who has one PGA Tour win, the 2010 British Open, won’t finish the weekend due to injury.
The South African completed 17 holes of his second round and finished at 7-over, mostly likely missing the cut anyway. Kevin Na, a fellow LIV golfer, withdrew after nine holes on Thursday.
Six other LIV golfers, including four who haven’t completed their second round, are in danger of missing the cut, based on the projected cut line of 2-over.
Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters got very lucky Friday afternoon when the three trees that crashed to the ground near the 17th hole missed dozens of fans gathered nearby.
Yet no more than 90 minutes after the incident, the Masters announced that ticket gates for spectators would open as scheduled Saturday morning at 7 a.m. In other words, fans will be back on the grounds in droves and it will be business as usual at the first men’s major golf tournament of the year.
Clearly, the leaders of Augusta National are gambling that in the midst of severe weather that is expected to continue throughout Friday evening, including heavy rain and high winds, all their other trees — thousands of them — are safe and stable and nothing like this will happen again.
— Christine Brennan
ESPN is set to air the restarted second round action beginning at 8 a.m. ET. CBS will have live coverage of the Masters from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. ET.
The resumption of the second round and the third round can be live streamed at CBSSports.com, ESPN+, Paramount+, Masters Live and the CBS Sports app.