AUGUSTA – The wind howled through Augusta National during Friday’s second round.
It left more than one player elated just to be finished after a long day.
Brutal was a word used by many players upon completion of the round that was played in wind gusts of between 35-40 miles per hour. The groundskeepers will need truckloads full of sand to refill some of the bunkers around this place.
As most players limped to the finish, the projected cutline rose from 4 over to 5 over and finally to 6 over. The field was cut to 60 players who finished at 150 or better. Six-over par was the highest cutline since 2016 and 2017, when it was also 150. The highest cutline ever was 152, in 1984.
The wind subsided for Saturday’s third round.
Here is what some players had to say after surviving the second round:
Jon Rahm: “A couple times questioning myself why we were out there, especially when I got to 18 and saw the whole front of the green just full of sand. It’s rolling a little bit different. I understand they want us to finish. I can imagine they were very close to calling it a few times, especially when we were on 11 green and we were getting those massive gusts every couple of minutes or so. It was extremely difficult.”
Rory McIlroy: “Tough day, really tough day. Just hard to make a score and just sort of trying to make as many pars as possible.”
Xander Schauffele: “Yeah, it was probably the toughest day that -- not that I have a ton of experience here, but definitely will probably go down as hopefully the hardest day at Augusta I’ve ever played.”
Scottie Scheffler: “I mean, like 13 for me today was a good example of I hit a good tee shot and hit a really good second shot, and then you just get gusted by the wind, and then stuff like that happens, you make bogeys. You get to 15, a hole that’s typically reachable, like yesterday I hit driver, 3-iron onto the green, and today -- and it was still a little bit into the wind yesterday actually and I hit driver, 3-iron onto the green, and today it was so into the wind and I hit driver, 3-iron, and I had 70 yards left.”
Phil Mickelson: “That back nine is brutal. When you don’t have any birdie holes (and) you can’t reach 13 and 15. They go from birdie holes to really tough pars. It’s hard to really get any momentum and fight. I kept trying to get up-and-down and salvage pars. I did a good job for a while, but it’s really tough. I mean, it’s tough.”
Harris English: “It was brutal. This course is hard with no wind, and then you throw in gusts like that, it can be three clubs different, depending on what time you hit it. Ten to 20 seconds later or earlier, it can be a totally different shot. It’s really tough. You’ve just got to get through it and try to think positive and hit it at the right time when you’re comfortable, and once it leaves the club face, you’ve got no control over it.”
Lucas Glover: “This is the most difficult conditions, most difficult two days I’ve experienced here. … Hopefully nobody gets hit by a limb.”
Corey Conners: “Very challenging, very windy. I feel like one of the more difficult days I’ve ever had on a golf course really. Just with the way the wind was blowing and the challenge of this place really got magnified. Any type of mis-strike or mistake was really magnified and got you into a lot of trouble.”
Charl Schwartzel: “I don’t know if I’ve seen it like this. We had a few years where it’s blown, but this is as difficult as I’ve ever played it.”
Max Homa: “And on 18, we had sandblasts for 45 seconds, and I turned around five times so I didn’t get crushed in the face, and (Tiger Woods is) standing there like a statue and then poured it right in the middle.”
Erik Van Rooyen: “I am tired. I feel like I got hit by a train just now.”
Tyrrell Hatton: “It’s hard. I think the last two days, you can hit a great shot and you get a gust of wind, and all of a sudden it ends up where it probably wouldn’t have done. Yeah, these two days, it’s not really -- it doesn’t give you a fair showing of how you’ve played. As I said, you hit good shots -- even putts. Like putting is so hard. Even a three-foot putt, there’s no gimmes out here, and there’s some pretty tough pins. It’s just brutal. You can never just take it for granted. Even a foot putt you can miss. You just get a gust at the wrong time with some of the slopes. It’s pretty intense.”
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