Another Masters, another betting slip in tatters. Well, at least that was how it was looking at one point. So who actually missed the cut in the end?
Jordan Spieth handed back a few shots to the field which saw a number of players who had already packed their bags, sneak through to the weekend.
Bubba Watson spent most of Friday below the cut line on +6 but Spieth’s bogey on 17 saw him drop to -4 and let Watson through on the 10-shot rule.
Adam Scott took care of matters himself by picking up three birdies on the back nine to close on +4, just eight off the lead.
So it was the +7s and worse which left us early with the biggest casualties being Phil Mickelson (+7), Charl Schwartzel (+8), Branden Grace (+8), Zach Johnson, (+8), Rickie Fowler (+9) and Andy Sullivan (+13).
Mickelson was -1 for the tournament as he reached the 7th on Friday but then managed three double bogeys on his way to a 79. The three-time winner struggled on the greens all day and finding the water on 15 didn’t help.
Schwartzel was fancied by many going into this week but never found his form as he posted consecutive 76s.
Grace didn’t drop a shot in his opening 9 holes but finished his first round +3 before going out in 42 on Friday with a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 6th. He played the back 9 in -1 but it was too little too late.
Fowler, who had a whale of a time at the par-3 contest by following up Justin Thomas’ hole-in-one with an ace of his own, shot 80 in his first round. Even a birdie-birdie finish on Friday couldn’t mask what has been a dreadful visit for the world number five.
England’s Andy Sullivan has taken everything in his stride over the past 12 months whether that be playing on the PGA Tour or in WGC events. Many expected him to put on a good show in his first visit to Augusta National but it proved a bridge too far for Nuneaton’s finest.
An 80 was followed by a 77 which even Sullivan himself would have struggled to smile through.
In one of the most open Masters of recent years, this lot will be kicking themselves as there’s just 10 shots in it now between the remaining 57 players. Game on.
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