A storm system ended play early Friday at the 87th Masters Tournament, but not before causing a scary situation on the hallowed grounds.
Augusta National announced that no injuries were reported from the three trees that were blown over by strong winds to the left of 17 tee Friday afternoon.
Before the poor weather moved in, 47 players were able to complete the second round, including a full-flight Brooks Koepka, who will sleep on a three-shot lead. Here are the top notes and numbers to know from Day 2 of the 2023 Masters:
1. Koepka continued his blistering pace, carding a second-round 67 early Friday. Only two players in Masters history have recorded a better score through 36 holes than Koepka (-12) this week: Jordan Spieth in 2015 (-14) and Raymond Floyd in 1976 (-13). Koepka is the second player in Masters history to be exactly 12-under par through two rounds. The other man to do it – incredibly, all current events considered – was Greg Norman in 1996.
Koepka is just the fourth player in Masters history to begin the week with two rounds of 67 or better. Spieth and Floyd did it – but so did Chris DiMarco in 2005, the year he lost in a playoff to Tiger Woods.
Koepka thrashed the par 5s on Friday, carding an eagle and three birdies. He made par on every other hole, giving him his 10th bogey-free round in a major. Since 2015, that’s two more such rounds than any other player in the game’s biggest events. Koepka has been clinical with his irons through two days, leading the field with more than eight strokes gained approach. He’s missed only seven greens in regulation through 36 holes this week.
2. Clearly there’s a lot of golf left to play, but Koepka’s sprint to the top of the board elicits all the familiar feelings he gave us in his incredible major run a few years back. Should he pick up his fifth major win, he would be the first player to do so at age 32 or younger since Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship (Woods was 24). Since the first Masters was held in 1934, only six players have won five professional major titles before age 33: Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer.
After this week’s hot start, Koepka is a combined 94-under par in the majors since the beginning of 2015, 18 shots better than any other player. If he does lead when the second round finishes, it will be the fourth time in his career he’s held the 36-hole lead or co-lead in a major championship (he won two of the previous three instances).
3. The man with the second-best score among those in the clubhouse is Sam Bennett, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion. For the second day in a row, Bennett missed just one fairway, hit 13 greens in regulation and carded a score of 68. At 8-under, Bennett has the best 36-hole score to par by an amateur in any men’s major championship since Ken Venturi was 9-under through two rounds at Augusta National in 1956. Bennett is the first amateur in 62 years to record multiple rounds in the 60s in a single Masters Tournament.
Bennett spent a good chunk of time Friday sitting alone in second place. No amateur has been either first or second through two rounds at The Masters since Billy J. Patton in 1958. Bennett is trying to become the first amateur to win a men’s major since Johnny Goodman at the 1933 U.S. Open, and the first amateur to ever win the green jacket. After a year-plus of professional golf being inundated with talk about increased purses and guaranteed payouts, an amateur is in contention at The Masters.
4. Collin Morikawa is off to his best Masters start, recording a score of 69 for the second day in a row. This is the fourth time Morikawa has started a major with back-to-back rounds in the 60s: he went on to win two of the previous three instances (2020 PGA, 2021 Open).
After struggling with Augusta’s nuanced putting surfaces earlier in his Masters career, Morikawa has flipped the script in his last three rounds around this place. Through the first 11 career rounds at ANGC, Morikawa had eight three-putts and averaged -1.20 strokes gained putting per round. In his last three rounds, he has zero three putts and is picking up more than a stroke per round putting on the field.
Morikawa has improved his finish each time he’s come to the Masters: T-44 in his debut, to T-18 in 2021, to a fifth-place finish last year. He, along with Koepka, can get the third leg of the career grand slam with a victory this week.
5. Jon Rahm is currently the closest man on the board to Koepka, three shots back with nine holes left in his second round. Rahm began this week with a double bogey, but has not dropped a shot since, making par or better on each of his last 26 holes played. On Thursday, Rahm became just the second player in the last 30 years to hit every fairway and at least 17 greens in regulation in a Masters round. He wasn’t quite as sharp Friday, hitting six of 10 greens before the horn blew.
Assuming this tournament ends on Sunday (uncertain based on the forecast), Rahm might have some calendar-related Spanish stars aligning in Georgia. April 9 is legend Seve Ballesteros’ birthday, the first player from Spain to win a Masters title. The last time the Masters ended on April 9 was in 2017 – a tournament won by countryman Sergio Garcia.
6. A day after a very Spieth-ian opening round 69 (7 birdies, 2 bogeys and a double), Jordan Spieth carded a more ho-hum score of 70 and sits at 5-under entering the weekend. This is the fourth time Spieth has started a Masters with two rounds under par – he went on to finish in the top three in each of the previous three instances.
Though the 2015 champion is in solid form through two days, history says it’s a long shot for Spieth to win his second green jacket this week. Only one player in Masters history has won from seven shots off the lead through two rounds: Jackie Burke, who was eight back entering round three in 1956.
7. Phil Mickelson dialed up a vintage performance on Friday, making five birdies en route to a 3-under-par 69. It’s the 34th round in the 60s in Lefty’s remarkable Masters career, second only to Jack Nicklaus (39) all-time. Mickelson broke 70 despite hitting only nine greens in regulation on Friday. It’s the fifth time he’s done that in a major since 2000, tied for most of any player in that span.
Mickelson isn’t the only player age 50-plus having a good week: at 63, Fred Couples is well inside the cut line with just one hole to play in his second round. Couples just needs to avoid catastrophe on the 18th hole when play resumes to become the oldest player in Masters history to make the cut.
8. Another former world number one, Rory McIlroy, won’t be seeing the weekend. McIlroy shot a disastrous 77 on Friday, ending this year’s bid to complete the career grand slam. Next year’s Masters will be Rory’s 10th start at Augusta National needing the green jacket to complete the slam – each of the five men who have finished it got the final leg in three attempts or fewer.
The 2024 tournament will also be the 16th time McIlroy has teed it up here. Only one player in Masters history got his first victory in his 16th start or later – Garcia in his 17th, six years ago.
9. Tiger Woods is right on the cut line with play suspended, 2-over with seven holes left to complete in his second round. Woods has never missed the cut at The Masters as a professional. Should he make the cut this week, he would tie the Masters record for most consecutive cuts made at 23, joining Gary Player and Couples.
After losing nearly seven-tenths of a stroke to the field on the greens in Round 1, Woods has been significantly better so far in the second round, gaining more than half a stroke. Woods will resume his second round on the 12th, a hole he’s birdied nine times in his Masters career.
10. When play resumes, contenders will need to hit the gas to stay within striking range of Koepka. Sixteen of the last 17 Masters winners were at or within four strokes of the lead through two rounds. Only one champion in the last three decades has been worse than T-9 with two rounds to go. All-time, 73 perent of players to win the green jacket have been at or within three of the lead through 36.
The second round is scheduled to resume Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.
(Top photo of Brooks Koepka: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
