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Woods was in danger of missing it for the first time as a
professional when he resumed his second round in cold, driving rain and bogeyed
his final two holes. That left Woods at 3 over and tied for 52nd, while the top
50 and ties make the cut.
Moments after Woods signed his scorecard, though, Thomas
missed a short par putt at the 17th, dropping him to 3-over and bringing
everyone at that number inside the cut line. Thomas then bogeyed the 18th,
ensuring Woods would play the rest the weekend and match Fred Couples and Gary
Player for the longest streak of cuts made at the Masters.
“I’ve always loved this golf course, and I love playing this
event,” Woods said before Thomas finished. “I hope I get a chance to play this
weekend — I’m sorry, I got a chance to play on the weekend. I wish I get a
chance to play two more rounds.”
Woods got his wish, while Thomas’ bogey-bogey finish sent
him home instead.
The second round was suspended Friday when storms swept over
the course, bringing down three large pine trees near the 16th green. Nobody
was hurt when they fell, and workers had them cleared by the time play resumed
Saturday.
Woods was 2 over with seven holes left when he returned to
the course, and his birdie at the par-5 15th gave him some breathing room. But
a wayward tee shot at the 17th forced Woods to lay up short of the bunker,
leading to bogey, and a tee shot into the trees left of 18 forced him to hit
his approach shot off the pine straw.
Woods came up short of the green, backed up his approach
shot and two-putted for another bogey.
The weather wasn’t getting any better, though, and Thomas
took the brunt of it. With rain driving so hard at the tough, uphill par-4 18th
that he had to hit a fairway wood from 218 yards, Thomas went so far left he
nearly landed among the patrons. His pitch shot checked up short, and another
bogey resulted in a second-round 77 and a missed cut.
That allowed Thomas Pieters and Charl Schwartzel to join
Woods in making the cut when it moved to 3 over.
That also meant 12 of the 18 players from the Saudi-back LIV
Golf circuit made it. Among them was leader Brooks Koepka, who dodged the bad
weather Friday and was at 12 under, two shots clear of Jon Rahm heading into
the third round.
“It’s not going to be easy,” said Abraham Ancer, one of the
LIV players that made the cut. “It’s going to be blowing. It’s going to be
cold. It’s going to be raining. But at least everybody is going to be out there
in the same stuff.”
Rory McIlroy won’t be there; he missed the cut after a
second-round 77 on Friday left him 5 over for the championship. The runner-up a
year ago will need to wait another year to take another crack at completing the
career Grand Slam.
Others who missed the cut included Bryson DeChambeau, who
shot back-to-back 74s to miss by one, and 2003 champ Mike Weir, who also
finished at 4 over after he was forced to play his second round Friday with a
marker.
One player who did make the cut: 63-year-old Fred Couples,
who was 1 over when he finished his second round Saturday.
The 1992 champion trudged through a bogey-bogey finish, but
he still became the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta National, beating
the mark that Bernhard Langer set during the 2020 tournament.
“The last four years have been really mediocre golf. Maybe
one year I was semi-close to making the cut, but that was my objective, and I
did it,” Couples said. “It’s not like, ‘Ha, ha, ha. Now I can screw around and
play 36 holes for fun.’ I’m going to try and compete. Play a good pairing with
some younger guys and watch them play.”
Couples, whose 31 made cuts at the Masters trails only Jack
Nicklaus’ record of 37, didn’t know he’d become the oldest player to make it.
When told he had bettered Langer’s mark by 108 days, Couples replied: “Well, good.”
“Today is another day,” he said. “If it was Friday, it would
have been 107.” -AP