Play continued in the second round at Augusta National on Friday as the leaderboard began to take shape at The Masters. Rory McIlroy was among the players under way, while Justin Rose and Tyrrell Hatton were among those climbing up the standings in the live action from Augusta.
Wyndham Clark provided one of the early moments of the day when his birdie putt at the sixth looked set to drop. The stroke was straight for most of the way, but it drifted slightly to the right just before the cup and stayed out. Even so, Clark remained at three under par for both the round and the tournament.
Clark was no longer the only player posting red numbers for the round. Im Sungjae, who finished second on debut at the November Masters in 2020, birdied the seventh and eighth holes to move into red figures for the day. He stood at three over overall. Freddie Couples also found some encouragement, birdieing the second to move back to five over.
Couples’ position came despite a damaging stretch late on Thursday, when he made quadruple bogey, double bogey and double bogey at the 15th, 16th and 17th holes. At 66, the veteran is still competing, even after running out of steam in the late-afternoon heat yesterday.
Aaron Rai, the winner of the Par 3 Contest, made a calm and confident start to his second round. He found Tea Olive in regulation and produced a long birdie attempt that grazed the hole. Rai remained one under after his opening 71, a round that suggested more might have been there after he had gone out in 33.
For Clark, the run of consecutive birdies ended at five. He made par at the sixth, but found the centre of the green with his tee shot and used the slope to bring the ball toward the flag, which was tucked away at the front left. That left him with a birdie chance from around 18 feet, on a putting surface that was not completely flat but offered one of the more straightforward-looking putts available at Augusta.
Early movement on a demanding course
The opening stages of the second round again showed how quickly fortunes can change at Augusta National. A few birdies were enough to alter the look of the leaderboard, while a single missed chance could stall a player’s momentum. Clark’s strong start had already helped him establish himself near the top, and Sungjae’s pair of birdies offered a timely boost after an uneven beginning to the tournament.
Meanwhile, experienced players such as Couples continued to draw interest as they battled the course’s challenges. Augusta has a reputation for punishing mistakes, and Thursday’s late holes again demonstrated how costly a stretch of bad golf can be. Yet the course also allows room for recovery, as shown by the early birdies on Friday.
Rai’s composed start was another example of the precision required in these conditions. With the greens demanding and scoring opportunities limited, even solid approach play and a near miss with the putter could still count as a positive opening to the day.
The second round remained in its early phases, with more movement expected as the morning progressed and the tournament continued to unfold at Augusta National.
