Willett falls victim to difficult opener

Defending champ’s 8 on first hole sets stage for cut miss.

Tea Olive, the first hole at Augusta National, may have its name changed to Poison Ivy after the first two rounds of the Masters. No one wants to get near it, and by the time you are finished you feel like one big rash.

“That may be one of the hardest starting holes in golf,” said William McGirt, who bogeyed it Friday. “Especially with any kind of west or northwest wind.”

The hole played historically more difficult Friday than ever with an average score of 4.720. That shattered the previous high of 4.474, set in the second round in 2007. Historically, it is the sixth-toughest Masters hole, with an average score of 4.24.

After two rounds this year it has an average score of 4.634. The 445-yard par 4 has given up just three bird- ies and 86 pars. The butch- er’s bill reads 80 bogeys, 11 double bogeys and six oth

ers. It had a higher score Friday than two par 5s: No. 2 (4.613 average score) and No. 13 (4.634).

One of those “others” was carded by Danny Willett, who was 1 over heading into the second round of the Masters.

The defending champ was in a good spot to at least give himself a chance to become the first player to repeat at Augusta National since Tiger Woods did so in 2001 and ’02.

And then he carded an 8, going from 1 over to 5 over — and on his way to missing the cut.

Willett’s 284-yard drive sailed up the right, coming to rest in the grass, but very close to the right edge of a bunker. Willett was left without much of a stance. He stood on his toes in an attempt to get some of the club on the 154-yard approach. Instead, the ball flew off the hosel and into

the patrons lining the right. “If it goes in the bunker, it’s not good,” he said. “It’s not too bad. If it goes a foot right, you can get stung. Where it finished wasn’t great.” Left 40 yards from the pin

and standing in pine straw with his head obscured by shrubbery, Willett punched his third shot between two

pine trees, across the green and into the patrons on the left. With fast greens and a stiff wind, he duffed his fourth and his chipped fifth shot rolled across the green and into the fairway. Three shots later, he could finally head to No. 2.

“That was my own fault,” he said.