Johnson, Thomas in logjam at the top
Four tied at 9 under, but 48 still haven’t finished 2nd round
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Even before the field teed off Thursday morning, therewas noway thiswas going to be a normal Masters.
Not with darkness descending before dinnertime. Not with the weekend scheduled around college football Saturday and the NFL on Sunday. Not with Augusta National Golf Club bereft of fans and the energy they provide.
The first November Masters in history has been playing catchup from the start.
Four dozen players must rise Saturday morning to complete their second rounds. Some — including pre-tournament favorite Bryson DeChambeau — are grinding to make the cut. Some — including Francesco Molinari, last year’s third-round leader — already have missed it.
But the rest, it’s still to be determined.
On Friday night, two prominent players went to bed with a share of the lead: Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas are ranked first and third in the world and each has a major championship.
Two more obscure players joined them there: Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, who lives in San Antonio, and Cameron Smith of Australia are ranked 21st and 45th in theworld. Ancer is a Masters rookie, and Smith is here for the fourth time.
All are at 9-under par 135. But some of the leaders still felt they hadn’t played their best golf.
“It’s definitely not as low as I feel like I could or should be,” said Thomas, whose secondround 69 featured a run of four straight birdies to close his first nine — followed immediately by a double-bogey that derailed him.
Further adding to the incomplete feeling: the incomplete nature of the round, which resulted both from the limited autumn daylight and Thursday’s thunderstorms that caused a delay of nearly three hours.
So the play has seemed something of a disjointed mess.
Patrick Cantlay and Sungjae Im both finished 36 holes and trail by just a shot, along with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Spain’s Jon Rahm — who still have to finish the second round. Either of the latter two could rise Saturday morning and become the second-round leader.
The last hole Rahm completed before play was suspended because of darkness was the squirrelly par-3 12th, which he birdied.
Ahead when play resumes at 6: 30 a.m. Saturday: the rest of the par-5 13th and all of the par-5 15th, traditionally the easiest holes on the course. Rahm birdied both in his first-round 69 on Thursday, and he left the course in position to birdie the 13th when he wakes up.
“I’m still not done,” Rahm said.
Which can be said for so much of field. Particularly, and intriguingly, DeChambeau.
The winner of the U.S. Open in September at Winged Foot arrived here on a high. He was a newly crowned major champion. He graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. He even righted himself after a shaky start Thursday to turn in a solid opening 70.
On Friday, though, he all but came unhinged.
After making a birdie on the par-5 second to get
to 3 under, he came to the 350-yard, par-4 third, a green he seems determined to drive. The decision could cost him the right to play the final two rounds.
At the third, DeChambeau unleashed one tee shot that flew far left — a bad shot that then combined with a poor break. It landed in amuddy area, and the group could not find it. DeChambeau was forced to re-tee. Rattled, he sent his next drive on the same trajectory.
“It’s going right there again,” DeChambeau yelled.
This time, though, they found the ball. But DeChambeau couldn’t find himself.
He pitched over the green, then chipped back through it, hashing his way to a triple-bogey 7 that brought him back to even par.
He followed with bogeys on the next two holes.
“I know that affected him a little bit, because he didn’t play his best golf af
ter that,” said Rahm, one of his playing partners. “But he’s a fighter and he’s showing it.”
The top 50 players and ties make the cut. On Friday night, that’s anyone at even par or better. DeChambeau, who birdied the 12th — the final hole he completed — is at 1 over with 5½ holes to play.
“It was just unfortunate,” Rahm said.
Other intriguing characters also are in interesting position.
Houstonian Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champ, is 6 under with seven holes to play in the second round.
Fellow American Xander Schauffele — who has played in 13 major championships and finished in the top 10 seven times — birdied his final two holes Friday to get to 6 under, and still has six more to play Saturday morning.
And how about these two? Phil Mickelson, the 50-year- old three-time Masters champ who has taken to playing Champions Tour events to boost
his confidence, turned in a second-round 70 that got him to 5 under — and brimming with confidence about parts of his gamewhile pledging to fix others.
“I’m driving like a stallion,” Mickelson said, though he deemed his putting “horrific.”
“I’m going to make a run,” he declared.
Finally, Tiger Woods — the defending champ, owner of five green jackets.
After opening with a bogey-free 68 that he completed Thursday, Woods’s Friday was more pedestrian: 10 holes in which he made two birdies and two bogeys to remain at 4 under. But he, like so many, isn’t done with his second round. Eight more holes, including the easiest, remain Saturday.
This unique Masters is still catching up with itself. But given the names on the leader board and the amount of golf left to play, when it finally does — watch out.