Defending champion in parade of cut stars

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Defending champion Danny Willett’s morning got off to an appropriately chilly start.

The Englishman made a snowman at the first hole, never quite recovered from that quadruple-bogey-8 en route to a 78 Friday and wound up leading a cast of dozens headed for the exits at Augusta National Golf Club after failing to make the cut at the 81st Masters. At least Willett will be back Sunday to put the green jacket on the new champion.

Two days of cool, windwhipped conditions tested the golfers’ patience and left plenty shaking their heads on the way out.

“Three-putt on the first hole doesn’t help .. ,” said two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, who finished 8 over. Watson had plenty of company. In fact, the parade of former champions and other luminaries who posted scores of 151 or worse will be skipping the weekend was almost large enough to fill out a consolation bracket.

Willett became the first reigning champion to depart early since Mike Weir in 2004. There was no shortage of other former winners who made an exit. They include Angel Cabrera (2009), Trevor Immelman (2008), Zach Johnson (2007), Vijay Singh (2000), Jose Maria Olazabal (1999, 1994) Mark O’Meara (1998) Bernhard Langer (1993, 1985), Ian Woosnam (1991) and Sandy Lyle (1988).

Scoring foul-up

For a while, it looked as if Sergio Garcia’s chances at winning the Masters had taken a major hit. The tournament’s internal scoring system listed Garcia with a triple-bogey-7 on the 10th hole, briefly dropping him four shots behind leader Charley Hoffman. It was soon announced that it was a scoring error. Apparently, Garcia had hit a provisional ball after a poor tee shot. But he found his original ball and played it from there, making a 5 instead of a 7.