Mickelson, Woods make cut, but fall back

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Phil Mickelson won the Mexico Championship last month and, playing well at age 47, there was talk that he could become the oldest Masters champion by winning his fourth green jacket.

Those hopes faded during the second round on Friday during a disastrous sequence when he bounced around in the trees at No. 9 and made triple bogey, then hit into Rae’s Creek on No. 12 for a double bogey.

He bogeyed his final hole for a 7-overpar 79 at Augusta National, the second time in three years he posted that number. He made the cut on the line and is at 5-over 149.

Tiger Woods, meanwhile, struggled early in his round of 3-over 75.

He made bogey on the opening hole with a sand wedge from the fairway.

He really came undone when his second shot to the fifth bounded over the green and into a grove of magnolia trees.

He took a penalty drop to clear room through the branches, put that in the bunker and made double bogey. Lurking just five shots back, Rory McIlroy is in striking distance of his first Masters title, which would complete a career Grand Slam.

Very little went right except for a pair of birdies on the par-5s on the back nine. Woods wound up tied for 40th at 4-over 148, 13 shots behind leader Patrick Reed.

No one has ever rallied from more than eight shots behind after 36 holes to win the Masters.

“I’m going to have to shoot a special weekend, and I need help,” Woods said. “I’m not in control of my own destiny.”

The early returns are in for Rory McIlroy at the Masters, and so far all is good.

The swing is fine, and so are the ribs. Perhaps more important, all seems well in the space between his ears.

Now comes the real test, with a rare career Grand Slam there for the taking.

On a day when par seemed a good score,

McIlroy did just a little bit better, shooting a 1-under 71 to inch near the top of the leader board in the one major championship he has never won. At 4-under 140, he trails Reed by five entering the weekend.

It could have been better, as most golf rounds tend to be. Heading into what is expected to be a wet weekend, though, it was just what McIlroy needed to put himself in position for the green jacket that once slipped so agonizingly away.

“I’ve always been comfortable around the lead,” McIlroy said. “It’s a place that I’m thankfully quite familiar with and know how to deal with.”

The last two Masters champions won’t be playing on the weekend.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia and 2016 winner Danny Willett missed the 36-hole cut.

Willett finished the second round with consecutive bogeys, missing out by two strokes. He ended up at 7-over 151.

Garcia’s reign was essentially over on Thursday when he hit five consecutive balls into the water at the par-5 15th and ended up with a 13 that was the highest score posted by any player on the hole. Garcia finished with an 81 — the highest score ever shot by a defending champion in the opening round of the Masters.

He seemed to spend much of Friday going through the motions, struggling to a 78 that included dumping another ball in the water at No. 11. He ended up at 15-over 159.