AUGUSTA, Ga. — As night fell on Friday at the Masters, emotions were running high.
Wyndham Clark charged through the player’s parking lot, head down, fresh off a six-hour round and a brutal missed cut. Viktor Hovland — looking exhausted, also off a missed cut — shared an embrace with his caddie. Rory McIlroy, now 10 shots off the lead, hit one ball after the next into the looming darkness, either prepping for a Saturday charge or finding therapy in the process.
It was a windy, wild day at Augusta National. Just how wild? Let’s run through 10 of the day’s wildest moments to appreciate how mad it got.
When Woods woke up to cold temperatures and wild gusts it wasn’t clear how his 23-hole Friday would go. But his second round was a masterclass in course management, missing in the right spots and pulling off tricky up-and-downs one after the next en route to 73-72 and the 24th consecutive made cut of his Masters career. That’s a record. What’d he make of it?
“It means I have a chance going into the weekend,” he said. “I’m here. I have a chance to win the golf tournament.”
By day’s end he’d climbed to T22, just seven shots off the lead. Given Woods has played just 72 holes at a major championship just once in the last four years, that’s worth appreciating.
It would be exciting enough to see one of golf’s wildest characters — the one-of-a-kind DeChambeau — leading the Masters at its halfway point. It’s another level of insane given the story behind his irons, which only got approved by the USGA on Tuesday. Here’s how DeChambeau described it on Friday evening:
“Early Tuesday is when I finally got the full set approved and conforming,” he said. He’d practiced with them before, but ramped up his prep with the now-approved irons on Tuesday and Wednesday and decided to put them into play.
“Last week I found out that they, unfortunately — we didn’t really think it was going to be non-conforming, but they were, just the groove edge was just too sharp. Carter Rich [of the USGA] was super helpful, and I have to thank him for getting those approved and going through the right process.
“But last week, we found out literally Thursday afternoon that they were non-conforming from the USGA. And then we worked on them all over the weekend, and finally Tuesday morning we got them to where they were in a place where they were conforming and was ready to go.”
There’s a full story to be told about these irons, but to sum it up: Y’know how most irons have flat faces? These ones don’t.
I returned from the golf course to the media center to discover that DeChambeau, pro golf’s content king, was at it again. His sign transport was apparently cut short — I guess that’s not allowed at Augusta? — but there was plenty of good that came from it nonetheless.
