Masters 2017: Live results and news from Friday at Augusta National

The rules for making it to the championship rounds at the 2018 Masters are as simple as they’ve always been; you either need to be in the top 50 or within 10 strokes of the leader when the final group closes out on Friday night. With a tightly packed field jockeying for position after a difficult day two, this year’s tournament could feature more weekend golfers than ever before.

As of midday Friday, 69 golfers were in line to qualify for the event’s final two rounds — five more than the 64 who made the cut in 1966 to set the course record. That could set the stage for a frenzied finish at Augusta National Golf Club. Top 10 staples like Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Rickie Fowler all remained within striking distance of taking home the coveted green jacket that comes with victory at the one of the PGA Tour’s most important tournaments.

Haotong Li’s second day at his first Masters tournament wasn’t going so well. After finding himself among the leaders after a stellar 3-under performance in the opening round, Li had struggled to tame the famed Augusta National course, posting a 6-over score on the front nine to drop him off the first page of the leaderboard.

But then came the 10th hole — and some much needed relief for Li.

Finally, does Sergio believe in himself?

I mean, we believe. We’ve bought in — as viewers, as fans, as golf writers. We’ve gotten sucked into this narrative before. Heck, I’ve written this before. I wrote it last year before the final round of the U.S. Open. I wrote it again before the Open Championship. Maybe I’ll write it again in June at Erin Hills.

Two summers ago after Jordan Spieth’s grand slam chances ended at St. Andrews, the one word I kept using to describe his incredible push to actually win the third leg of a slam was relentless. It may have been a moment of recency hyperbole, but after we buried him multiple times at that Open, I called his desperate push to actually win the damn thing the most impressive moment of his year (you know, the one that included two majors already):

That relentlessness was back at Augusta National on Friday and it’s probably a trait that Spieth possesses more than anyone in the game. This Masters has been more difficult than his previous starts, where it became a daily tradition to have Spieth on top of the leaderboard each night. Instead of a quadruple bogey late on Sunday, Spieth went ahead and got that out of the way early in the tournament on Thursday, posting an incomprehensible 9 at the par-5 15th.

For Rory McIlroy, Augusta National always seems to take as much as it gives. The balance always seems to end up at zero and he can never quite sneak out of here after a week feeling like he got away with one or got the best of it. Even the pins are keeping account and Friday’s round was a tale of two flagsticks.

In the second round, his Masters seemed to take off at the 6th hole. He’d been uneven throughout the start of his round, getting a great look at eagle at the par-5 second and then inexplicably three-jacking the short third hole in some gusty winds that seemed to impact him more with the putter. After an all-world birdie from the pine straw at the 5th, McIlroy came to the 6th at even-par. He hit a solid tee shot that got an unfortunate bounce off the fringe and spun back down one of Augusta’s most significantly sloped greens. He was inches from having a great look at birdie to now having to make a hit-and-hope attempt to get up the steep grade without hammering it too far past the hole on these rapid greens.

That Jordan Spieth even made it to the weekend is a testament to the focus and determination of the 2015 Masters champ. But Spieth, 23, overcame a hideous quadruple bogey-9 on the 15th hole and a 4-over 75 in Thursday’s opening round with a second-round 69 to earn a 2:10 p.m. ET tee time, playing alongside 46-year-old Phil MIckelson.

While the youngster and veteran enter the weekend at even-par, Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler share the top of the leaderboard with 18-hole leader Charlie Hoffman and Masters rookie Thomas Pieters. Hoffman gets Garcia in the anchor match at 3 p.m., while Fowler takes on Pieters in the penultimate pairing at 2:50 p.m.

Bubba Watson will have to take his pink ball and go home early for the first time in his Augusta career after the two-time Masters champion failed to overcome a terrible four-bogey start to his second round.

In addition to the Masters titles, Watson owns a bunch of so-so finishes, but the guy — who bravely goes where no Masters player has gone before by using a mini-golf ball on Bobby Jones’ hallowed fairways — had never missed a cut in nine starts at Augusta.

The leaderboard at the Masters is jam-packed at the top after Friday’s second-round play at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. It’s never easy to predict a major championship’s outcome after 36 competitive holes, but this one feels especially difficult, because so many players are so closely grouped together.

Unlike when Charley Hoffman’s 7-under score on Thursday gave him a four-stroke lead to end the day, nobody ended the day on Friday in command of the field. Hoffman’s still in the hunt, right atop the board. But he’s more or less running neck-and-neck with three other players: Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler, and Thomas Pieters, all at 4-under.

Rickie Fowler has given it a good run at the Masters before. He’s primed to give it a good run again this year. Fowler birdied Augusta National’s 13th hole on Friday to tie for the tournament lead at 4-under as the second round nears its end.

In 2016, the now-28-year-old fell from fifth to 11th in the World Golf Ranking. He didn’t win a tournament after January. He didn’t compete near the top of the leaderboard in any of the four majors, missing the cut in two of them, including the Masters. The year before that, the Masters was the only major where he played well, finishing 12th. It’s been a long time since he finished top-five in all four of them in 2014.

If you don’t recognize the new leader of the 2017 Masters’ name, well, you best learn quickly. Chances are you’ll be hearing it often for the next 20 years across professional golf.

At just 25 years old, the Belgian has risen to the top of the second-round leaderboard at Augusta National in his first ever Masters appearance — and just third major championship start ever. A quick eagle-birdie sequence on the 13th and 14th pulled him dead even with Sergio Garcia and Charley Hoffman atop the leaderboard, and he’ll have ample opportunity to take the solo lead coming down the stretch.

Nothing’s final yet, but the cut line at the Masters this year is likely to fall at 6 strokes over par through 36 holes. The tournament’s organizers have set the cut line at the field’s top 50 scores including ties, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the lead. Given the leaderboard’s current shape, the latter part of the rule is unlikely to come into play.

As second-round play wound down around 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Sergio Garcia and Charley Hoffman were both in the clubhouse at 4-under for the tournament. That means for anyone to make the cut with a score worse than 6-over, that player would have to be tied for a score within the top 50. Too much leaderboard movement has to happen on the back nine for that to be remotely likely.

When Rory McIlroy banged his second shot off the flag stick on the 18th green and the ball ricocheted 20 yards sideways onto the fairway, somewhere Tiger Woods smiled knowingly. McIlroy was at even-par at the Masters and preparing for his approach when ESPN’s Nick Faldo noted that the four-time major champion “has a great opportunity. His distance control has been very good.”

“Throw one in to avoid putting,” said Faldo, a moment before Rory knocked his approach dead-on to the pin, which cruelly spit the ball to the right and down the slope. A missed kick-in par putt later, and McIlroy ended Friday’s second round with a 1-over 73 to get to 1-over for the week — five behind co-leaders Charley Hoffman and Sergio Garcia.

The world’s 1,893rd-ranked golfer is in contention at the Masters.

If you win the Masters once, you get an exemption to play the tournament every year until your body doesn’t let you. Fred Couples won the green jacket as a 32-year-old in 1992. He’s now a 57-year-old in 2017, and Couples is impressively competing near the top of the leaderboard in this 93-man field. He could hang around all weekend.

We’re underway at Augusta for the second round of the Masters on cut day. Veteran Charley Hoffman had a 4-shot lead and was 7 strokes under par after the first round, putting himself in terrific position to contend deep into the weekend. William McGirt started the day in second place after posting a 3-under par opening round yesterday. If those names weren’t familiar as a casual golf fan, don’t worry: Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas are all lurking just behind.

The theme of the week so far has been the windy conditions, pushing scores well above past weekday averages for Bobby Jones’ tournament at Augusta National. Thursday’s round featured blustery conditions all around the golf course, and wind is likely to play a role again throughout Friday, before Mother Nature becomes friendlier on the weekend. Sunnier skies and calmer winds should leave the course a bit more exposed, but you can expect the course to dry out from early-week rains as things continue.

While the story on Thursday afternoon of the 2017 Masters Tournament was surrounding the leader Charley Hoffman, the attention has shifted to Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler on Friday afternoon. While Hoffman is still out in front at 4-under, Garcia has made birdie on six holes in his second round, putting him right next to Hoffman heading into his 18th hole.

Fowler, who struggled at Augusta National Thursday, finishing two bogeys and a double bogey on No. 18, has come out strong on Friday. He opened the front nine with an eagle on hole No. 2, along with a birdie he made on hole No. 3. This allowed him to move into the T3 spot at 2-under alongside Will McGirt, who shot a 73 on Friday.

The Masters is mostly a showcase of the world’s best golfers playing some of the world’s best golf. This pitch by Hideto Tanihara on the 15th hole at Augusta on Friday does not fall under that classification.

Somehow, this ball didn’t go into the water hazard in front of Tanihara.

A little more than half the Masters field will survive the cut after the first two rounds and live to play the weekend at Augusta National. The cut line is structured to keep safe the top 50 players in the current 93-man field, with extensions for ties and anybody who’s within 10 shots of the leader after two rounds.

That means anyone who’s tied for 50th or better, or anyone within 10 strokes of the low score after Friday’s round, gets to stick around for Saturday and Sunday. At 2 p.m. ET on Friday, the projected cut line was 6 over par.

Augusta changes when The Masters are in town. Traffic gets busier, businesses are more populated and for one turtle it also means some unwelcome attention.

This turtle absolutely knew it made the broadcast and was like “Nope, I’m out of here,” submerging itself to enjoy a tranquil pond life. However, what if this wasn’t just a turtle escaping from view? What if this was a secret party turtle just aching to be a part of the action?

Charley Hoffman had a four-stroke lead after the first round at the Masters, but veteran Sergio Garcia tied him for first place shortly before 1 p.m. ET on Friday.

Garcia began his second round with three consecutive birdies and moved to minus-4. Hoffman started the day 7-under and got to 8-under at one point, but a series of bogeys evaporated his lead. A Garcia birdie on No. 9 and a Hoffman bogey on No. 10 brought the two men into a tie at 4-under, with more than 36 holes still to play.

The second round of the 2017 Masters got underway on Friday morning, and the board’s leader, Charley Hoffman, held his top spot with the start of his round. Through four holes, Hoffman has been able to hold a three-stroke lead at 5-under.

Behind Hoffman at 3-under are Will McGirt and Sergio Garcia, who has opened with a strong round with three birdies on his first three holes. Following McGirt’s second-place finish on Thursday, he had a solid outing for Round 2, making birdies on holes 2 and 4. He had a couple of bogeys, on 1 and 14, but has still been able to closely trail Hoffman.

Danny Willett may look back on his likely unsuccessful title defense at this year’s Masters and wish he could have started each of his first (and only?) two rounds on the second hole.

Willett followed up Thursday’s double-bogey 6 on the dastardly starting hole with a quad-8 on Friday that probably knocked him out of the tournament.

The second round of the 2017 Masters Tournament will continue on Friday morning from Augusta National golf course. The leader after one round is Charley Hoffman, who finished with a comfortable four-stroke lead sitting at 7-under. His play looks even more impressive when considering the windy conditions that battered the course all day long, more of which are expected for Friday.

William McGirt is behind Hoffman at 3-under, and other notable scores include Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose tied for fourth at 1-under, and Rory McIlroy tied for 12th sitting at even after Thursday’s round. Jordan Spieth had a tough first round with a score of 3-over, with his quadruple-bogey coming on the 15th hole of the Masters.

The second round of the 2017 Masters gets underway on Friday, with the field all trying to catch the red-hot Charley Hoffman after his blistering Round 1.

Hoffman shot a 65 on Thursday, and owns a four-stroke advantage heading into play on Friday. Hoffman will tee off at 10:01 a.m. ET on Friday, in the same threesome he was with on Thursday. But the scoring magic didn’t rub off on his playing partners, as both Chris Wood and Yuta Ikeda shot a 2-over 74 in the first round at Augusta.

The 2017 Masters Tournament continues on Friday morning, with the first set of golfers teeing off from Augusta National at 8:00 a.m. ET sharp.

One of the biggest stories from the first round on Thursday was Charley Hoffman’s impressive outing. He scored a 65 on the day, finishing at 7-under with a four-stroke lead over William McGirt and five over Lee Westwood. Jordan Spieth finished tied for 41st at 3-over on the day, quadrupling the 15th hole. Rory McIlroy had a solid outing on Thursday, finishing tied for 12th at even par.