Masters projected cut: Rickie Fowler in danger of missing weekend at Augusta

This may be one of those rare years where making the cut, currently projected at 2-over, might not matter at the Masters. This is the one major championship where everyone in the field, who makes the weekend still thinks they have a chance to win. Augusta yields that kind of leaderboard movement and the ability to go low and make a huge run in just a 36-hole span.

But with Jordan Spieth setting a new Masters record at the 36-hole mark, most of the players sweating out the cut line are playing for a paycheck and two more rounds at the top golf course in the United States.

There are a couple of different methods the Masters uses to make the cut, but this year it will be the top 50 and ties getting through for the final two rounds. There’s also a 10-shot rule for anyone within that amount of the lead. But given that the guy currently 10 shots back of Spieth is in SIXTH PLACE, that’s really not going to be much use for this exercise.

The biggest names near (or on the wrong side of) the projected 2-over cut line are Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Billy Horschel and Fred Couples. Fowler started his best summer on the PGA Tour at the Masters last year. He’d end up joining Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to ever finish inside the top 5 at all four majors in the same year. A fifth straight looks unlikely, and Fowler will be grinding out the afternoon just to stay for two more days.

Furyk is already in the house at 3-over so he’ll need the projected cut to dip down a stroke and get in the top 50. He has been the most consistent American player over the past few years. He hasn’t won, but he’s always there on the weekend and usually on the first page of the leaderboard. To see him trunk slamming on Friday afternoon comes as a surprise.

And then there’s Couples, usually the top representative from the 50-and-over division in the field. Couples doesn’t usually just make the cut, he contends up until Sunday. An opening round 79, however, wiped that out real quick so we’ll have the rare weekend without Freddie this year.

Here’s the group hovering just above the cut line and all those souls who will likely exit Augusta early this year: