Hatton complains about Reed as Rahm suggests Friday was unplayable at the Masters
Jon Rahm, of Spain, reacts after missing a putt on the third hole during second round at the Masters. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Slocum
On one of the nastiest wind days in Masters history under glorious sunny skies, 15 players shot par or better in the trickiest conditions at Augusta National.
Players took six hours to complete rounds, and gusts often forced players to back off shots and putts hoping for a brief lull to give them a moment to pull the trigger.
On several occasions, a player stepped away for fear that their ball was oscillating on the green, but at no point did Augusta national ever cross the line into unplayable.
The scoring average of 75.08 on Friday didn’t approach the record high second round of 76.96 in 1954 or 75.87 in 1989. The late Jackie Burke Jr. – who died in January 10 days shy of his 101st birthday - would have laughed at the plight of players this week compared to what he had to navigate in 1956 when he shot 71 on Sunday and just shot 2-over par on a weekend when the field average was nearly 78.5 each day.
Defending champion Jon Rahm, however, wasn’t sure the second round should have continued all day on Friday. Posting a higher-than-average 76 in one of the last groups on the course didn’t agree with the Spaniard.
“A couple times questioning myself why we were out there, especially when I got to 18 and saw the whole front of the green just full of sand,” Rahm said after barely making the cut.
“It’s rolling a little bit different. I understand they want us to finish. I can imagine they were very close to calling it a few times, especially when we were on 11 green and we were getting those massive gusts every couple of minutes or so. It was extremely difficult.”
Despite no issues similar to what has plagued majors at places like St. Andrews and Shinnecock when strong winds and greens close to the edge required suspensions or drastic measures to keep the golf course from getting out of control, Rahm suggested more than anyone else that Friday might have been too much at Augusta.
“Yeah, you just put the ball down, and it’s very close to moving,” he said.
“Not only that, how long did it take us to play? Over six hours to play just because they had to blow the greens in between groups, and then when you get to a group, people stepping back and back in. It’s just, again, borderline.
“It was very, very close. It’s about as hard a golf course as I’ve seen in a very long time.”
Nobody else seemed to complain that they got the Masters caught back up on Friday after a two-and-a-half hour weather delay at the start on Thursday. Rahm’s LIV Golf teammate Tyrrell Hatton did have a lot to say about the pace of play, but not that the course seemed unfair or unplayable.
“The lads in front have been so slow,” Hatton said of the threeball that included Patrick Reed.
“It’s pretty poor from the officials that it took 32 holes to put them on the clock. Yesterday they’d lost a hole and a half, and then they weren’t any better even this morning, and then for the second round they were just brutal.
"Fine for them; they’re not waiting on any shot that they hit. But for us, we stood in the fairway, we stood on the tee. It was really hard to get a rhythm, so it was disappointing that it took 32 holes for an official to go, 'oh, we’ve put the group in front on the clock'.”
There will be no such issues on the weekend. Sunny skies and more reasonable breezes are forecast for the twosomes playing the rest of the way.
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