Seventeen shots separated Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy by the time the Northern Irishman reached Augusta National’s scoring hut at the end of round two. Perhaps confirmation of a missed cut, not yet forthcoming because of weather interruptions in Augusta, would spare McIlroy the hassle of playing 36 holes of a major he knew he could no longer win.
McIlroy’s 77 was his highest round here since day three of the 2016 Masters. Added to Thursday’s 72, this served as his latest wounding experience in this corner of Georgia. McIlroy needs ‘only’ the Masters to become the sixth golfer in history to claim a clean sweep of major titles; the lingering sense is that the weight of history sits too heavily on his shoulders. His wait for a fifth major title, a gnawing wait stretching back to August 2014, goes on. No wonder the 33-year-old, shoulders slumped, looked a dejected soul.
There may be a fundamental explanation for this five-over-par aggregate. This year McIlroy has won the Dubai Desert Classic and finished second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational but there has been some ragged stuff elsewhere. He missed the cut, for example, at the Players Championship. McIlroy’s ability is such that his B or even C games can mix it at most places; in this most unforgiving of environments, flaws are exposed. McIlroy arrived at Augusta in fine spirits and with high hopes. He will surely depart more unsure than ever of how to crack the Masters code. McIlroy sat in a share of 61st – 50 and ties make the cut – when a second weather delay hit late on Friday afternoon. Players did not return to the course, with the second round to resume at 7:30am local time on Saturday. More than 30 competitors have not yet reached the 36-hole juncture.
As McIlroy toiled, Koepka added a 67 to day one’s 65 to lead the remainder of the field a merry dance. Twelve under par represents a formidable halfway total. Koepka leads Jon Rahm, who has played nine holes of round two, by three shots.
Koepka appears completely unaffected by the kerfuffle that surrounds the actions of him and his caddie, Ricky Elliott, during round one. Elliott appeared to mouth “five” twice after Koepka hit his approach shot – with a five iron – into the 15th. The manner in which the player removed his glove suggested he was relaying an identical message, just as the caddie of his playing partner Gary Woodland walked past. Woodland was yet to play but did reach the green with a five iron of his own. The passing on of advice is punishable by a two-shot penalty but Koepka and Elliott were cleared of any wrongdoing by Masters officials in the immediate aftermath of the round.
Koepka believes Elliott was “signalling to somebody else” other than Woodland’s caddie, not that he was of a mind to explain who this individual was. The four-times major winner revealed he had been called in for a second round of questioning, this time after round two, relating to his hand movement.
“I’m taking my glove off,” said Koepka. “The last thing I’m going to do is give it to Gary Woodland, the [former] US Open champ. And the funny part about it is I think if he would have known we were hitting five, he would have hit six. I don’t know if you’re supposed to take your glove off with your fist closed or what now.”
Woodland backed up Koepka’s version of events. “When we were walking down [the fairway] I asked Brooks what he hit and he said five,” Woodland said. “If I would have known that, I probably would have hit six iron, and I would have hit six iron in the middle of the water. Luckily for me, I didn’t know what he hit. That’s the end of it.
“Usually the caddies are telling the media or TV guys. The TV guys, the boom guys, are out every hole, and they’re usually telling them, so it’s easy to pick it up from there. I don’t know if there was a boom guy or not. I have no idea.”
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Woodland revealed rules committee members told the players the incident “was getting to be a big deal”. It would be helpful if the same Green Jackets, normally so protective of the reputation of their tournament, would properly and publicly articulate their interpretation.
Jason Day reached minus nine before a horror finish, which saw the Australian bleed four shots over the closing four holes. Day has Sam Burns and Jordan Spieth for company at five under. Collin Morikawa has quietly posted back-to-back 69s for minus six.
Performance of the opening days, though, belongs to the 23-year-old amateur Sam Bennett. The Texan signed for a second round of 68, identical to his day one score, to lie a mere four shy of Koepka. Bennett, quite rightly, lacks nothing in confidence. “I knew my golf was good enough to compete out here,” he said. “I find myself in a situation that now I’ve got a golf tournament that I can go out and win.” This attitude was Koepka-esque.
