Tiger Woods made the cut Saturday at the Masters – for the 23rd time in a row – finishing the first 36 holes at 3-over. The streak of making the cut ties the tournament record shared by Gary Player and Fred Couples.
Woods began the day with a chance to play the weekend and was comfortably above the cut line when he made a birdie on No. 15. But he bogeyed the last two holes and had to wait for the cut line to move.
Brooks Koepka (12-under) goes into the third round on top of the leaderboard. He holds a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm. Amateur Sam Bennett is alone in third at 8-under, followed by Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland at 6-under.
Saturday’s third round will start off with rainy weather as players adjust to the cold and windy temperatures at Augusta.
Tiger Woods made the cut by the skin of his teeth after a rain delay pushed the end of the second round to Saturday morning. This is his 23rd straight time making the cut at the Masters.
Live Leaderboard: Latest Masters Tournament Scores, Schedules, Pairings and more
The five-time Masters champion will continue play Saturday afternoon in the third round at 1:06 p.m. ET from tee No. 10. He will play in the last wave of the day with Thomas Pieters and Sungjae Im.
Tiger Woods makes cut as second round wraps up
Tiger Woods’ streak of 23 straight made cuts at the Masters came to fruition after the five-time champion finished the first 36 holes at 3-over-par. The consecutive cuts ties the record shared by Gary Player and Fred Couples.
Woods began the day with a chance to play the weekend and was comfortably above the cut line when he made a birdie on the Par 5 No. 15. But he bogeyed the last two holes and had to wait for the cut line to move as Justin Thomas finished with two straight bogeys to secure Woods’ spot.
Brooks Koepka (12-under) goes into Saturday’s action on top of the leaderboard after Friday’s action was suspended due to inclement weather. He holds a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm. Amateur Sam Bennett is alone in third at 8-under, followed by Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland at 6-under.
Tiger Woods finishes second round at 3-over, outside projected cut line
Woods’ approach on No. 17 was an adventure as his tee shot went wide right on the par-4 440-yard hole, but battled back to get within six feet of a par, and he missed it, going back to 2-over.
On 18, another par-4, Woods hit the ball left of the fairway and was left with a 50 foot for par.
Woods finishes his second round at 1-over with two birdies and three bogeys and will likely need players above him to falter to get a new projected cut line so he can play through the weekend.
On the updated leaderboard, Jon Rahm is still two shots from the lead after bogeying 16. Brooks Koepka remains the 36-hole leader at 12-under.
Tiger Woods makes second birdie of round, Jon Rahm inches closer to lead
Woods had a chance to make up some ground on the 550-yard Par 5 15th hole, and hit the fairway on his first shot, leaving him 277 yards from the hole. He made a 27-foot put for birdie to give him some breathing room and gave the crowd a nice fist pump. On 16, one of the five holes that has played over par through two rounds, Tiger made a seven-foot putt for par and sits at +1.
Rahm, who finished Friday three shots off the lead, got off to a good start, making birdie on the Par 3 No. 12, and making pars on No. 13 and 14.
Tiger Woods resumes second round, pars first two holes to remain at 2-over
Woods got through 12 holes during Friday’s round and started early on Saturday trying to stay above the cut line. On the par-5 No. 13, Woods got in good position with a chance for a birdie from 15 yards out, but settled for par and remains at 2-over. On 14, he made a four-yard put to save for another par.
63-year-old Fred Couples could make history
It appears that Fred Couples will be playing the rest of the weekend at the Masters.
The 1992 champion finished his second round with a bogey, leaving him at 1-over for the championship and inside the projected cut line. That would make the 63-year-old Couples the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta National, beating the mark that Bernhard Langer set during the 2020 tournament by about 3 ½ months.
It also would be the 31st career cut for Couples, trailing only Jack Nicklaus’ record of 37.
– Associated Press
Play has resumed at Masters
Some of the golfers who have yet to complete their second round have hit the course at the Masters on Saturday after play was suspended on Friday due to inclement weather. Tee times have not been posted for the third round.
Another LIV golfer withdraws
A second golfer who plays on the LIV tour has withdrawn from the Masters. Louis Oosthuizen, who has one PGA Tour win, the 2010 British Open, won’t finish the weekend due to injury.
The South African completed 17 holes of his second round and finished at 7-over, mostly likely missing the cut anyway. Kevin Na, a fellow LIV golfer, withdrew after nine holes on Thursday.
Six other LIV golfers, including four who haven’t completed their second round, are in danger of missing the cut, based on the projected cut line of 2-over.
Augusta National takes big risk after trees crash down at Masters
Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters got very lucky Friday afternoon when the three trees that crashed to the ground near the 17th hole missed dozens of fans gathered nearby.
Yet no more than 90 minutes after the incident, the Masters announced that ticket gates for spectators would open as scheduled Saturday morning at 7 a.m. In other words, fans will be back on the grounds in droves and it will be business as usual at the first men’s major golf tournament of the year.
Clearly, the leaders of Augusta National are gambling that in the midst of severe weather that is expected to continue throughout Friday evening, including heavy rain and high winds, all their other trees — thousands of them — are safe and stable and nothing like this will happen again.
— Christine Brennan
How to watch the Masters on Saturday
ESPN is set to air the restarted second round action beginning at 8 a.m. ET. CBS will have live coverage of the Masters from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. ET.
The resumption of the second round and the third round can be live streamed at CBSSports.com, ESPN+, Paramount+, Masters Live and the CBS Sports app.
What time does the Masters resume on Saturday?
The second round is scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. ET Saturday morning, with the third round to follow — though more rain and storms are in the forecast for the entirety of the day.
Koepka is back in championship form at the Masters
Brooks Koepka is back. But given which side of the professional golf schism he landed on, you better catch him while you can.
Even if Koepka wins this Masters for his fifth major championship — and it’s looking pretty good with a three-shot lead in the clubhouse when officials suspended the round due to inclement weather — the next time you’ll see him (or won’t see him, more likely) will be later this month in Adelaide, Australia, or the following week in Singapore. Back to the easy, breezy LIV Golf anti-grind that is so obviously beneath his talent and incapable of satisfying his hunger to be remembered as one of the greats of all time.
It would be a welcome development if golf has entered a second era where Koepka feels like a threat every time he tees it up at a big event. He’s that electric of a player and competitor. But in golf’s current fractured state, he only gets four chances a year to beat the players he most wants to beat.
— Dan Wolken
What other LIV Golf players are projected to make the cut?
With the cut line currently standing at 2-over par, 10 members of the LIV Golf Series would make the cut as things stand entering Saturday.
Koepka, of course, is a shoo-in, and Phil Mickelson and Joaquin Niemann are in excellent shape after finishing their second rounds at 4-under. Patrick Reed also sat at 4-under with four holes remaining in his second round, while Cameron Smith was 2-under through eight holes.
Dustin Johnson and Harold Varner III both finished their second rounds at 1-under, Abraham Ancer is 1-under with six holes remaining, Mito Pereira was Even following the second round and Talor Gooch was 1-over with just the 18th hole to play.
What is the Masters cut rule?
The Masters will pare down the field after the conclusion of the second round, with the low 50 players and ties qualifying for the final 36 holes.
Jack Nicklaus holds the record for most Masters cuts made with 37, followed by Fred Couples and Gary Player who each made the cut 30 times.
— Fletcher Page, Augusta Chronicle
McIlroy crashes out at Masters, misses cut
No exit at the 2023 Masters is more surprising than that of Rory McIlroy.
As he heads home to Florida, McIlroy, who needs only a Masters win to complete the career grand slam, will be burning with fury — though not at others — after carding a 5-over through two rounds and missing the cut. He sets a high standard for himself and at Augusta National, he fell woefully short.
The world No. 2 has missed only two cuts since the 2022 Masters. One came at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August, and he went on to win the PGA Tour’s $18 million playoff prize two weeks later. The other was last month at the Players Championship, which he followed with a strong third-place showing at the WGC-Match Play. He won’t yet care what will follow this Masters disappointment.
— Eamon Lynch
