hole

It was a moment playing golf that anyone and everyone looks forward to celebrating.

Jake Norr, a junior at Palisades High, made a hole in one earlier this week at Woodley Lakes Golf Course. It was part of a nine-hole round that left him six-under-par and stamped himself as the favorite to win the City Section individual title later this spring.

He then aced the fifth hole at Harding Golf Course on Thursday.

“I think he has a good chance,” Palisades coach Dave Suarez said of Norr winning the individual City title.

Norr used a 9-iron for his hole in one on the 159-yard hole at Woodley Lakes.

“It was the first of many to come,” Suarez said on Wednesday.

Then came Norr’s second hole in one on Thursday, making Suarez’s prediction pretty impressive.

“I knew he had it in him,” Suarez said.

Norr has been part of Palisades’ last two teams to win City titles.

“He’s a really hard worker,’ Suarez said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Among the many rules at Augusta National — no cell phones, no booing, no lying in the grass — patrons are not allowed to run.

Somebody tell Rory McIlroy.

The defending Masters champion was sprinting away from the field Friday, building a six-shot lead heading into the weekend and putting himself in prime position to become the first repeat winner since Tiger Woods in 2002.

McIlroy atoned for two bogeys with nine birdies, shooting a seven-under-par 65 to improve on his stellar 67 in the opening round.

At 12 under, he now holds the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history.

“When I was standing on the 12th tee, I didn’t imagine that I would be six ahead going into the weekend,” said McIlroy, who birdied six of the final seven holes despite hitting into the trees on holes 13, 15 and 17.

“I’ve always had the ability to go on these runs … but it’s staying aggressive. My little mantra today was keep swinging, and keep swinging hard at it.”

And he completed that masterpiece in the afternoon, when the legendary course was even firmer and more slippery than it was in the morning. The warm weather and cloudless skies set the stage for a test of surgical precision in the final two rounds.

“These greens are going to be concrete,” said Wyndham Clark, who followed an even-par round with a four-under 68. “Obviously getting really fast without the wind, so it’s going to really matter hitting it in the fairway and the angles, and being patient.”

Rory McIlroy walks across Nelson Bridge with his caddy during the second round at the Masters.

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

Fifty-four competitors from 15 different countries made the cut from a starting field of 91.

Of his jaw-dropping finishing scramble, McIlroy said: “The only way I can describe it is everything that you see or any situation that you come across, you can find a positive in it. And then you see birdies and you can see ways to make birdies. Hit it in the trees at 13, fine, I can make a birdie doing it this way. Hit it in the trees at 15, same thing.”

Whereas McIlroy created separation, Tyrrell Hatton made a case for inclusion. He was two over after Thursday but played himself back into contention with a 66 on Friday, hitting all 18 greens in regulation and becoming just the third player in 30 years to do that at the Masters. He is tied for seventh with Clark.

Patrick Reed, who shot a 69 in the first round, matched that in the second to claim a share of second place with Sam Burns.

Reed, who left for LIV Golf but announced in January he plans to return to the PGA Tour, played golf locally at Augusta State University and won this tournament in 2018. He said that Masters experience helps in a big way now.

Of winning a green jacket, he said, “Until you do, you always have that little voice of doubt in the back of your mind.”

Justin Rose, who lost to McIlroy in a sudden-death playoff last year, is in a three-way tie for fourth with Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood.

Patrick Reed hits off the 18th tee during the second round of the Masters on Friday.

(Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)

Asked if his near-miss in 2025 serves as extra motivation this year, Rose said: “Not really, if I’m honest. I don’t really need to try any harder, know what I mean? Trying harder ain’t going to help me.”

It was a rough day for Scottie Scheffler, ranked No. 1 in the world, as his 74 put him 12 shots back of McIlroy.

Bryson DeChambeau was on the bubble all day before a triple-bogey seven on the 18th hole. He missed the cut six over.

Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson missed the cut, as did 66-year-old Fred Couples, who was playing well Thursday until taking a quadruple-bogey nine on the 15th hole.

McIlroy played with 18-year-old amateur Mason Howell, who was sufficiently impressed as the defending champion birdied each of the final four holes.

“You’ve got to stay in your own lane, but it’s hard not to watch that,” Howell said. “That chip-in on 17 was unreal. That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in sports, and I got to witness it in person, so that was awesome.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. — After the career grand slam, a grand entrance.

Rory McIlroy, who last year became the sixth man to win all four major championships, got off to a spectacular start at the Masters on Thursday to claim a share of the lead with a five-under-par 67.

In one sense, the pressure is off. No more wondering about winning a green jacket. Yet he was relieved to feel those familiar butterflies on the first tee.

“Look, we’re playing the first major of the year, it’s the Masters,” he said, having overcome a slightly wobbly start to collect five birdies in his final 11 holes. “If I felt absolutely nothing on that first tee, that’s not a good sign.

“So it was nice to feel my hand shaking a little bit when the tee went into the ground, and struggle to put the ball on top of the tee. So I knew I was feeling it. That’s a good thing. That’s why we want to be here. We want to be able to play our best golf when we’re feeling like that.”

He finished the postcard day tied atop the leaderboard with Sam Burns, who shot his best-ever round at the Masters.

Among those two shots off the lead is 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, who said the warm and dry conditions figure to make a difficult course even more challenging.

“It definitely has the teeth in it to make it really, really tough,” Reed said. “The greens are already getting firm, crusty, and bouncy.”

He said the 17th green, typically one of the firmest on the course, is a good example of that.

“I actually broke one tee on the hole trying to fix a ball mark,” he said. “You already know it’s going to get crusty. You know it’s going to get fast, and it’s going to take a lot of patience.”

Some stars struggled. Two-time champion Bubba Watson shot four-over, as did the long-hitting Bryson DeChambeau, who tied for fifth last year.

Said Shane Lowry, who finished two under: “This might be the toughest Masters we’ve played in a while.”

Bryson DeChambeau reacts after his tee shot on the 12th hole Thursday at Augusta National.

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

There’s something about this storied tournament that can make even the steeliest of players weak in the knees. Mason Howell, the 18-year-old amateur playing with McIlroy, was taking such vicious swings at the ball that his hat came off three times during his round, including on the opening tee.

“That hasn’t happened in a while,” said Howell, who last year became the third-youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur. “I mean, I was going to swing out of my shoes to see if I could cover that right bunker [on No. 1].”

Even the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who won the Masters a record six times, duck-hooked his ceremonial tee shot early Thursday morning, sending it over the head of patrons lining the left side of the downward slope in front of him.

“I got it high enough to hit it about 110 yards over their heads to the left,” said Nicklaus, 86, who won his last green jacket 40 years ago. “I don’t know what was running through my mind other than not hurt anybody.”

Fred Couples, 66, the oldest competitor in the field, went from a tie for eighth to a tie for 43rd … on one hole. He had a nine on the par-five 15th, landing in the water twice.

Couples, who had been two under to that point, finished quadruple bogey, double bogey, double bogey.

Collin Morikawa, who shot a 74 at two over, said he doesn’t feel quite right, physically, although it doesn’t feel like a back issue to him.

“Physically there’s no pain,” he said. “It’s just a trust thing. My legs don’t want to trust that it’s going to hold up the back and the rest of the body. When that’s feeling wobbly, plus you add the adrenaline and the nerves, it’s just not — it’s not easy…”

He called Thursday “the toughest round I’ve ever played,” and said he could not remember waking up quite as nervous as he was before the start of this tournament.

“I honestly didn’t know if I was going to make contact,” he said.

Rory McIlroy plays a shot from the 12th tee during the first round of the Masters on Thursday.

(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

McIlroy, playing in his 18th Masters, said he leaned heavily on his experience to maintain an even keel. A year ago, he had two double-bogeys on Thursday, and two more on Sunday, yet never panicked.

So this time, when he found himself hitting out the trees on some early holes, he resisted the urge to get too “guide-y” on his shots and instead kept swinging away.

“Even though I wasn’t hitting fairways the first few holes, I still kept swinging,” he said. “I didn’t try to get the tee down and hit fairway finders. I just trusted that eventually I’ll start to make some good swings. So that was a little bit different.”

The biggest difference? What he achieved a year ago.

“It’s easier for me,” McIlroy said, “to make those swings and not worry about where it goes when I know that I can go to the Champions Locker Room and put my green jacket on and have a Coke Zero at the end of the day.”

We spoke exclusively to Altered Carbon and For All Mankind actor Joel Kinnman about his brand-new Netflix crime drama Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole

Netflix has dropped a brand new crime drama that’s perfect for audiences looking for their next binge watch.

Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole is adapted from the internationally best-selling author’s acclaimed books and follows alcoholic but brilliant detective Harry Hole (Tobias Santelmann) as he tries to hunt down a brutal serial killer on the prowl in Oslo, Norway.

However, Harry is also trying to take down corrupt fellow detective Tom Waaler (Joel Kinnaman) as the two men try to out-wit each other.

The nine-part series, which can be described as Luther meets Line of Duty, has some gruesome moments putting it in on par with Idris Elba’s BBC detective drama.

In a recent interview with the Mirror’s publishers Reach Plc, Detective Hole star Joel Kinnaman broke down perhaps the most stomach-churning moment in the show and shared some surprising behind-the-scenes insight into bringing the grisly scene to life.

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WARNING: This article contains major spoilers from Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole on Netflix

The scene in question saw Kinnaman’s sociopathic police officer Waaler luring an unsuspecting man into public toilets on the promise of sexual favours, before castrating and murdering his victim.

Kinnaman said: “When we were shooting that, that’s where you really felt like this big budget was coming in because that penis prosthesis was so perfect. It felt very real holding it.” Adding: “It was a very realistic experience.”

Despite the sequence proving a tough watch, filming it was another matter for Kinnaman and the rest of the crew.

The star joked that every time the prosthetic appeared, he would “make a soundtrack” for its entrance.

“It was pretty hard to keep from laughing but then when he got into it, it became sort of horrifying,” he said.

Adding: “It was a very strange feeling. It was very strange to do it, but I enjoyed it.”

Addressing joining the crime drama, the Swedish-American actor said he was “very excited” about the idea of playing the Swedish character in a Netflix production, which he said would make it “accessible” to audiences.

Kinnaman went on to say that he was excited to step into acclaimed crime author Nesbø’s world and the character of Waaler, saying: “I’ve never got to play this kind of mouth-watering, crazy role. So fun and such an opportunity.”

The star went on to say about Waaler’s mindset: “He’s sort of morally conflicted and he’s driven by his sexual confusion and his sexual desires and his strive for power and power games. But what is also fuelling all of this is his childhood trauma.

“I sort of play him as a malignant narcissist on the scale of psychopathy. That was sort of the hypothesis that I was playing off of and that’s someone… he’s not born a psychopath, but he has been damaged at a young age.

“And then it veers, it makes his personality veer off in this direction and course.”

Kinnaman said that childhood trauma had created a lack of empathy in Waaler that led to his extremely violent behaviour.

Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole is streaming on Netflix now