In the second round of the Masters on Friday, Charl Schwartzel, the 2011 winner, was one of several players who suffered due to the harsh Augusta National conditions. He missed the cut by five strokes.
Schwartzel was among the 13 LIV Golf stars who met up with their PGA Tour competitors in Georgia this week, undoubtedly hoping to repeat the feat that earned him the green jacket thirteen years prior. However, just like four other LIV colleagues, the South African’s week ended early, so it was not to be.
Despite starting the tournament with a two-over-par 74 on Thursday, the Stinger GC star managed to stay in the hunt despite the difficult scoring conditions at the renowned Augusta National Golf Club.
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Only one player, newcomer Ludvig Aberg, broke 70 on Friday as conditions worsened even more for those playing due to strong gusts that whipped the Georgia course. In the meantime, Schwartzel’s chances of playing over the weekend were swiftly dashed after he shot a miserable nine-over 81.
The South African’s second round scorecard was filled with seven bogeys and one double bogey as he failed to record a single birdie. After the round, a defeated Schwartzel provided as honest a report as anyone on how difficult the task at hand was on the golf field on Friday.
“I’m not sure whether I’ve ever witnessed it this way. This is the hardest I’ve ever played it, although we had a few years where it blew,” he remarked in the aftermath.When asked to rate the golf course’s difficulty on a scale of one to 10, the former Green Jacket champion appropriately gave the course a No. 11 ranking.
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On Friday, Charl Schwartzel failed to make the cut. (Photo credit: Getty Images)
Tiger Woods summed up the conditions on day two when he was forced to stand off his final putt at the 18th green for a while because the sand from the neighboring bunker swirled all over him and covered the putting area. Remarkably, Jose Maria Olazabal, a 58-year-old compatriot champion, made the cut, saying it was the hardest he had seen in 35 trips to Augusta.
“Well, I don’t think it gets any tougher than this, to be honest,” he said. “Even if the greens are a little softer, this golf course with this much wind is incredibly unpredictable in terms of where the wind is coming from and what it is doing.
“Some of the times you are guessing how the ball is going to react up in the air.” In addition, he went against the one-to-10 scale while describing the difficulty, saying, “It’s very hard to control the distance and pace on the greens around the greens.” On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it an 11.
