Jon Rahm has not had his best stuff this week at Augusta National.
But the defending Masters champion still managed to make the cut, thanks to a couple of key birdies on the 15th and 16th holes late during the second round.
Prior to that, however, Rahm looked like he would miss the weekend. A costly double-bogey at 14 and three other bogies before that almost sent him home packing.
“Made just too many mistakes when I put myself in a good position,” Rahm said.
“To just see one putt go in [on 15] is nice, and then a bonus on 16.”
Rahm made a 40-footer up the hill at the par-3 16th, which elicited a nice roar from the patrons.
But Rahm did not speak too highly of the wind that roared all day at Augusta National.
“A couple of times, I questioned 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.
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“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.”
The 75.08 scoring average on Friday marked the highest scoring average since the second round of the 2007 Masters, won by Zach Johnson.
The 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts made things nearly impossible for the players, as only one player—Ludvig Åberg—managed to break 70. The Swede carded a 3-under 69.
“You just put the ball down, and it’s very close to moving,” Rahm continued.
“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 [out] 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.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
