Masters Notebook: Canada’s Hughes on roll as play halted; Koepka leads the way

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Mackenzie Hughes’ strong second-round effort was halted because of a storm, and now the Canadian will need to wait another day to see if he can finish off what’s shaping up to be an excellent round at the Masters.

Hughes was 4 under through 13 holes when play was suspended at Augusta National due to inclement weather at 4:22 p.m. ET. Play was officially called for the day at 5:45 p.m. and will resume at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Three trees fell left of the No. 17 tee due to wind, but nobody was injured. Hughes’ caddie, Jace Walker, told Sportsnet that the duo – which was on the 14th hole at the time – heard “something” and it was so loud they thought it may have been a grandstand falling down.

Katie Waites, a patron from South Carolina, told the Associated Press it was “absolutely a miracle” that no one was hurt when the trees fell. There was a woman, Waites said, who was standing between two of the fallen trees while a man crawled out from beneath some of the limbs. 

“The safety and well-being of everyone attending the Masters Tournament will always be the top priority of the Club,” a statement from Augusta National Golf Club read, in part. “We will continue to closely monitor weather (on Friday) and through the Tournament.”

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Brooks Koepka held the lead midway through the second round at 12 under after a 5-under 67 – the low round of the day thus far.

Hughes, however, was firmly in the mix to go even deeper than that.

“Starting out with the weather we had, it seemed like you wanted to get on the gas pedal early and fortunately I was able to do that,” Hughes told ESPN.

The two-time PGA Tour winner was in grind mode Friday morning after starting this year’s Masters with a 4-over 76, but he made birdies on four of five holes at the mid-point of his round – including three in a row on Nos. 8-10. He missed short birdie tries on both the par-4 11th and par-5 13th but was at even par for the tournament through 13 holes of his second round.

The cut was sitting at 2 over when play was called.

Play was first suspended just after 3 p.m. ET due to dangerous weather in the Augusta area but continued just 21 minutes later. The second suspension of play prompted tournament officials to evacuate the golf course.

Hughes, if he can hold his form, likely will be the only Canadian to make the cut.

In his major-championship debut, Adam Svensson sits at 8 over with four holes left in his second round. Mike Weir finished at 4 over while Corey Conners finished at 8 over.

Other notables likely to miss the cut include pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy (who finished at 5 over), Bryson DeChambau, Min Woo Lee (ranked No. 48 in the world), and recent PGA Tour winner Kurt Kitayama.

Tiger Woods is through 11 holes and, at 2 over, is right on the cutline.

KOEPKA THROWING IT BACK

Koepka is looking like the major championship-winning version of himself from a few years ago.

He leads by three shots over Jon Rahm, who is through nine holes so far in his second round.

Koepka won four majors between 2017-2019 but battled some serious lower-body injuries over the last few years and wasn’t playing – or moving – like himself.

“Last year was pretty tough. Just a lot of frustration. Felt like I should have been ahead of where I was,” said Koepka. Come January of this year, however, he felt like things were “similar” to 2019.

One thing that is different than three years ago is the tour Koepka plays on. He is now part of LIV Golf and the captain of SMASH GC after signing onto the rival circuit for a reported $150 million (U.S.)

But you’d be hard-pressed to notice.

Koepka is not wearing his team logo anywhere (and got testy with a reporter earlier in the week on exactly that. “Because I’m sponsored by Nike,” he said) and admitted something curious on Friday, saying if he was 100 per cent healthy last year it may have been a more difficult decision to make the jump to LIV.

“If I’m being completely honest. I think it would have been,” said Koepka. “But I’m happy with the decision I made.”

Koepka also opened up about how frustrated he was after missing the cut at the Masters last year – something that was prominently showed in the Netflix documentary, Full Swing.

“Pretty sure I tried to break the back window with my fist of the (courtesy) car (in 2022). I tried to put it through the back window, not once but twice. First time didn’t go, so figured try it again,” said Koepka. “The window did not break. Apparently not strong enough … I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good back window.”

CONNERS LEAVES DISAPPOINTED

Conners was a sneaky favourite this week after winning the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open on Sunday and notching three top-10 finishes in a row at the Masters.

He didn’t have his ‘A’ game this week however, he told Sportsnet, and ended up with an early exit at the first major of the year.

The native of Listowel, Ont. shot a 7-over 79 on Friday and said his effort at Augusta National this week, especially with his irons, was “obviously really disappointing.”

“Came in with rather high hopes,” said Conners. “I felt positive about some parts of my game just didn’t seem to have control of my irons. I was striping some solid, but my distances seemed to be all over the place. Just couldn’t get it close to the hole (and) not really sure (why). I felt like I struck a lot of solid shots, some of them were flying further or shorter than I expected. Kind of unusual. Usually something I do pretty well.”

Conners made a birdie on the par-5 2nd but had three bogeys on Nos. 4, 7, and 8. He added a birdie on No. 9 before making the turn and started to claw his way back closer to the cut line but his hopes of playing four rounds at this year’s Masters were dashed after a double bogey on No. 13 when he hit his pitch into the water.

This was the second day in a row he hit a chip that ended up wet.

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“Would have liked that one back,” said Conners. “Would have been a nice momentum saver to get that one up-and-down but walked off with a double so that was a bit unfortunate.”

Conners said he wasn’t surprised to see a score like Koepka’s at 12 under given the conditions being so calm until mid-afternoon Friday.

“It’s an impressive score, but I thought it was doable the last couple of days to shoot 3-, 4-, 5-under-par each day,” said Conners. “(I was) just a little bit off and didn’t quite have it.”

WEIR MARKED

It was an odd celebration of the 20th anniversary of Weir’s Masters win.

First Weir’s initial playing partner, Kevin Na, withdrew due to illness on Thursday. The Canadian had to play the final nine holes of his first round by himself. Since he was in the first group of the day, he finished nearly 90 minutes ahead of the next group.

Then, on Friday, he was not re-grouped with anyone else in the field. Instead, Weir played with a marker.

Augusta National member – and celebrated amateur – Michael McDermott got the call.

According to Golf.com, McDermott, 47, played golf at St. Joseph’s University and is in the school’s athletic Hall of Fame. His USGA handicap is listed as a +1.8. In other words, he is pretty darn good. And long. He outdrove Weir by about 40 yards on the first hole.

McDermott’s real job is CEO of Kathmere Capital Management, a financial services firm based in Wayne, Pa. According to Weir, while McDermott picked up on a few holes to keep the pace of play moving, he also made birdies on Nos. 9 and 10.

“His game was good. He’s a powerful guy. Hits it a long way,” said Weir. “Coming from Pennsylvania I don’t think he’s played a lot of golf lately, but he had a nice game.”

The 2003 Masters winner shot a 4-over 76 on Friday.

AMATEUR BENNETT MAKING NOISE

Sam Bennett isn’t a professional golfer, yet, but he’s beating pretty much all of them this week at the Masters through 36 holes.

Bennett, 23, won the U.S. Amateur last year and earned a spot in this year’s event at Augusta National thanks to that effort. He’s certainly not playing like an amateur, however, and after rounds of 68-68 he sits at 8 under and was in third was play was called for the day.

The fifth-year senior at Texas A&M was the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world for a stretch and was a two time All-American at school. He’s had plenty of heartache to get to this point, however, with his father passing away in 2021. In one of the final things his father ever did, he wrote ‘Don’t Wait To Do Something’ on a piece of paper – Bennett said it took 15 minutes and was hard to do at that point, given he was battling Alzheimer’s – but now he uses it as motivation.

“I thrive on it,” said Bennett. “I know how happy he would be seeing me out here at Augusta National doing what I’m doing.”

Now, Bennett is trying to honour his father by notching the best result by an amateur since 1956, when Ken Venturi finished second by a shot.

“Everybody coming into the week was, ‘Yeah, hope you get (low amateur honours). That’s pretty much all they were saying,” said Bennett. “I found myself in a situation now I’ve got a golf tournament that I can go out and win.”