Matt Cooper | Masters Tournament halfway update: A classic on the cards this weekend

On Thursday, the 15th, also known as Firethorn, completed the double whammy of scalding Rory McIlroy’s fingers and also apparently puncturing his hopes of contending when his third shot failed to grip the putting surface and slipped into the pond prompting a double bogey that rattled him enough for a repeat of the error at 17.

Twenty-four hours later he reached the 13th tee having opened the treacherous back nine with a trio of 3s that had revived his hopes only for his drive to power through the fairway onto the pine straw with trees above and around him. The conservative play was to bunt the ball down the fairway but Augusta’s par-5s were screaming for attention again and McIlroy couldn’t resist giving it to them.

He went for the green and later admitted: “When the ball was in the air, I was like, ‘You idiot, what did you do?’” Yet the ball caught the green, crucially bounced straight rather than right with cut spin, and left him a mere 9 feet for eagle – a chance he gobbled up to make it four 3s on the bounce. “I rode my luck a little bit,” he said with a relieved chuckle. With a redemptive birdie-4 at 15 to follow he completed a bogey-free 66 and is right back in the hunt for a Green Jacket.

He is the main story heading into the weekend but he is far from the only one on a packed and deliciously high quality leaderboard. The Masters, remember, is golf’s Wizard of Oz – a technicolor world with barely believable surroundings, peculiar traditions, a preoccupation with green, a fabled route to salvation, but most of all a cast desperately trying to overcome their flaws.

We’ve got McIlroy, his quest to complete the career Grand Slam, and his capacity to make the impossible look simple and the simple look impossible. There is the halfway leader Justin Rose, who cruelly denied Claret Jug triumph last July, a man who has led after 18, 36 and 54 holes at Augusta and has contested a play-off too, but he has never slipped his arms inside a Green Jacket. There is Bryson DeChambeau, a man who comically claimed he would overpower Augusta National, fell flat on his face trying to do so, learned his lesson, and is now humbled and better prepared. Completing the top four is Canadian quiet man Corey Conners, who fights the conundrum of being superlative tee-to-green but is somewhat bewildered when he does miss Augusta’s putting surfaces.

The column had a good start to the 2025 majors when first round leader tip Rose plotted his way to top spot and landed the 66/1 spoils. What of the final 36 holes? Let’s take a closer look.

The extent to which Masters winners spend all week on or near the front page of the leaderboard has been extraordinary in recent years. Each of the last 30 winners was T12th or better after 36 holes, and 26 were tied for sixth or better. Sooner or later, someone will break this run, but the numbers demonstrate what an effort it will be, and you’d think with so many high-quality performers “in position” this week, it will continue for another year.

Justin Rose (-8): He has so much experience around Augusta and pride to keep banging his head on the door in the majors, but he probably needs the putter to stay hot. He leads the SG stats on the green which makes up for giving a lot away to the opposition tee-to-green.

Bryson DeChambeau (-7): Had said after contending last year: “It made me feel like I could do it. I got the tingles. I’m excited for the future.” The TV commentators don’t rate his short game much but he leads the stats. His approach work is his weakness and he’s discussed the difficulty of that part of the Augusta test in the past.

Rory McIlroy (-6): His long game is magnificent (he ranks second for Approach and sixth Off the Tee) but the short game is a concern (59th Around the Greens, 33rd Putting). Dealing with the raised expectations after Friday’s 66 will be key.

Corey Conners (-6): Has saved par from off the greens at a rate of just 39% through his previous seven visits to Augusta, which is his Achilles Heel. He’s hunting a fourth top-10 finish.

Matt McCarty (-5): A debutant, and we all know they can’t win, right? 

Shane Lowry (5): One of our pre-tournament picks. We said he needed a warmish putter, that it might be enough. He ranks 11th, which will do if he can just shake his chipping into shape.

Scottie Scheffler (-5): Chasing a third Green Jacket in four years, doing Scottie Scheffler things. This means that sometimes he looks goofy, sometimes a little fearful, and is as surprised as anyone at how good he is.

Tyrrell Hatton (-5): “It’s a hard golf course, one that I’ve always really struggled on,” he said last year. “It doesn’t suit my shot shape and I’m not going to change how I play golf just to get around one golf course.” But he was ninth last year and he’s seeking to emulate Danny Willett and Sergio Garcia in completing the Dubai Desert Classic/Masters double in the same year.

Rasmus Hojgaard, Jason Day, Viktor Hovland (-4): The Dane has been superb with driver and putter in hand, the Norwegian has excelled with approaches and on the greens; both have been terrible from just off the putting surfaces.

Sungjae Im, Ludvig Åberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed (-3): Two past champions in there and one of them, Reed, was another of our pre-tournament picks.

The Korean made his Masters debut in 2022 when the event was held in December. Following that colder tournament, he struggled horribly in round two when playing in April, carding rounds of 80-74-76-74, which puts his 70 yesterday in good light. He has three top 20s at Augusta, built on a fondness for the Saturday flags. He’s scored 68-71-67 in the past, and there are not many with a solid record in round three.

These are two golfers with fine tournament records. Morikawa has never missed the cut and is looking for a fifth top-20 on the bounce. Reed won in 2018 and is looking for a sixth top 20 in eight years. Tight, then, and a closer look at their records proves it. Reed leads 10-9 in all head-to-head rounds, 3-2 in round three and 7-3 in weekend rounds.