Masters 2025: What will the stacked ladder bring this weekend?

Augusta, Ga. – After two rounds in Augusta National, 79. Master’s tournament released goods.

Fourteen of the 25 best players in the world find themselves in six shots from leadership to the weekend and both favorite bets – Scottie Scheffler and Rory McILroy – There are only three and two shots back.

Justin Rose It continues at the top of the tournament, but the completion of the work will not be easy. Some of the best sport chasing him.

What will the stacked ladder bring?

Mark Schlabach: There are innumerable opportunities with eight golfers and 11 for Rose in three shots from leadership. We could get Rory vs. Sunday Scottie Showdown that everyone wanted? It could be Rory or Scottie carrying the PGA Tour flag against Captain Liv Golf League Bryson Brazambeau In the last 18 holes?

When you have a ranking, loaded – Viktor Povland, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Åberg They are also in five Rose shots – there are endless options.

“It’s exciting. It’s masters,” said the three -time winner of the green jacket Phil Micelsonwho will not be after the last two rounds after the missing cut at 5. “

Paolo objects: I think Augusta National, as prone, brought the best in the best in the world for two days. When you look at players who missed the cut, there is no really big name (outside maybe Brooks Koepka) It couldn’t get for the weekend. This means that the course has done its job to determine who is playing the best golf, and also that the best players in the world brought their A-Hru to the first annual major.

It was striking to see incredible moments and elite shooting that we have already witnessed. Outside Rose the opening round 64, no bike looked directly or easy.

“This course will take it physically and mentally, more than most other golf courses,” McIlroy said. “We have 36 holes to go to a very, very hard golf course.”

Despite the wet weather on Monday night and Thursday, she raised Augusta incredibly well over Friday, maintained the fortress and had a lot of players to think about when they were mapped around the pitch. The course should continue to be stronger and playing will come faster at the weekend and a warm Sunday forecast should prepare a fantastic goal.

“This place is so good in that the golf course gets to a state or properly setting and not leaving the weather from them, which is a surprise for anyone,” Justin Thomas said. “But I feel like the weather looks like this weekend will be very challenging.”

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Who outside the TOP 10 has the best chance to win yet?

Schlabach: There are several former masters of masters, Hideki Matsuyama (2021) and Patrick reed (2018), lurking just before the TOP 10 on 3 pod. Obviously, they both know what it means to do it at Augusta National on the weekend, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them took a fee for the last 36 holes.

Matsuyama, the only Japanese man who won the main championship, would be on the ranking if he did not make a double bogey on the Par-5 in the first round. On Friday he had an eagle on No. 2 and added four birdies and two bogeys to send 4-Dod 68 in the second round.

Matsuyam’s Putter will have to warm up to do it. According to Datagolf.com, he lost more than three blows on the greenery playground over the first 36 holes. But his iron game and the driver were lit; In the second round he won 4.43 strikes for access and 6.52 strokes on Green.

Reed helped Augusta State to win the National Championships in Men’s Golf in 2010 and 2011. Then he lasted Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Jon RahmMcIlroy and others to slip on the green jacket in 2018. Reed had three direct Top-25 in Liv Golf League coming to Augusta National, where he seems to always play well. He ended up in the TOP 12 in four of his last five starts here.

Reed competes, even though his putter has betrayed him so far.

Uggetti: There are a lot of guys tied to 12. The place on 3-under who are interesting but I will go a little further down and zero on the double main champion Xander Schauffelewhich is tied after 17. After shooting 3-under on Friday and sit only six shots back from Rose.

Schauffele is not halfway after a handful of tournaments in the early season with a rib injury, but his game is obviously still there. OPEN and PGA Champion 2024 won almost four blows on the pitch with its approach on Friday and is fifth in the field in the acquired strokes: access, datagolf.

“I think I can hit shots. Trust is a tender thing. I’ll have to build it,” Schauffele said. “It’s not just – as much as I would like to wake up and feel like last year, it’s just not how it goes. I’m starting to hit some really nice shots, and it helps trust.”

As Schauffela stressed, his putter did not help exactly. It loses almost a full blow to the Putter field that will have to catch some warmth if it runs away at the weekend. But after winning two of the last three Major, Schauffele’s game seems to be able to do it, even if it is not completely back in a large form.

“I didn’t shoot from it,” Schauffel said. “But I will have to move on the day of movement.”

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Who was the biggest surprise?

Schlabach: I will go with the Play, which is tied to the ninth at the age of 4. I have no doubt that Povland is one of the most talented golfers in the world. He is a seven -time PGA Tour winner and captured the FedEx Cup 2023.

Although Povland won March 23, March Valspar, his first victory since he returned to the BMW Championship and the BMW Championship in 2023, his game was a mess.

The Norwegian golfer is constantly looking for perfection and passes through rocking coaches such as patrons, passing through the sandwiches of Pilento Cheese in Augusta National.

Even after the 3-Dod 69 on Friday, which included six birds and three bogeys, Plaland seemed to be close to being satisfied. On a scale of 1 to 10 right now he described his swing as 6 or 6½.

“I just found the old movement I had in my golf swing, and it’s more and more natural,” said Povland. “My big real mistake is becoming less and less, so it’s easier for me to believe what I’m doing when most of the time when I hit a shot, looked up and the ball went quite a nice direction. Then my body and mind can calm down a little and just try to execute.”

Pland was tied seventh in Masters 2023, then last year missed the cut in three of the four Majoro (the 2024 PGA championship was the third).

Before capturing the Valspar Championship, he missed three direct cuts on Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and players. He still seemed to be lost in the golf wilderness.

Obviously, it is in a much better place that is now heading for the weekend.

“It’s crazy,” Pavland said. “You know, sometimes you don’t feel good, but you’re just able to balance your face and make the ball somehow where you look, even if you didn’t feel ideal, or it was different than what you did.

Uggetti: It must be Matt McCarty. No, no Denny McCarthy – That’s McCarty, not “H” in the name. The winner of the Black Desert 2024 championship is Alum Ferry Ferry, who won three times in one season to get his PGA Tour Card. After winning last October in Utah, he won his way to this year’s masters and now found himself tied to the sixth round.

McCarty is probably a name that you haven’t heard of much but this week makes a name. Although the official charts of the world golf have it on No. 52, Datagolf says McCarty is more like 112. The best player in the world. In his debut in Augusta National McCarty Birdy Birded on Thursday the first two holes and ranked 1 under, impressive wheel for the first timer.

His addition was even better. McCarty started on Friday double Bogey and Bogey, but then continued shooting 8-UNE through his next 15 holes, including four straight birds. He ended up at 5 pod, only three shots behind the leader.

“I don’t know, just got stuck a little with the game plan. I didn’t get too rattle,” McCarty said. “I just concentrated and didn’t think about what had happened before and moved a bit and it was good.”

McCarty said he knew he had hit the ball sufficiently for a good score, but that his putter had cold on Thursday. As soon as it warms up, it did not stop it. According to Datagolf, he gained almost four blows on the playground. Even more importantly, McCarty leads the entire field in the obtained strokes: access this week.

“It is obvious that this golf course is very difficult, if you get from a position, but if you hit good shots and have some good look, you can make a few birds here,” he said. “So it was fun.”

With so many highest names around him, the chances of McCarta will slip along the ranking at the weekend. But between the hot putter and its elite game, it is a recipe that spells power.