'What on earth?': LIV star Brooks Koepka suffers epic Masters collapse as Rory McIlroy storms back into contention
LIV Golfstar and 2023 PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka was three shots inside the cutline at The Masters with two holes of his second round to play.
But he put himself under pressure with a bogey on the 17th, and then lost the plot completely on 18.
He hit his tee shot so far left he decided to re-hit. Playing three from the tee, he then missed the green with his approach and three-putted from about 3m to card a quadruple-bogey 8 and miss the cut by two shots.
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His wasn't the only story of heartbreak on the 18th. Fred Couples needed to make birdie on the par-4 and made bogey. Two-time champion Bernhard Langer, making his 40th and final Masters appearance, had a 10-footer for par to become the oldest to ever make the cut at Augusta. It lipped out.
Brooks Koepka carded a quadruple-bogey eight on the 18th to miss the cut. Getty
And Koepka wasn't the only big name to miss the cut. Former champions Mike Weir, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and convicted felon Angel Cabrera will all have the weekend off.
Meanwhile, Justin Rose kept his name atop the leaderboard, but has an all-star collection of contenders lining up behind him.
US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau is off to his best start at the Masters and sits a shot behind. Rory McIlroy made perhaps his greatest recovery at Augusta National and sits two back.
Still lurking on the course was defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
Rose, who took a three-shot lead into the second round, made short birdie putts at both par-3s on the back nine that allowed him to atone for a few mistakes on his way to a 1-under 71.
"That's the company that I expect to keep, and that's where I have tried to be my whole career," said Rose, whose lone major was the 2013 US Open at Merion.
"I've been a top-10 player in the world for a decade or more. So yeah, this is nice to be back in that mix."
He set the target at 8-under 136 for Scheffler and the rest of the players in the afternoon, as the wind began to snap flags and cause uncertainty, a most uncomfortable feeling at Augusta.
This was the fifth time Rose had at least a share of the 18-hole lead at the Masters, and he has never done better than 71 in trying to follow that up.
After two double-bogeys in three holes late in his first round, Rory McIlroy rebounded to card a 6-under 66 for the low round of the day.
McIlroy played the front nine with a birdie and eight pars before a flurry of birdies. He stuffed a three-quarter 8-iron to a foot at the 10th and a similar play with a 9-iron to about 4 feet on the 11th. Best of all was a 4-iron off the pine straw on the par-5 13th that narrowly cleared the tributary of Rae's Creek and set up a 10-footer for eagle. He drained it.
“I think overall just proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night,” said McIlroy, who after so many close calls seems to be the sentimental favorite — if not the outright one — to finally win a green jacket.
Rory McIlroy shot the low round of the day to surge back into contention at Augusta. AP
“I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf yesterday, and you know, I wasn't going to let, you know, two bad holes sort of dictate the narrative for the rest of the week. But yeah, just ultimately proud of how I got back into it today.”
As he was after the first round, Jason Day is best of the Aussies. He carded a 2-under 70 to sit four shots off the lead in a three-way tie for ninth. Min Woo Lee is three shots back at 1-under.
Along with Scott, Cameron Davis and Cameron Smith also missed the cut.
Smith, the 2020 Masters runner-up played the front nine even-par, but collapsed on the back. He made a bogey on 10, a double on 11, and then three more bogeys at 13, 16 and 17 to miss the cut by three.
Jason Day still leads the Australian charge as three of his compatriots after three Aussies missed the cut. Getty
The Masters third round tee times
Times in AEST. Australians in bold
Sat 11.50pm Tom Kim
Sun 12.00am Joaquin Niemann, Jordan Spieth
Sun 12.10am Stephan Jaeger, Max Greyserman
Sun 12.20am Danny Willett, JT Poston
Sun 12.30am Jon Rahm, Zach Johnson
Sun 12.40am Patrick Cantlay, Akshay Bhatia
Sun 12.50am Denny McCarthy, JJ Spaun
Sun 1.10am Maverick McNealy, Charl Schwartzel
Sun 1.20am Brian Campbell, Byeong Hun An
Sun 1.30am Aaron Rai, Justin Thomas
Sun 1.40am Sahith Theegala, Davis Thompson
Sun 1.50am Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark
Sun 2.00am Nick Taylor, Daniel Berger
Sun 2.10am Tom Hoge, Max Homa
Sun 2.30am Harris English, Min Woo Lee
Sun 2.40am Sam Burns, Nico Echavarria
Sun 2.50am Brian Harman, Bubba Watson
Sun 3.00am Davis Riley, Michael Kim
Sun 3.10am Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood
Sun 3.20am Patrick Reed, Collin Morikawa
Sun 3.30am Ludvig Åberg, Hideki Matsuyama
Sun 3.50am Jason Day, Sungjae Im
Sun 4.00am Rasmus Højgaard, Viktor Hovland
Sun 4.10am Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton
Sun 4.20am Matt McCarty, Shane Lowry
Sun 4.30am Rory McIlroy, Corey Conners
Sun 4.40am Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau