The best stats from Round 2

Patrick Reed holds the 36-hole lead by two shots after posting Friday’s lowest round at Augusta National – a six-under 66

Just 16 players finished Friday’s round under par as 17 now sit in red numbers for the tournament, separated by eight shots thanks to Reed’s impressive second round score which included nine birdies and three bogeys.

This is Reed’s first outright lead after any round in all the major championships he’s played in, and he is one of five players inside the top 10 looking for their maiden major victory this week (Leishman, Finau, Fowler and Hoffman). However, with eight major champions and six players ranked inside the World’s top 10 currently occupying spots 3-T8 on the Masters leaderboard, there’s plenty of experienced players chasing Reed’s lead. 

Spieth, who tied Tiger Woods’ record for most rounds led/co-led at a Masters after posting a 66 on Thursday, slipped back in to 4th with a two-over 74 – but he is far from out of it. With horrid weather conditions (wind, rain – and lots of it) predicted for Saturday’s round, expect the leaderboard to bunch up. 

Yet while it was a good day for major champions in general, it was a round to forget for several former Masters Champions. Both defending champion Sergio Garcia and 2016 champion Danny Willett missed the cut, along with fellow Masters winners Larry Mize, Sandy Lyle, Jose Maria Olazabal, Charl Schwartzel, Trevor Immelman, Mike Weir, Mark O’Meara, Angel Cabrera and Ian Woosnam.

Former Masters Champions who did make the cut? Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Vijay Singh, Fred Couples, Adam Scott. For Fred Couples, his 30th Masters cut made ties him with Gary Player – and he sits only now behind Jack Nicklaus (who made the cut at The Masters 37 times). 

So what were the most notable stats from Round 2?

Round 2 stat summary: As a whole, Friday’s round had: 7 Eagles, 247 Birdies, 890 Pars, 364 Bogeys, 54 Double Bogeys and 4 Others. 

The second round saw higher scores than the first, with the average score on Friday nearly a full shot higher than the first day’s play (from 73.793 to 74.563).

In addition to that, for the second day in a row nobody managed a bogey-free round, but there were 2 more eagles on day two – including an 82-foot putt on 15 from Russell Henley and a stunning shot from Marc Leishman on 15. Watch both shots here

For a second consecutive day the par 5s were predominantly the easiest holes on the course, with the 8th (a hole leader Patrick Reed birdied) taking the honours on day 2 with an average of 4.678. Not a single par-four played under par on Friday, and the 11th was playing over half a shot harder with an average of 4.563, seeing 27 bogeys and 11 double bogeys. 

It was a good outing for both World No.1 and 2 Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas, finishing 1 and 2 in the driving distance stats for the second round as 22 players averaged over 300 yards. DJ gained 12 yards on average over the rest of the field with 323.4 yards, while Justin Thomas averaged 311. Mark O’Meara, who announced his retirement from the Masters, averaged 275 yards in Round 2, admitting that the course is just too long for him now. 

Reed ranked 12th for GIR on Friday, hitting 12/18 – but it was Bubba Watson who led the field (hitting 15/18), closely followed by Justin Rose and Patton Kizzire (14/18). Tiger Woods admitted in his post-round interviews that his iron play was dreadful during the second round, but he still hit 10/18 GIR – which was 5 more than former Masters Champion Larry Mize. 

It was no surprise than Watson improved his position on the leaderboard heading in to the weekend, as not only did he lead the GIR stats but ranked second in driving accuracy, hitting 12/14 fairways (behind Webb Simpson) – the same amount as Rahm, Henley, Moore and Langer. But it was a difficult day off the tee for others, with Jimmy Walker, Paul Casey, Trevor Immelman and Austin Cook just hitting the short grass four times. 

Justin Thomas led the way in putts per round with 23 thanks to two holes where he didn’t use the putter at all, while Patrick Reed was close behind with 25 – one more than Kiradech Aphibarnrat. Kizzire might have hit plenty of greens in regulation but he failed to come to grips wih Augusta Nationals quick greens, hitting 37 putts on his way to a 76 and MC. 

Doug Ghim, the US Amateur runner-up who had two eagles on the opening day, is the only amateur to make the cut and will win the low amateur honours. He had a second-round +4 to finish one shot better than the cut line in a tie for 40th place with the likes of Tiger Woods, Bernhard Langer, Adam Scott and Bryson DeChambeau.