Xander Schauffele will tee off Saturday at the 88th Masters Tournament six shots off the lead. That might sound like a lot, but with the way the course has played thus far, he is absolutely alive.
He kept himself there with a fantastic second round Friday. Schauffele carded an even par 72 for the second straight day.
“I played pretty solid. I made some key putts,” Schauffele said after his round.
He certainly did. Out of the 89 Masters participants, only eight finished under par and only Ludvig Aberg broke 70, with a 3-under 69.
Conversely, numerous stars posted rounds into the 80s as Augusta National showed its teeth.
Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Wind gusts upwards of 45 miles per hour wreaked havoc on the course.
“It was probably the toughest day that — not that I have a ton of experience here, but definitely will probably go down as hopefully the hardest day at Augusta I’ve ever played.”
Despite the conditions, the 30-year-old was not left with a bad taste in his mouth, unlike reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm who questioned Augusta National Golf Club for continuing play.
“It was fair. If you hit a good — the fairways out here are right in front of you, so 13 and 15 were those holes you need to take advantage of, and they were still tough to birdie just with how the greens were bouncing. Overall I thought the course played really fair. It was hard to get it close, and you just felt like anytime you had a birdie putt of 15 to 20 feet, you really felt like you needed to make it to try and make up some ground.”
The 75.08 scoring average Friday was the worst at The Masters since 2007 when Zach Johnson won a Green Jacket at 1-over par.
Schauffele appears to have the right mental approach. But with winds dying down, if he wants to make up ground on the leaders, he will likely have to go low Saturday.
Kendall Capps is the Senior Editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social media platforms.