Rose keeps his lead after round 2 at the Masters Tournament

The second round at the Masters saw 53 players make the cut with the leader at 8 under par.

Justin Rose kept his spot atop the leaderboard when he finished the second round at 1 under par at 71 for a total of 8 under par for both days. Bryson DeChambeau finished in second at 7 under par and Rory McIlroy and Corey Conners tied for third at 6 under par. 

Rose said having a quick turnaround from the first round to the second round was good because he wanted to keep the momentum going. 

“There’s a bit of the sense the course is playing a little bit differently today,” Rose said. “Bit windier for sure out of a slightly different direction, so just trying to make those adjustments. Think it was a fairly favorable wind for the golf course though in general, which is why I think you’re seeing some good scores. From my point of view, decent day for sure.”

For Rose, he said his wedge was very beneficial on multiple holes, such as Nos. 4, 8 and 10. That play helped keep him in the round. 

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“(I) was in a good spot at that point,” Rose said. “Nice birdie at 12, then the finish, just a few too many 5s coming in, didn’t really take advantage of the par 5 although they were both playing tough today, they were into the wind. I didn’t really feel there was much value in trying to force birdies out of those. Then made two really good swings on 14 and 17, but misjudgments on the wind…overall under par in a great position going into the weekend.”

On how it feels to be in the close competition Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and other, Rose said he expect it.  

“That’s the company that I expect to keep and that’s where I have tried to be my whole career and that’s where I’ve been for a lot of my career,” Rose said. “I’ve been top 10 player in the world for a decade or more, so yeah it’s nice to be back in that mix, 100%.” 

DeChambeau finished the second day with a 4 under par score of 68 for a total of 7 under par for both days. This score landed him in second place. 

“I was hitting it a lot better today and there was just a few moments where, like on 10 kind of got out of whack and was able to save this round with my wedges and some huge key putts,” DeChambeau said. “Getting up and down on 10 was one of the better up and downs of my life. Hit a great shot on 9, just didn’t control the spin like I wanted to, spun that off the green. But overall today was a fantastic day of golf in some testing conditions.”

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When asked how he handles being conservative versus aggressive at the Augusta National Golf Course, DeChambeau said it’s a daily battle.

“It’s not easy to try and be more conservative when you know the leaders are starting to run away from it and you’ve got these little shelves in certain area, these little fingers that you’ve got to hit the ball into and you’ve got to hit a cut or draw to get every shot in the bag,” DeChambeau said. “So, it’s just difficult to try and accomplish the goal of just being patient and understanding. I feel like I’ve done that better over the course of time.”

McIlroy finished the second round at 6 under par of 66 and is 6 under par after both days. He finished the second-round bogey free, had four birdies and one eagle. 

“I think overall just proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night,” McIlroy said. “I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf yesterday and I wasn’t going to let two bad holes sort of dictate the narrative for the rest of the week. Just ultimately proud of how I got back into it.”

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When asked if he felt he had anything to prove after the first round, McIlroy said he doesn’t believe he proved anything. 

“If anything, I just backed up the belief I have in myself and the belief that I am as resilient as anyone else out here,” McIlroy said “Again, I’ve been really proud of how resilient I’ve been all the way throughout my career, and I think today was just another example of that.”

Conners finished round two at a 2 under par score of 70 for a total of 6 under par for both days. He entered round two in a three-way tie for second with two-time and reigning champion Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Åberg.

“It was a good round. Got off to a pretty solid start today and was just kind of hanging on, on the second nine,” Conners said. “It was playing increasing difficult as the day went on, but happy with a lot of the things that I did. It was fairly stress free for the most part. Hit a lot of good tee balls and a lot of good iron shots to leave myself with some birdie chances. Sort of stress-free pars, which is always nice around here.”

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Cut information

Following the completion of round 2, the cut was set at 2 over par with 53 players making it to the weekend. There will be competitors from 16 different countries playing. 

A few notable names who did not make the cut include Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer. Two-time Masters Champion Langer played his final round are Augusta National Golf Club after he announced earlier this week that he was retiring.

“It was very special last two days for me. Even starting off just walking to the first tee yesterday, I got a standing ovation, and the people really applauded and I almost teared up and almost started crying right there. I said ‘come on, get it together. You’ve got some golf to play.’ it kind of kept going. There were lots of standing ovations throughout the golf course in various spots. Today coming up 18, it was mixed emotions because I was inside the cutline and even when I made bogey, I wasn’t sure I was totally out of there because I actually thought three over would the cut with as windy as it was today. I thought it was harder than yesterday.”

Round three information

Coverage of round 3 of the Masters Tournament be broadcast from 2-7 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+ will show coverage noon-2 p.m. on Saturday. The tournament can also be streamed on Masters.com and the Masters App.

To see the tee times for round three, visit Masters.com.