The Masters 2018: Biggest names to miss the cut

Round 2 of the 2018 Masters Tournament is in the books, which means it’s cut time. Which golfers failed to make the cut after Friday’s 18 holes?

After two days of competition at the 82nd Masters, it came time to thin the field following 36 holes at Augusta National. At the culmination of the second round, 53 competitors punched their ticket to the weekend, led by Patrick Reed at 9-under. Unfortunately for the field’s other 34 contenders, they will be packing away their clubs sooner than expected.

Top contenders including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey just barely came in under Friday’s cut-line. Unfortunately for former two-time Masters Champion Jose Maria Olazabal, his 6-over two-day total fell one shot short of continuing play come Saturday morning. While he couldn’t turn back the clocks, Olazabal wasn’t the only former Masters Champion to miss the cut.

After coming in third at the WGC Dell Match Play event just weeks prior, Sweden’s Alex Noren carded a 9-over to also miss the cut. Early underdog favorite coming into Augusta and Olympic contender Thomas Pieters was unable to secure his place in the Masters weekend competition after shooting 7-over. Former Masters champions Mark O’Meara and Angel Cabrera came nowhere close to another winning performance, each turning in 15-over scores.

Just two years prior at Augusta, Danny Willett donned the green jacket for the first time in his career. This year he will be unable to repeat that performance after coming in at 7-over. Last year he alos missed the cut, becoming the first defending champion since 2004 to miss the following year’s cut.

Unfortunately, last year’s missed cut by Willett may have sparked a new Masters curse. In 2017, Sergio Garcia finally broke his own curse and won the Masters after failing in his the first 73 attempts at winning one of the four Majors of golf. In a nerve-racking final round, Garcia bested Justin Rose in a playoff to get fitted for his first green jacket.

Next: Top 10 shots in the history of The Masters

During his opening round Thursday during the 2018 Masters, Garcia wasn’t doing well to start, but things only got worse when he got to the Par-5 15th. After five consecutive shots fell into the water surrounding the green, Garcia finally found his way to the pin with a Masters-tying single hole worst score of 13. An 81 day one followed by a 78 on Friday left Garcia at 15-over and third to last in the field, marking the second straight year the defending champion has missed the cut.