The Masters 2024: Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa and Bryson DeChambeau escape a wild day with a share of the lead... as Tiger Woods makes the cut and Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm struggle at Augusta National

As the winds rocked the trees and pummeled the field, the neatest summary of a day of chaos and frustration at the Masters was supplied by a devout Christian who lost his mind on Amen Corner.

That would be Zach Johnson, whose humiliation as the US Ryder Cup captain last year seems to have made him a target for taunts, even in these most mild of surroundings.

The tipping point came at the par-three 12th hole, when he ballooned his ball into a hedge and then missed a nine-footer on his way to a triple bogey. When a small group of patrons laughed at his misfortune, this most placid of souls could take it no longer and shouted: ‘F*** off’.

It was simply that kind of affair during the wildest of second rounds, when winds gusted at 40mph and rounds slowed to survival crawls in excess of five and a half hours. 

Among it all, Tiger Woods hobbled along on one leg for 23 holes and comfortably made the cut, proving quite emphatically that a strong mind is possibly more valuable than a fully functioning body when this place gets gnarly.

His round of 72 ensured he set the record of 24 straight cuts at this tournament and he would later say he still believes he has a shot at winning. Coming from one over par, that won’t happen, but with his play across the past two days Woods has earned the right to some blue-sky thinking.

As for the sharper contenders, Bryson DeChambeau and Max Homa shared the clubhouse lead on six under par, via marginally different routes. Homa, such a talented player in possession of such a dire record in the majors, got there with a 71, while DeChambeau, the mad scientist, carded a 73 after bogeying the 18th.

Scottie Scheffler later joined them with a 72, a score and a situation wildly superior to that of Rory McIlroy, his playing partner, who dropped from one under at the start of play to four over at the close after failing to shoot a single birdie. 

With the cut set at six over, he had flirted dangerously close with a free weekend for a second straight year. At the very least he seems to have extended his Augusta curse.

Jon Rahm, the defending champion, made it to safety by a single shot on five over, a mile shy of the pace set by Homa and DeChambeau. After Homa made his case in the calmer part of the day, DeChambeau’s round was a tale of undulations.

His dramas began at the second when he duffed a short pitch into a greenside bunker and the possibility of a birdie four diminished to a par. He then overshot the green at four and dropped a stroke to six under.

A 21-footer for birdie on seven got the 30-year-old back on balance, but that shot was returned to the course when a loose pitch left Dechambeau a 10-foot putt that he was unable to convert. 

Going on to the latter two holes of Amen Corner, he might have been aware from the giant scoreboards that Scheffler, five holes behind him on the course, was having a rare struggle.

The 2022 champion had not dropped a shot in his first round 66, but having climbed to seven under, he bogeyed both five and seven to fall to five under. 

The first of those came from a missed three-foot putt, which was something of a throw-back to the recent past when his work on the greens was such a conspicuous vulnerability in his game.

Sensing a rare chance to capitalize on a Scheffler frailty, DeChambeau responded by birdieing the par-three 12th and then got up and down from 132 yards to reach eight under at the next. 

A dropped shot at 14 brought him back into range for Scheffler, who birdied 10 to level and moved ahead when DeChambeau failed to two-putt from 68-feet on 18. 

With the lead in his hands, Scheffler found the creek at 13 and was suddenly in a three-way tie. He parred his way in.

With wind blowing sand from the bunkers, only eight players in the field managed sub-par rounds on Friday. The best of the bunch was a brilliant 69 by Ludvig Aberg, who sits two under par on his major debut. What a talent.

His Ryder Cup team-mate Nicolai Hojgaard is two shots better off. The Dane’s round of 73 was an exhibition of resilience, considering he didn’t hit a green in regulation until the seventh and put his first three drives into the trees. He held firm for score that looked better as the wore on and the weather worsened.

For a time, we might have said similar about Danny Willett – he started on four under and retained that number until the very last hole, where a nightmare unfolded. 

After driving into trees, he escaped to sand and required two shots to free himself. The triple bogey was a card-wrecker in a 75, but the perspective is that he is only six months removed from major shoulder surgery.

In consideration of those dealing with physical limitations, most credit must return to Woods. He had been forced to return to the course in the colder conditions at 7.50am to complete the final five holes of his first round and had already dropped two strokes before the second loop had started.

But he knows how to battle. Whatever else time takes from him, he will always have the secrets of this stretch of land at his disposal and he used cunning rather than brawn in crafting a brilliant 72 to make the cut for a record 24th time. 

The highlight was a holed chip for birdie at the sixth, but limiting the damage to only four bogeys in that wind was the most impressive aspect, underpinned by play from the tee that has seen him hit 25 of 28 fairways so far.

‘I have a chance to win the golf tournament,’ he said, though it is doubtful many will share such a view, when success in realistic terms was making the weekend.

‘I'm tired. I've been out for a while, competing, grinding. It's been a long 23 holes, a long day. But I did some good fighting today and we've got a chance.’