Thursday’s delay benefits second wave of players with Friday’s early scoring conditions

Friday was a long one at Augusta National Golf Club for the 46 golfers required to complete their first round early in the morning and play their second round into the afternoon on a warm, glorious day.

Nobody understood the physical pain better than 63-year-old Bernhard Langer, who had sore knees but didn’t let a 26-hole grind affect his performance, becoming the oldest golfer in Masters Tournament history to make the 36-hole cut.

Photos: Bernhard Langer's Friday

“It's a hard walk around here on any day because you're not just walking down and up, there's a lot of sidehill, as well,” the uberfit Langer said. “Their feet are hurting, their knees, even their hips and their backs sometimes going out. So it's not an easy place to walk, but it's a wonderful place to walk.”

Langer and the others received a reward for any pain the golf marathon produced. Their side of the draw is positioned on the right end of the leaderboard entering the weekend. The golfers who played well seized the short break and kept making birdies. Those who were disappointed with their performance had the chance to quickly rinse away the taste of a bad round.

In the second round’s afternoon wave, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Louis Oosthuizen and C.T. Pan were under par and climbing the leaderboard when play was called at 5:30 p.m. due to darkness. But nine of the top 13 players in the Masters played in the late/early draw.

That half enjoyed several advantages.

For starters, they avoided the weather delay on Thursday morning. While only two groups teed off before lightning halted play, all the early first-round competitors were on the property practicing or preparing for the round. They sat around for three hours waiting for play to resume.

Round 2 Photos

Also, once the first-round afternoon wave started playing Friday, those golfers were able to maintain their rhythm and touch. There was only a 30-minute break between the completion of the first round and beginning of the second. Just enough time for the golfers to eat a few bites, roll a few putts and return to the tee box.

Adding to their edge, because of the two-tee start used for the first two rounds, golfers returned to the side they had just completed moments earlier, familiar with the speed and firmness of the greens.

Patrick Cantlay, for example, walked off the 18th green around 9:55 a.m., signed for an opening 70, teed off No. 10 at 10:25 and fired a 4-under 32 on the second nine to vault into contention for the second consecutive year.

On his first attempt at the par-5 15th, Cantlay’s second shot found the water. When he played the hole roughly 2½ hours later, he ripped a 3-wood within eight feet of the hole to set up a tap-in birdie.

“So that was kind of the difference between the morning and the afternoon,” said Cantlay who shot 66 to vault into the top five.

Four-time major champion and 2019 Masters runner-up Brooks Koepka regained momentum. He was 1-under par for the tournament through 19 holes but played the final 16 in 4 under to climb into the top 20.

Abraham Ancer, aiming for his first victory as a pro, shot 2-under on the second nine and ended the day with a share of the lead. The 2016 Masters champion, Danny Willett, double-bogeyed the 10th to open his second round. He proceeded to make six birdies and an eagle on the last 15 holes to crack the top 10.

Perhaps no golfer benefited from the quick turnaround more than one of the pre-tournament favorites, Rory McIlroy, who appeared headed for an early exit after an opening 75.

Following a pep talk from Augusta National member Jimmy Dunne, he birdied the 10th hole to start the second round and fired a 66, keeping alive his shot at the career Grand Slam. He’s at 3-under 141 after two rounds.

“I honestly have been playing so good coming in here, and then I go into the first round and I shoot 75, and I'm like, where the hell did that come from?” McIlroy said. “I knew it was in there, it was just a matter of, as I said, just trusting a little more and being committed. It was better this afternoon.”