Twosome plays through at Masters

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Chez Reavie, left, and Martin Laird walk to the second green during Friday's second round of the 2012 Masters Tournament.

It’s not often that a group plays through another one during the Masters Tournament, but Chez Reavie and Martin Laird did Friday morning.

Reavie and Laird were grouped with Mark O’Meara, who withdrew because of injury before his tee time Thursday.

On Friday, Reavie and Laird tee off in the second group of the day behind the threesome of Scott Verplank, Sean O’Hair and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

“One of the rules officials came up to us on (No.) 3, and I guess they had approached him and said, ‘Hey, if they want to play through they are more than welcome,’” Reavie said. “We were just a two-ball and both of us play real quick. If they look back and see us leaning on our bags on every hole, they might start rushing. So it was best for all of us to play through.”

Reavie and Laird finished their round in just over four hours. It took nearly five hours for Verplank, O’Hair and Fernandez-Castano to complete their rounds.

Reavie said they played through on the fourth hole, a par-3.

“They let us hit up and putt out and we went ahead of them on five tee,” he said.

Reavie posted 74 and will miss the 36-hole cut with his 9-over total of 153. Laird fared better with 72 on Friday and is at 4-over 148.

Golf etiquette calls for slower players to move aside and let faster players go through. It doesn’t happen often in competition, but if it does it is most likely because one group is waiting on a ruling.

Reavie said he and Laird talked about the possibility of playing through before the round.

“We talked about how fast we would play if we were a twosome,” Reavie said. “And we were.”