At disrupted Masters, Brooks Koepka leads but Mother Nature is in control

AUGUSTA, Ga. – It became a good walk soiled, in an old line derived from an older line. Mud squished beneath shoes. Droplets hung on the ends of pine needles. The sky kept crying, and not even the thought of John Daly appearing down the road at Hooters all week could stop it.

The checkerboard green-and-white umbrellas of Augusta National became the dominant sight across the hilly landscape of Augusta National. The humans wore layers. A Masters Saturday sounded muffled. A guy near the 10th green toppled down a slope to the ground in that gradual, two-part way that seems to be in slow motion. A guy near the clubhouse went ahead and toppled briskly backward. The drooping branches of the grand old magnolias almost seemed to say, “What the hell?”

The 87th Masters played the end of its second round and the beginning of its third Saturday in temperatures shy of 50 degrees and rain halfway to remorseless. Happy spring. Jon Rahm finished his last nine holes from Friday in 1 under par to reach 10 under and join Brooks Koepka (12 under) as the first pair of double-digit-under-par 36-hole scorers in Masters history.

Then the third round got going with threesomes at Nos. 1 and 10, and soon both birdied No. 2. Soon after that Rahm bogeyed Nos. 4 and 5, doubling Koepka’s lead. They stood at 13 under and 9 under and reached a green with the water threatening to deepen enough to allow certain smallish fish species when, at 3:17 p.m., Augusta National called the day kaput for good.

“I feel like I just survived,” 2013 champion Adam Scott said of the morning part.

“Yeah, the ball just goes nowhere,” said Viktor Hovland, the young comer in vague contention at 5 under with 29 holes left.

“We can already hear the SubAir going,” Rahm said of the underground drainage system designed to make Sunday forget about Saturday.

Come Sunday, the leaders will have 30 holes to play as Rahm chases a first Masters title and a second major title, while Koepka seeks a first Masters title, a fifth major title and a first major title for anybody playing for golf’s slacker tour, the Saudi-backed LIV, with its 54-hole events and lack of cuts.

Beneath them toiled both those who failed to menace Saturday and those who began to menace Saturday.

Fresh sensation Sam Bennett, a 23-year-old amateur, began the third round at 8 under, bogeyed Nos. 1 and 2 and rooted around the next four holes at 6 under with 30 holes left when things stopped. Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa got to 7 under after four holes, then backtracked to 5 under with 29 holes left. Hovland began at 6 under, fell to 5 under, got back to 6 under and fell to 5 under with 29 holes left. Patrick Cantlay and Matt Fitzpatrick, ranked Nos. 4 and 15 in the world with the latter the reigning U.S. Open champion, joined the leader board by moving from 2 under to 5 under, Cantlay after 13 holes of his third round and Fitzpatrick after 11.

Between the rounds, golfers told of their version of hardship.

“I mean, it’s basically impossible,” said Cameron Young, the 2022 British Open runner-up who was tied for eighth at 4 under. “I don’t really know what you’re supposed to do. It’s playing so long. … I mean, I hit a great shot on 18 – I think it landed in a puddle.”

Speaking of the dreaded slick pine straw as did some, he said of No. 13, “My foot slipped and I kind of chunked it into the woods.”

Some told stories about certain holes requiring bigger clubs, with Hovland saying the par-4 No. 14 usually asks for driver and wedge but instead asked for 9-iron or 7-iron on the back end, but he did say, “Yeah, I didn’t really have too many mud balls.” He spoke of the enhanced kinship of player and caddie, seeing how sometimes Hovland has to hold the umbrella and sometimes caddie Shay Knight has to hold the umbrella, while often Knight has to clean the ball.

“I hit a 3-iron into 18,” Scott said, “and I only had 186 to the front.”

“And then even (par-5) 15,” Seamus Power said, “I mean, I hit a really good tee shot, and you’re not even sniffing thinking about going for it.”

Mackenzie Hughes noted “how it felt like a different sport today.”

“Yeah,” 2019 British Open champion Shane Lowry said, “walking the seventh hole (Friday) it was like the hottest. It was unbelievably warm. Then you’re out this morning and it’s freezing. So it’s interesting. It’s mad how the weather can change here.”

In the midst of it all, 1992 champion Fred Couples became the oldest man to make a Masters cut, setting that bar at 63 years, 6 months, 5 days. He finished a 74 atop his opening 71 to stand at 1 over, professed his love for the place and said: “Am I going to look thrilled to play 18 holes in this, this afternoon? No. I’m a wimp. I’m an old wimp. I’m an old wimp, but I’m excited to play. And I don’t wear gloves.”

Over his next nine holes, Nos. 10 to 18, his four bogeys and one birdie (on No. 13) had landed him back at 4 over even while everyone understood as everyone went home.

Meanwhile, everyone reminisced in the rain about the spectacle of the fallen tree near Nos. 16 and 17 on Friday – mostly about the sound of the thing. Said 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, “It sounded like a grandstand fell over or something.” Said Power, “We were walking up (the 13th) fairway and we heard, like, the screams, and it sounded like a grandstand to us, which was really strange.” And 1987 champion Larry Mize, who was nearby on the right side of 17 for the topple, called the sound “tremendous” and said, “You hear a branch and all of a sudden I heard that and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what was that?’ ”

The clubhouse lead through Saturday went to the weather. Mize, 64 and departing after his 79-80 led to a missed cut, answered a question about maybe wishing to play a third round with “No, I’m good, I’m good.”