Scheffler posts rare round over par at Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- After posting his first score over par at Augusta National Golf Club in three years Friday, world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler is going to have to do something magical on the weekend to get back into contention at the 90th Masters.

Scheffler hit two balls into the water on par 5s on the second nine and lost more than a stroke on the greens to the field, while posting a 2-over 74 in the second round.

Scheffler is even par after 36 holes and was seven strokes behind defending champion Rory McIlroy when he walked off the 18th green.

It was the first time Scheffler finished over par in a Masters round since carding a 3-over 75 in the second round in 2023. He tied for 10th at 4 under in the Masters that year, eight strokes behind winner Jon Rahm.

Scheffler's performance Friday ended his streak of 11 consecutive rounds of par or better, which was third longest in the tournament's history. Five-time Masters winner Tiger Woods has 16 straight rounds at par or better from 2007 to 2011; Rahm had 15 in a row from 2018 to 2021.

"I felt like it was really challenging," Scheffler said. "I played really pretty well. It got very, very difficult late in the day yesterday. Then today I felt like I played a lot better than my score. You know, I got off to a slow start. A few up and downs early that I should have had that I didn't convert. Then I fought back to get it to even through 12 holes."

The two-time Masters champion put himself in an early hole when he hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker on the par-3 fourth. He chipped to 7 feet, but missed the par putt.

On the par-4 fifth, Scheffler's approach shot stopped on the fringe. His putt from 33 feet was 6 feet short, and he missed the par putt for a second straight bogey.

"I would like to hole a few more putts," Scheffler said. "I felt like it was rolling nice today, but balls just weren't dropping. Maybe my reads were a little bit off. I felt like I was starting online, could have been speed on a couple of putts, but overall today I felt like I definitely played better than my score."

Scheffler got back to even in the round with birdies on No. 8 and 10. He just missed an eagle putt on the par-5 eighth after blasting his approach from 274 yards onto the green. His high approach on the par-4 10th stopped 4 feet from the hole.

But then Scheffler made two big mistakes on the second nine. On the par-5 13th, his 291-yard drive came to a stop on a hillside. He tried to whip a 3-iron shot around the corner, but his ball didn't draw enough and bounced into a tributary of Rae's Creek in front of the green.

His chip from the drop zone stopped 16 feet from the cup, and he two-putted for another bogey that dropped him to 1 over in the round.

"I just tried to kind of swing it with the slope and just didn't catch it that solid and kind of hung out there," Scheffler said. "But that was one where to that pin specifically, that's a shot that I could get in there close, so I felt like it was worth the risk of going for it."

Then, on the par-5 15th, Scheffler's second shot from 241 yards hit the back ridge of the green and bounded down the slope and into a pond, leading to another bogey.

"It was frustrating to get it back to even, have a couple of par-5s in front of me, and then not do many things I felt [were] wrong," Scheffler said. "[I] wasn't able to convert really basically anything coming down the stretch."

Scheffler has overcome big deficits before. In the 2024 Players Championship, he trailed Wyndham Clark by six strokes after 36 holes and Xander Schauffele by five after 54. Scheffler came back to win by one to become the first back-to-back winner at TPC Sawgrass.

He'll need a similar performance -- and plenty of help from others -- to win a third green jacket Sunday.

"Anytime you can have success on this golf course, I think it can only give you more confidence," Scheffler said. "You know, being able to get it done here, you have to do a lot of things right. I think it would be silly to say that doesn't give you some confidence going into a tournament, a tournament like this."