For a moment, towards the end of round two, it looked like defending champion Jon Rahm might not make it to the weekend of The Masters Tournament 2024. After coming out of Amen Corner he suffered a double bogey on 14 after his second shot landed somewhere in the patrons and he continued with a three put after the slope of the Augusta greens as well as the wind carried his ball far away from the hole. After that odyssey he looked dangerously close to not making the cut.
The Masters Tournament 2024: Jon Rahm dangerously close to the cutline
But Rahm, who conquered Augusta before, bounced back with two birdies, getting back the shots he lost on 14, giving himself a better outlook on the weekend. A bogey on 17 brought him into a precarious situation again but the cutline shifted, giving him some breathing room with a total score of 5 over par. Rahm signed a 76 on Friday and sits at a tied 44th place on the leaderboard, eleven shits behind the leading trio made up of Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa and Bryson DeChambeau.
Jon Rahm on making the cut: “a last ditch effort at the end”
Q. Tell us a little bit about your round today.
JON RAHM: It’s a very bad day not to be comfortable with the swing, that’s for sure. Yeah, just fighting it all day, never comfortable. I didn’t give myself a lot of chances, and it was a last ditch effort at the end to try and make the cut. Luckily I was successful in doing so.
Q. Talk about your reaction to those two birdies.
JON RAHM: It’s exactly that, no other choice. Make just too many mistakes when I put myself in good position. To just see one putt go in is nice and then a bonus on 16.
Still managed to stretch myself out to a three-putt on 17. So it’s not easy out there. Got a lot of work to do tomorrow if I want to have a chance on Sunday.
Q. How hard did you get at the end there, Jon?
JON RAHM: Very. A couple times questioning myself why we were out there, especially when I got to 18 and saw the whole front of the green just full of sand. It’s rolling a little bit different. I understand they want us to finish.
I can imagine they were very close to calling it a few times, especially when we were on 11 green and we were getting those massive gusts every couple of minutes or so. It was extremely difficult.
We got it in. Hopefully I can just make up some ground tomorrow.
You just put the ball down, and it’s very close to moving. Not only that, how long did it take us to play? Over six hours to play just because they had to blow the greens in between groups, and then when you get to a group, people stepping back and back in. It’s just, again, borderline.
It was very, very close. It’s about as hard a golf course as I’ve seen in a very long time.
