Wind blows Gary Woodland's ball across Masters green before putt
The winds have been howling all day in the second round of The Masters. Players have had to deal with swirling winds consistently blowing at 20 miles per hour all day long, with gusts coming in at 40 miles per hour. The severely windy weather has produced some of the toughest scoring conditions in several years at Augusta National. One great example came in Gary Woodland’s second round before he was putting.
The wind started gusting so strongly that it moved his ball across the green before he even started to attempt to putt.
The conditions have been extremely tough on Friday at Augusta National and the swirling winds have made things historically brutal, even for the best players in the world. The tall, towering pine trees combined with the swirling winds make for incredibly unpredictable approach shots into the greens. It also made it tougher to gauge putting.
The high winds forced several players throughout the day to back off their shots and pause for a few seconds. The flags on the greens were whipping in the winds and there were times when sand was even blown out of a number of the sand traps. Luckily for the players who made the cut, the wind conditions are expected to be much calmer on Saturday and Sunday.
According to Justin Ray of The Athletic, Friday had the highest field scoring average in Round 2 (75.08) of The Masters since 2007. It was just the fourth time in the last 30 years that the field averaged higher than 75 in the second round.
Here’s another stat from Ray that shows just how difficult the conditions were in the second round. The field scoring average at The Masters jumped from 73.43 in round one to 75.08 in round two. That’s the largest increase between the first two rounds in a single Masters since 1976 (+1.85).
Gary Woodland is playing in his first major since he had brain surgery in September. He was diagnosed with a lesion on his brain, which led to heightened anxiety and seizures. During the surgery, doctors cut a large hole in his brain that required 30 staples to close, according to the Associated Press.
Woodland carded a 13-over par after the first two days and will miss the cut, but it will likely take him some time to regain his old form. This season, he’s played in eight events, making the cut three times and finishing in the Top 25 once (T21 at Texas Children’s Houston Open).
He’s got four career wins on the PGA Tour, with none being bigger than the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Woodland shot 13-under par for that tournament, defeating runner up Brooks Koepka by three strokes. Outside of that US Open, he’s shown the ability to contend in majors every few years or so. In 2018, he was T6 in the PGA Championship. In 2019, he had two Top 10 finishes in the majors (his US Open win and T8 at the PGA Championship.