
The second round of the 2026 Masters concluded on Friday with reigning champion Rory McIlroy taking control of the leaderboard and one of the biggest names in golf, Bryson DeChambeau, missing the cut after a brutal 18th hole meltdown.
Here are some takeaways from Friday's round.
DeChambeau already put himself in a bad position on Thursday thanks in large part to a triple-bogey on the 11th hole where he struggled to get out of the bunker. He never really recovered after that for the remainder of the round.
He added a little suspense to it on Friday, saving his meltdown for the 18th hole where he again triple-bogeyed to finish the day two over. That left him six over for the first two rounds, missing the cut entirely.
DeChambeau, who is still looking for his first green jacket, was one of the most bet-,on golfers going into this year's tournament, especially after playing in the final group at last year's tournament.
One year later and he is not even playing on the weekend, and his play in the sand is one of the biggest reasons why.
If the world's No. 1-ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, is going to claim his third green jacket he is going to have a lot of work to do over the weekend after going two-over on Friday. It is the first time he has gone over par in a round at Augusta in over three years, and it leaves him at even-par going into Saturday's third round.
During Friday's play, he put two balls into the water on Par 5s, resulting in a pair of bogey's on the back nine.
He is 12 strokes off the lead.
Kristoffer Reitan had the bad-luck hit of the day on Friday when he nearly aced the 16th hole, watching as the ball struck the flag stick and then rolling harmlessly away from the hole.
BOUNCED IT OFF THE FLAG STICK
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 10, 2026
Kristoffer Reitan was THAT close to an ace pic.twitter.com/pMYCOv3lIe
Reitan shot a 68 on Friday and sits four-under par going into Saturday's third round. Had he aced it, he would have finished the first two rounds six-under and in a three-way tie for second going into the weekend.
There is still work to do, but McIlroy has put himself in a great position to repeat at the Masters following a 65 second-round on Friday that puts him 12-under par through the first two rounds, with a six-stroke lead going into Saturday.
He is one of just six golfers to ever have a six-stroke lead or better through the first 36 holes in the history of men's majors. The previous five all went on to win. That is a pretty good indicator of where things could be going here.
Largest 36 hole leads in men’s majors since 1st Masters in 1934
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) April 10, 2026
Henry Cotton, 1934 Open, 9
Brooks Koepka, 2019 PGA, 7
Tiger Woods, 2000 US Open, 6
Rory McIlroy, 2011 US Open, 6
Martin Kaymer, 2014 US Open, 6
Rory McIlroy, 2026 Masters, 6
Previous 5 all went on to win
What makes that performance even more impressive is that he did not hit a single fairway on any of the par 5 holes through the first two rounds, yet still managed to birdie or par on every single one of them.
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