How Matt McCarty gained a spot among Masters leaders going into weekend
Matt McCarty started reeling and finished wobbling. But in between? Wow!
That’s “wow” as in eight birdies in 12 holes over Augusta National Golf Club’s challenging course in Friday’s second round of the 89th Masters.
McCarty, making only his 15th PGA Tour-level start and his first in the Masters, is no stranger to sizzling on the golf course. He won three Korn Ferry tournaments in 35 days last summer to earn a promotion to the PGA Tour — and once there he won in his third start.
The good-news-bad-news round Thursday added up to 4-under-par 68 and a two-round total of 5-under 139. The early-afternoon finish left him trailing only Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau before others pushed him a notch or two down the leaderboard.
“A round like that is a lot of fun,” said McCarty, who played college golf at Santa Clara. “You get on a roll out here, and obviously this golf course is very difficult if you get out of position, but if you’re hitting good shots and giving yourself some good looks, you can make some birdies out here. So, it was fun.”
His Friday journey around Augusta National started out anything but fun. A left-hander, he sliced his opening drive into the tree and made double-bogey. He dropped another shot on the par-5 second, usually a birdie hole, to go three-over-par for the day and two-over for the tournament.
“I hit the ball a lot better after the first two holes and I made some putts,” he said. “I made good putts on three and four (for par), which helped, and just stuck with the game plan.
“I didn’t let myself get too rattled. I just stayed focused, didn’t think about what happened (on 1 and 2) and moved on. And it was good.”
That’s “good” as in four consecutive birdies on holes 6 through 9 and four more on the back nine at 12, 13, 15 and 17.
The music stopped with a three-putt bogey at the last hole, but he refused to allow the finish to spoil his day. After all, the struggling start allowed “missed cut” enter his thinking.
“One hundred percent,” he said of missed-cut possibilities. “I hit the ball good (in the first round) and didn’t make any putts. I didn’t really hit a good shot today until 6. I think that was our first green (in regulation) of the day.”
He began watching the Masters around age 5 and attended the 2009 tournament with his father. His PGA Tour win in the fall event in Utah earned him a place on the tee sheet this week.
He had never played the course until early March and “I spent four days here, playing a little mock tournament with myself,” McCarty said. “It worked out good because the first day, it was kind of like this morning, really soft and a little colder and windy.”
He took last week off, returned on Saturday for tournament preparation, and said: “I feel comfortable around it. I think if you can kind of play smart golf and hit good golf shots, you’ll be all right.”
Masters scores, leaderboard
As of 4:30 p.m. Friday
- Justin Rose (-8)
- Bryson Dechambeau (-7)
- Rory McIlroy (-6)
- Corey Connors (-6) through 13
- Tyrrell Hatton (-6) through 10
- Matt McCarty (-5)
- Shane Lowry (-5)
- Jason Day (-5) through 10
- Scottie Scheffler (-5) through 10
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 4:38 PM with the headline "How Matt McCarty gained a spot among Masters leaders going into weekend."