AUGUSTA, Ga. — The 12th hole at Augusta National is one of the most iconic in the game, and Nick Taylor made it look easy on Friday.
Taylor, who sits at 1-under heading into the weekend at the Masters, hit his tee shot on the par 3 to just inches, and tapped in for birdie. Taylor rallied from back-to-back bogeys early on the front nine and added three circles on his card, including on No. 12, to shoot even-par 72 on Friday.
Taylor made the cut in his Masters debut in 2020 but then went eight straight majors without finding the weekend until last year’s Masters.
Now Taylor is gunning for his best-ever result at a major with two rounds to go at Augusta National as Taylor sits tied for 20th heading into the weekend.
Rory McIlroy leads the way after two days at the Masters as he looks to become the first person to successfully defend a title at Augusta since Tiger Woods in 2001-02.
Despite some early struggles for Taylor, whose best finish at a major came at last year’s U.S. Open, when he finished tied for 23rd, said he found himself feeling good at the mid-point of the front nine Friday.
“Through four holes, I felt like I could have been under par and I was 2-over, so it was a fine line — mostly on the greens. But settled in after that. Hit a lot of great shots,” Taylor said. “Had some opportunities, but a lot of easy pars, which is what you want out here. Don’t want to be grinding all the time.”
While Taylor has had a steady, if unspectacular, start to the Masters, this is the kind of place where steady works well. He’s hit more than 85 per cent of his greens and 70 per cent of his greens through two days, and Taylor said his confidence continued to increase through the day.
“Just playing in more and more (majors) feeling more comfortable. Realizing that my game is good enough to shoot good scores and just got to keep stacking that on top of each other,” Taylor said. “This week was probably my best week of preparation. … Didn’t try to reinvent the wheel with anything. Just kept it going. If I can keep doing that, hopefully got a couple solid rounds ahead of me.”
Corey Conners, meanwhile, struggled with the putter on Friday after struggling with the driver Thursday. Now he’s hoping he’ll be able to put it all together on the weekend at Augusta National.
Conners sits at 4-over through 36 holes but made the cut on the number. He said he ended up putting his back-up driver in his bag for the second day after, ironically enough, his consistency with the big stick was actually a hindrance. It’s common on the PGA Tour, where pros at this level will hit so many balls on the exact same spot on a driver that it will oftentimes lose its bounce. And that’s what happened to Conners on Thursday.
“A couple (on Thursday) felt like pretty good swings and surprised me where the ball went,” Conners said. “Hit a few on the range with (the new driver head) and it was going where I wanted. Was happy with how I drove it.”
The putter ended up letting Conners down on the second day as he worked to get back to even par for the week via a Friday climb.
Instead, Conners will need to put in a hearty two days of work on the weekend as he looks to record his fifth top-10 finish in seven years at the Masters.
“Honestly gave myself looks, just wasn't able to convert the putts.” Conners said. “It’s tough. I wanted one to go in so bad to try and get some momentum going.
“Was right on the edge on 11, 12, 13 hit a really nice putt, 15 as well. On 16, hit another good one that was kind of breaking and just died on the edge. On 17, again, a par-saving putt was right in the middle just short.”
Both Canadians will have some work to do to record a great result at the Masters, but they’ve made the weekend — and that’s step No. 1.
1:18
