A tough start to the year continued this week for Danny Willett.
The defending Masters Tournament champion shot rounds of 73-78 to card 7-over-par 151 to miss the cut by one stroke.
Willett became the first defending champion to miss the weekend since Mike Weir in 2004.
“It’s an amazing place to be, especially with the weather that’s coming in,” Willett said. “It really would be nice to make it into the weekend. Like I said, we had that in our own arms, but we let it slip.”
The first hole Friday did Willett in as he made a quadruple-bogey 8. After dealing with low tree branches on his second shot, his third went over the green. The tricky pin location resulted in his leaving two chips off the green, followed by a missed six-footer.
Willett had chances to regain some of those strokes but struggled to get close to holes and missed potential birdie putts. The cut line was still uncertain at the time, and he missed a four-foot par putt on 18 that would’ve earned him two more rounds.
The missed cut is a continuation of inconsistent play for Willett this year. He has no top-25 finishes in four PGA Tour events, while he’s posted two within the top 25 in six European Tour events.
“It’s been a tricky 12 months; we haven’t played great golf,” he said. “But, by the same token, if you look at the career that we’ve had, we’ve not really had a slump in form in two years. We’ve had two fabulous years.”
Reach David Lee at (706) 823-3216 or david.lee@augustachronicle.com.