Masters rookie McGirt stays in hunt with 1-over 73

Sure, William McGirt would have loved to have built on a stellar opening-round 69 during Friday’s second round of the Masters Tournament.

But maintaining his position on the leaderboard and not undoing all of Thursday’s work was a close second on the wish list, and McGirt accomplished that. A bogey on the final hole kept McGirt from finishing at even par, but his 1-over 73 was more than satisfactory on another day of tough conditions at Augusta National Golf Club.

“The biggest thing is giving yourself a chance,” McGirt said. “Obviously, I would have loved to have leapfrogged Charley (Hoffman, the first-round leader) today. But there’s a lot of golf left and you have to put yourself in position to make a run.”

PHOTOS: McGirt's Second Round

McGirt’s wedge play was a huge key to Friday’s round, starting on No. 2. Coming off a three-putt bogey on No. 1 to fall back to 2-under, McGirt got the shot right back when he stuck a wedge from just off the green to two feet and made birdie.

And that wasn’t even his best one of the round.

Two holes later, his tee shot on the par-3 fourth found the front bunker, leaving McGirt little landing room between himself and the hole. Instead, he put his bunker shot on the back slope and let the green do the work, with the ball trickling down and into the hole for his second birdie.

“The bunker shot on four was crazy,” McGirt said. “I caught it just a little bit thin coming out of the bunker and it flew up top, but luckily being that early in the morning there was enough moisture on the green that it spun pretty good. By the time I got out of the bunker, my caddie says, ‘I hope you hadn’t given up on that,’ and I turned and looked and it was on the exact same line as Rod’s ball. …. I mean it was just perfect.”

McGirt parred nine straight holes before making bogey on No. 14 when a gust of wind knocked down his approach and it rolled off the front of the green. He saved par on Nos. 15 and 16, pitching to a foot after coming up short of the green on the 16th, and nearly came up with another sand save on the 18th after his drive clipped a tree.

Finding the front left bunker with his approach, McGirt again used the slope of the green to his advantage to get his bunker shot to four feet. But his par putt lipped out for bogey.

“The wind caught that putt just enough to get it to the left edge and spin out,” McGirt said. “It’s just hard out there right now. Really hard.”

Perhaps the key to McGirt’s hot start is the work he put in before the start of the week. As tough as the conditions have been, McGirt said he was pulling for more of the same over the weekend even though forecasts call for more ideal conditions.

“Maybe a little warmer, but more wind,” he said. “Yesterday’s conditions and even today, the times I’ve been down here it’s been a west or northwest wind at about today’s wind speed. A lot of my prep work has been done under these conditions. It was much gustier the past two days, but it wasn’t a shock to me. This is what I played in during practice. I don’t know what to do when it’s calm.”

Despite the somewhat disappointing ending to his round, McGirt couldn’t be more pleased about where he stands in his Masters debut.

“It’s pretty cool to get to play the weekend in your first Masters,” said McGirt, who is vying to become the first Masters rookie to win the green jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. “To be in a position to make a run on the weekend makes it even more special. Honestly, I couldn’t have written a script for yesterday and today.”