Cut claims recent major winners Mickelson, Dufner as victims

It was a bad week for the two most recent major champions.

Phil Mickelson and Jason Dufner missed the cut at this year’s Masters Tournament. Mickelson, the reigning British Open champion, was eliminated by a single stroke at 5-over, while PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner finished at 10-over.

Bubba Watson’s birdie surge on the second nine put many golfers on the bubble. After he made five straight birdies to reach 8-under, Watson’s bogey on No. 18 set the lead at 7-under. For the second year in a row, the cut was set at the low 50 and ties and any players within 10 strokes of the leader. Fifty-one players made the cut this year.

Mickelson was one made-cut away from tying Tiger Woods for the active Augusta streak at 17 in a row. Triple bogeys in each of his two rounds helped do him in.

Still, his wasn’t the only familiar name to see his tournament end.

Just one year after losing to Adam Scott in a playoff in his chase for a second Masters win, Angel Cabrera combined for 8-over 152 on Thursday and Friday. It was his first missed Masters cut since 2005.

Sergio Garcia was the highest-ranked player to miss the cut. No. 6 in the world, Garcia ended his tournament with a 3-over second round that brought him to 5-over.

Not even players who found themselves on Friday’s leaderboard were completely safe. Marc Leishman, who tied for fourth a year ago, was in the lead at 5-under but collapsed with six bogeys and two double bogeys in a 12-hole stretch.

“I just didn’t play as good as probably I could have,” Leishman said. “Obviously didn’t play as good as I could have. Got caught a few times with the wind. It’s notorious for that.”

Recent champions Zach Johnson (2007) at 6-over and Trevor Immelman (2008) at 9-over also didn’t make the cut.

But there were former champions who advanced to the weekend. Bernhard Langer, a champion in 1985 and 1993, made the cut for the second year in a row after he had missed it the previous six tries (he didn’t play in 2011). Langer, 56, is 2-over.

Augusta’s Larry Mize also made it safely to the third round, shooting par on Friday to sit at 2-over for the tournament. He made the cut for just the third time since 2001.