Luke Donald struggles, but makes Masters cut

There were no scorecard issues for Luke Donald on Friday. Just not enough birdies for the world’s No. 1-ranked player.

The Englishman shot 1-over-par 73 on Friday after his opening 75, and made the cut by a shot at 148.

Following what he called “a shock” Thursday night that he might be disqualified, he’s happy to be playing on the weekend. He goes off at 9:55 this morning with PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley.

On Friday, Donald was 2-over par for the round through 12 holes when he got back on track. He birdied the two back-nine par-5s – Nos. 13 and 15 – to get back to even par. But he hit a wayward tee shot on the 17th hole that led to a bogey. He parred No. 18 to finish with 73.

Donald, who moved to No. 1 in the world after his victory three weeks ago in Tampa, is now nine shots off the lead of Fred Couples and Jason Dufner.

“I am disappointed,” he said. “I thought I was as prepared as I’ve ever been. Last weekend when I was practicing I was hitting it so well. Some careless mistakes have cost me. At this stage of my career I need to continue to get in contention to win majors. It’s going to be a tough order to get in contention by tomorrow night.”

After Thursday’s round, it briefly appeared Donald might not be around for the weekend anyway. Donald was involved in a scorecard controversy not of his own making. He shot 75 and signed for that.

When it appeared in the official scoreboard computer, it was 73. If that had been the case, Donald would have been disqualified for signing for a lower score than he shot.

The question had to do with the par-4 fifth hole, where Donald said he made bogey 5 and signed for that. His scorecard in the system read birdie 3.

More than an hour and a half after the problem arose, Augusta National admitted to an “administrative error” on the fifth hole.

Donald said he is always careful in the scoring tent with his card and was sure he’d signed for 75.

“But you always have that doubt you might make that mistake,” he said.

After signing his card, doing some interviews and going to the range, Donald was told by an official that “there might be an issue” with his card, he said.

“They showed me a photocopy of my card where there was a 3 on the fifth hole instead of a 5,” Donald said. “I’m like, ‘I’m pretty diligent about this kind of stuff. I’d like to see my original card. I don’t believe that’s possible.’ ”

The original card was produced and the issue was resolved.

“I guess what happens is once the scorers are done with the cards, they give it to someone else to photocopy for reference,” Donald said. “When they fax or photocopy it, they want it to come out darker so they go over the numbers. For some reason they thought my 5 on the fifth looked like a 3 so they turned it in a 3. You could see on the card there squiggles underneath that looked like a 5 and over the top was a 3.”

Donald was asked whether he was surprised about the club’s “administrative error.”

“It shouldn’t happen in this modern day,” he said. “It’s like there are too many steps for the whole process.”