Louis Oosthuizen and Dylan Frittelli are set for a big weekend of golf at the Masters after ending Friday’s action on the tail of the leaders at Augusta National, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
Given the delayed start on Thursday, many players still had to complete their opening rounds on Friday morning, which meant the second round would also be a race against time to be completed before darkness fell in Georgia.
Oosthuizen teed off as part of the later group on Friday afternoon and again held his own pretty well in his three-ball with Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
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Kicking on from his opening-round 68 (-4), the South African didn’t waste any time to get the ball rolling by birdieing the par-five 2nd hole.
Oosthuizen, who lost a playoff to Bubba Watson at the 2011 Masters edition, looked pretty solid and composed, making further headway with birdies on the 8th and 9th to move to seven under par.
Unfortunately, play was suspended when the 38-year-old was on the 13th tee, meaning he will be out early on Saturday to complete his second round before moving day gets under way.
As it stands, though, Oosthuizen is only two shots behind a group of four players who occupy top spot on the leaderboard after their respective second rounds.
World No 1 Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Abraham Ancer and Cameron Smith have all moved to nine under par for the event, holding a one-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama and Jon Rahm, though they are also yet to complete their second rounds.
Frittelli, on the other hand, played a significant amount of golf on Friday after completing his opening round, temporarily moving him to the summit of the leaderboard, before tackling his second round that ultimately proved a lot tougher.
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The 31-year-old was magnificent early in the morning but struggled to get any sort of momentum going in the afternoon as he settled for a one-over-par 73.
On six under par, Frittelli is still in a pretty decent position to move up the leaderboard over the next two rounds.
By the end of Friday, Christiaan Bezuidenhout found himself in T34 and on two under par for the event after a second-round 73, while Charl Schwartzel’s round was halted while on the 10th hole, sitting on one over par.
After rounds of 75 and 71, Justin Harding (+2) could be in trouble to make the cut once the second round is completed.
