Four-time main winner Brooks Koepka shrugged off the lingering debate over a controversial ruling to set the clubhouse target on an incident-packed second day of the 87th Masters.
Koepka shared the in a single day lead with Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland after a gap 65 at Augusta National and admitted he was relishing an early begin on Friday, with unhealthy climate forecast later in the day.
The former world primary duly took full benefit of the situations to put up a flawless 67 for a midway complete of 12 underneath par, the joint-third lowest in match historical past alongside LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman.
Rahm had reached 9 underneath par halfway via his spherical when play was suspended for the second time as sturdy winds introduced three bushes crashing down throughout the seventeenth tee.
Remarkably no spectators have been damage in the terrifying incident, however play was later deserted for the day and scheduled to renew at 8am native time on Saturday.
US Amateur champion Sam Bennett was Koepka’s nearest challenger in the clubhouse on eight underneath after a second consecutive 68, however Rory McIlroy was set to overlook the minimize after a massively disappointing 77 left him 5 over par.
Tiger Woods remained two over par after 11 holes of his second spherical, whereas defending champion Scottie Scheffler four-putted the ninth on his method to a 75 which dropped him 11 pictures behind Koepka.
Koepka, who received the most up-to-date 54-hole LIV occasion in Orlando on Sunday, had rapidly moved into the outright lead with a birdie on the second and adopted a run of 5 pars with an eagle from 13 ft on the eighth.
Further birdies adopted on the thirteenth and fifteenth, each par fives, as Koepka cruised into pole place to say his fifth main title and a primary since the 2019 US PGA Championship.
However, whereas Koepka was out on the course, an incident from his first spherical continued to be debated after TV footage appeared to indicate his caddie Ricky Elliott saying “five” to taking part in accomplice Gary Woodland’s caddie on the fifteenth.
If that was deemed to have been recommendation on which membership Koepka had simply hit into the par 5 it might be a breach of the guidelines, however the pair have been rapidly cleared of any wrongdoing by match officers.
“I think what they said was they were signalling to somebody else or he (Elliott) was signalling to somebody of what it was,” Koepka mentioned. “It wasn’t Butchy (Woodland’s caddie Brennan Little).
“They asked us what we hit walking down the fairway, so they had no idea.”
Koepka additionally mentioned officers reviewed footage of him eradicating his glove in a way which meant his hand may point out the quantity 5, including: “I don’t know if you’re supposed to take your glove off with your fist closed or what now.
“The last thing I’m going to do is give it to Gary Woodland, the US Open champ.
“And the funny part about it is I think if he would have known we were hitting five, he would have hit six because I don’t think Gary is that short and he’s 10 in front of me, 12 yards in front of me?”
Speaking after his second spherical of 72, Woodland mentioned: “At the end of the day, Brooks hit his shot on 15. I asked Butchy if he saw what he hit. He said no.
“When we were walking down, I asked Brooks what he hit, and he said five. If I would have known that, I probably would have hit six iron and I would have hit six iron in the middle of the water.
“At the end of the day I didn’t hear anything or I didn’t see anything. My caddie didn’t hear anything or see anything either.”
Former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, talking on Thursday night in his function as an analyst for Golf Channel, felt the tv footage had been clear.
“It’s very obvious… it’s staggering that they’ve denied it because the evidence is there,” McGinley mentioned.
“This is common practice on tour. Whether you like it or not, it happens in every professional tournament around the world.
“If the authorities want to stamp this out (they would) really come down on this and make an example of it, and obviously they haven’t. They’ve chosen not to do that and it looked very clearly the evidence was against them.”
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