Brutal Finish Sees Langer Miss Cut In Final Masters As Couples Also Slips Away Late

For a while during the second round of The Masters, two of the field’s legendary veterans appeared to be heading for the weekend.

Two-time champion Bernhard Langer was battling to extend his Masters career by two days in his farewell appearance, while Fred Couples, who won the event in 1992, was looking to beat his own record as the oldest player to make the cut at the Augusta National Major.

While both players were out on the course, the projected cutline was two-over, and for Langer a dream swansong seemed likely as he approached the 15^th on even-par for the tournament. However, not for the first time this week, a big name came a cropper courtesy of the water in front of the green of the par 5, and a double-bogey left his chances of reaching the third round in the balance.

Heartbreakingly, the 67-year-old’s fate was sealed on his very last Masters hole, when he faced a tricky par putt after his chip from off the green came up short, with his effort to keep his hopes alive thwarted by the narrowest of margins as his putt went just right before he finished on three-over for the tournament.

After taking the applause of patrons, Langer, whose maiden appearance came in 1982, spoke to the media, where he explained he wasn't sure even at that point if he might have a chance of progressing.

He said: "Today coming up 18 was mixed emotions because I was still inside the cut line, and even when I made bogey, I wasn't sure I'm totally out of there or not because I actually thought 3-over would make the cut, as windy as it was today. I thought it was harder than yesterday. But it doesn't look that way."

Langer also admitted that there had been times over the last two days where he wondered if he should have called time on his Masters career.

He explained: "Yeah, there were times last couple days when I thought, you know, did you make the right decision here, or should you - should you have waited another year or two with your last Masters? Because I was, you know, playing quite well and very smart. But I think looking back, it is still the right decision... It's just the golf course is too long for me."

As for Couples, who surpassed Langer as the oldest player to make the cut in 2023, he began the day at one-under after a brilliant 71 on Thursday, and he was still one above the projected cutline with five holes to play. Unfortunately for the 65-year-old, he couldn’t quite keep his momentum going, and the writing was on the wall after successive bogeys at the 14^th and 15^th left him three-over with three to play.

After pars at the 16^th and 17^th, Couples needed a birdie on the final hole to move back to the all-important two-over, but it wasn’t to be, as he instead made his sixth bogey of the day to finish two away from the projected cutline.

Despite both players narrowly missing out on the weekend’s action, they will surely take plenty of positives from their performances, not least the fact that they finished ahead of some of the biggest names of the current era.

That included five-time Major winner Brooks Koepka, who suffered a nightmare finish to miss the cut along with 2013 champion Adam Scott, with the pair stranded on five-over. Further down the leaderboard, former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Cameron Young missed the cut after finishing on seven-over, while 2021 Masters runner-up Will Zalatoris fared even worse, finishing on eight-over.