Golf, two trees fall on the 17th hole: near tragedy at the Augusta Masters

AUGUSTA (United States) – The announced perturbation arrived punctually and tragedy came close on the course when two huge pine trees along the 17th hole were blown down by the wind. Almost miraculously there were no injuries but there were moments of terror before play was suspended for the second time today.

In the lead Koepka, a return horse

In the morning, before the weather drastically changed, Brooks Koepka, a returning horse, was the undisputed protagonist of the first two days, taking the lead with an extraordinary -12 (65-67 partials). He had a three-stroke lead over the Spanish Jon Rahm, who was however stopped mid-lap by suspension and therefore still able to undermine him. If Koepka were to continue like this, as well as for his opponents, there would also be a problem for Netflix which, this season, produced a TV series (“Full swing”) on golf champions. The episode dedicated to him is a kind of autumn symphony because the boy, born in Florida 33 years ago, after a series of extraordinary results had entered the tunnel of the blackest crisis. And in fact, in front of the cameras, he showed himself depressed, incredulous of the many adversities of the last two years, including knee ligament surgery, due to an injury at home and then an inflammation of the wrist that had forced him to retreat and lengthy rehabilitation . Someone like him, capable of winning four Majors between ’17 and ’19 (2 US Open and 2 consecutive PGA Championships), remaining one shot away from Tiger Woods winner of the ’19 Masters, looked sad and discouraged even though he was filmed by the pool in his splendid villa, next to his splendid wife, pampered by a very affectionate Labrador. Perhaps also for this reason he had agreed to move to the LIV, the Arab super league competitor of the PGA Tour. But now the golden days seem to have returned and his advantage over his pursuers, except Rahm, has become consistent even if at the Masters, as in almost every Major, nothing is said until the last holes on Sunday. Around 17.30 (23.30 in Italy) the game was definitively suspended while the rain continued to fall and the teams of workers were intent on cutting the collapsed pines into blocks to make the pitch usable again. Among the players who will have to resume in the early hours of Saturday morning, Tiger Woods, in par after 9 holes and still within the qualification limit with the last admitted score, ie the total of two strokes over par.

Molinari, a melancholic farewell

It was the fiftieth Major in Francesco Molinari’s career, a very significant number in a long career of excellence. And it was his 11th Masters. He was, because he was already finished after a bad round in 76 strokes which excludes him from the top 50 admitted to the weekend. A round that started badly, with a double bogey on the first hole, and held back by the traditional imprecision in the putt that frustrated any recovery attempt, giving him only one birdie in the whole day. The curse of that missed victory in ’19, when he still had a two-stroke lead over Tiger Woods on Sunday on the 12th tee, seems to have bewitched him. Since then he hasn’t caught a single important result and has missed the cut three times out of four here. There was a surplus of melancholy in the tone of his post-race comments because without some success that relaunch him in the world rankings, he won’t be here in ’24. The five years of exemption guaranteed by victory at the Open Championship in Carnoustie 2018 expire this season. Francesco will still be able to play the other three Majors of this 2023, then he will only retain the right for the British until his 60th year of age. He would need a surge in the world rankings, in the manner of ’18, when he either won or placed very high, before dominating the scene at the Parisian Ryder Cup. Because, by the way, the prospect of being on the field in the European team at the Marco Simone is also very nebulous. Sin.