Justin Rose leads a leaderboard stacked with talent after two enthralling days of the 89th Masters at Augusta National.
The iconic course has again provided the backdrop for some incredible golf, with plenty of surprises emerging through the opening two rounds.
Here are five that stand out as we head to the weekend.
Scottie looked human on closing nine
Human and mortal are not words we would use to describe Scottie Scheffler at Augusta National. With the addition of two green jackets to his closet in the past three years, it's clear the World No. 1 has figured out how to shine on the historic layout. That was evident with a bogey-free 68 in the opening round and six more holes without a dropped shot to begin Friday's play. However, he finally would make a bogey on No. 7 and add two more at Nos. 10 and 11 - a truly shocking development after his start to this year's event.
When he followed that up with a tee shot on the 12th hole that airmailed the green, there were murmurs that Scheffler might have lost it. He briefly smacked that chatter down by promptly pitching in for birdie and adding another at No. 14, but the bogey-train hadn't fully left the station for good. He three-putted the 16th and added another bogey at the last to finish with five over his final 12 holes. For comparison's sake, it took Scheffler 46 holes into last year's Masters to make his fifth bogey of the week.
Bryson wasn't wrong, he was just early
Hope everyone got their jokes in when Bryson DeChambeau called Augusta National a par-67 for him back in 2020. At the time it seemed absurd, but DeChambeau has clearly turned a corner at the Masters and has figured something out on the iconic course. The U.S. Open champion fired back-to-back rounds in the 60s to open the event for the first time at Augusta, and just the fourth time in his major career. The previous three times saw him win the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Opens and finish second in the 2024 PGA Championship.
We are used to DeChambeau pounding driver all over the place as he brings virtually any golf course to its knees, but his well-rounded game is what's doing the job through two rounds at Augusta. DeChambeau is leading the field in strokes gained: around the green thus far and sits eighth in putting heading to the weekend.
Nick Dunlap's wild ride
Rarely does something happen that we haven't seen since the 1950s, but that's exactly what Nick Dunlap did Thursday at Augusta. The man who made headlines last year becoming the first amateur to win on the PGA TOUR since 1991 opened with a disastrous 18-over 90 - more than 10 shots worse than the second-last competitor. According to Justin Ray of the Twenty First Group, Dunlap is the first player under age 50 who failed to break 90 since 1956.
OK, now that we've covered the bad, let's end with an all-time bounce-back by Dunlap Friday. The 21-year-old rebounded in incredible fashion for Round 2, firing a 1-under 71 - a whopping 19 strokes better than his Thursday score. That is the third-biggest improvement from Rounds 1 to 2 in men's major championship golf.
So what changed? A whole lot of range balls hammered into the woods, apparently.
"I hit a couple buckets of balls at my Airbnb into the woods," Dunlap said, according to ASAP Sports. "I don't know if there was any houses or anything back there. But you just hit a bunch of golf balls and - I had more of a knot in my stomach today than I've ever had starting a round of golf."
Remember Dunlap's 2025 showing at the Masters next time your 5-handicap buddy has a few drinks and boldly claims he could break 90 at Augusta.
Rose the ultimate Augusta setup man
Justin Rose fired a 65 Thursday to make history as the only player to lead or co-lead after the first round of the Masters on five different occasions. He followed that up with a 71 Friday to put his name in the record books again in a number of ways. According to Ray, Rose is the only player to hold three different solo 36-hole leads at Augusta National with 21 years elapsing between his first in 2004 and this time around.
While Rose having success at the Masters isn't a major surprise, the fact he has now set records after each of the opening two rounds likely wasn't on anybody's bingo card.
A competitor took a leak in Rae's Creek
Arizona State routinely ranks as one of the biggest party schools in the country, and it's safe to say that reputation carries down to the golf team. U.S. Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester certainly made his mark during his first Masters appearance, and it has nothing to do with his score through 36 holes. The Spaniard attracted significant attention when he revealed in his post-round press conference Thursday that he took a leak in the iconic Rae's Creek after forgetting to use the restroom by the 13th tee.
"I'm like, I really need to pee," Ballester told ASAP Sports. "Didn't really know where to go, and since JT (Justin Thomas) had an issue on the green, I'm like, I'm just going to sneak here in the river and probably people would not see me that much, and then they clapped for me. Probably one of the claps that I really got today real loud, so that was kind of funny."
While most would probably feel a bit embarrassed about the whole ordeal, that type of feeling doesn't exist for 21-year-olds from Arizona State.
"It was not embarrassing at all for me. If I had to do it again, I would do it again."
