No one anticipated the spectacular weather that touched down in north Georgia this week. Blue skies, sunshine, warm weather, and moderate winds suggest that we will see some fine, low scores this week at the Augusta National. Mind you, the chairpersons of the club and tournament might consider selecting a few, spicy hole locations, to make approach angles and putting more interesting than normal. Regardless, come Sunday, we will have a worthy champion and a host of stories to keep us busy until the Chevron and the PGA roll around.

At press time, 36 holes of the 2026 Masters tournament, the 90th of its kind, have concluded. The cut line has been established, and a luckless segment of the invitee list has concluded its competitive tour of the Bobby Jones-Alister MacKenzie collaboration. Four over par was required for weekend reservations, and an incredible 12-under performance garnered a six-shot advantage for the defending champion. If Saturday goes Rory’s way, we’ll take the Wayback Machine to 1997, when Tiger Woods steamrolled the field. For now, there’s hope that someone will step up and challenge Mr. Career Grand Slam.

Enough with the puns and humor. Let’s have a Five Things: Tech Friday look at the newsmakers of round two.

First Thing: Clark takes control

The mind is a muscle. It can be trained. It will always be a battleground. Wyndham Clark spoke openly about his work with mental coach and psychologist Julie Eilon, and how it assisted him in myriad ways. In 2025, Clark found a return of the struggles at Oakmont, proving that the mental wars, at the highest level of sport, cannot be forgotten nor ignored. This week in Georgia, Clark may have again found the stability that led in 2023 to a career-defining US Open victory.

On Friday, Clark birdied holes two through four to move from even par to minus three. He took a small step back at ten, with the day’s lone bogey, but gathered in two more shots at 15 and 16. His 68 moved him temporarily into third place. By round’s end, he stood in seventh place, tied with five others. HIs eight-shot deficit is of little consequence. What matters more is the internal competition that he faces with courage and clarity.

Clark has seen all elements of his game in form this week. He has hit 14 greens in regulation each of the first two days. He improved from 11 fairways hit on driving holes to 13 on Friday. Despite two three-putts for the second consecutive day, Clark lopped two putts off his tally, going from 32 to 30 for the round.

Gear Bag

As reported first by Today’s Golfer, Wyndham Clark is gaming a nine degree Titleist TSR3 driver off the tee, followed by a 16.5 degree TaylorMade Qi10 fairway metal. Clark eschews additional metals and hybrids for a Titleist T200 driving iron, at the loft of a 3 iron. Irons four through nine are Titleist T100. The bag closes with four wedges (Titleist Vokey Design SM10) at 48, 52, 56, and 60 degrees, and an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser putter on the greens. His ball is a Titleist Pro V1x.

Both three-putt greens came on par-five holes (8 and 13) that he had reached in two shots. At eight, Clark blew his approach putt 12 feet past the cup. On 13, he played too little break from front left to back right, again leaving a dozen feet for birdie. The putter has run mostly hot for Clark, with a few exceptions. If he and his caddie are able to resolve the long-putts issue and preserve the long game success, Clark will be of importance on Sunday afternoon.

Second Thing: Titanic Tyrrell makes noise on day two

I get down on my knees each night and pray for Tyrrell Hatton’s emotional well-being. No other golfer across this globe seems on the cusp of grinding down his teeth, pulling a cheek muscle with a forced smile, and snapping a shaft. These reactions come after hitting shots that most professionals would relish. Heaven forbid that Hatton one day hits a really bad shot!

The Englishman began his second round at plus-two, thanks to an uneven 74 on day one. After reaching only half the 18 putting surfaces for birdie on Thursday, Hatton was perfect into the green on Friday, hitting all 18 in regulation figures. His putting was again quite good, until he reached 18. A too-strong approach shot left him a shelf above the hole. His unfamiliarity with skiing and fall lines was apparent, as his approach putt missed the drop-in point by three feet. Hatton’s sole three-putt on day two dropped him back to minus-four for the week, alongside Clark and four others.

Gear Bag

If Ping made a golf ball, Tyrrell Hatton might be the first in line to play it. Hatton has long been a staunch Ping guy. He uses 14 clubs made in Scottsdale, from driver to putter. Off the tee decks, Hatton pops with a nine degree G440 LST with a Diamana shaft. Two fairway metals complete the heavy artillery for Hatton. A G440 at 15 degrees loft and a G330 at 21 degrees, do the lifting into the par five holes. As for the irons, Hatton sections his bag into i240 for irons 4 through 6, and Blueprint S for irons 7 through PW. Hatton opts out on the high-lofted wedge option, maxing his S159 wedges at 50 and 54 degrees. Methinks that there might be some tinkering with the actual lofts. For a putter, Hatton rolls his Titleist ProV1x ball with a Ping PLD Oslo mallett.

Third Thing: First-Timers Club glows up on Friday

I doubt that anyone, including the man himself, thought that Frank Urban Zoeller would win the Masters in his first attempt. I doubt that anyone expected him to be the last man to do so for … going on 47 years now. Thanks to Ed Sneed and his bogey-bogey-bogey finish, we had a playoff that year. Watson was the favorite, but he lost. Sneed was the emotional pick, but he lost. Instead, Fuzzy became a household name.

In stark contrast, the 2026 rookie class might be the strongest in Masters history (with the exception of the class of 1934, the year of the first playing.) Ben Griffin played Ryder Cup before he played a Masters. Chris Gotterup has four PGA Tour wins, but his first did not qualify him for an invitation. Both are at minus-three at the halfway pole. Michael Brennan is at minus-one. After 35 holes, Kristoffer Reitan sat on five-under par, ahead of most of the field. His 36th-hole bogey brought him back to four deep, and a tie for seventh. Four of the top twenty golfers are firsties. Will any of them challenge? That depends on Rory and his Saturday sortie.

Gear Bag

One thing that you can say about Masters rookies is this: their bag lineups are interesting. Like Hatton, Reitan (14 greens 10 fairway 1.6 putts per hole) is all Ping, all the time. Gotterup (15 greens 8 fairways 1.6 putts per hole) mixes Ping with TaylorMade and Bridgestone. Griffin (11 greens, 10 fairways, 1.5 putts per hole) is similar to Gotterup, if you swap the Bridgeston irons for Mizuno knives. Finally, Brennan (11 greens, 9 fairways, 1.7 putts per hole) reps Titleist through the bag, minus a TaylorMade three metal. As for golf balls, Brennan and Reitan slap Titleist Pro V1 and 1x, respectively. Griffin carves a Maxfli Tour model, while Gotterup belts a Bridgestone. Like we said…interesting bag lineups.

Fourth Thing: The European Ryder Cup Team

As if Rory by six weren’t enough, Justin, Shane, and Tommy are at five-under par, tied for fourth spot. A day after closing bogey-bogey for 70, Rose finished solidly, one-under over the final four. Lowry made birdie at the first, then ran off 14 consecutive pars, before adding a second birdie at the 16th, and a third at the 18th. You’d swear it was Faldo, except for the presence of the beard and the absence of the vertical stripes. As for Tommy, goal-post bogeys at one and eighteen were sandwiched around birdies at two and ten, and eagles at eight and fifteen. Oh, as if that weren’t enough, remember that Hatton is close by, and Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg are also at par or better. Feels like Bethpage, all over again.

Gear Bag

Sugar Shane Lowry is a Srixon guy, save a TaylorMade three metal and putter. Rose was assessed in Thursday’s Tech Five, so that leaves Fleet. Tommy Fleetwood, or should we call him Tommy Taylor, rips TaylorMade from start to finish, including his golf ball. Neither tall nor strong, Fleetwood relies on maximizing the proper clubs for his game, for this week’s course. At Augusta, Fleetwood’s bag contains a driver, a mini-driver, a five metal, and a nine metal. Right. As for the six irons that he carries, they are P7TW model. His wedges are Milled Grind from TaylorMade, and his putter is a Spider Tour Black. Fleetwood is the only golfer on record for playing a TP5x Pix TaylorMade ball. He’s not tall like Rose, and he’s not tall and strong like Lowry, so Fleetwood makes his own luck.

Fifth Thing: Bid farewell to these big names

Kurt Kitayama was two shots off the lead after 18 holes, then posted 79 on Friday. He was spared the ignominy of a missed cut after caressing the sun. Bryson DeChambeau, he of YouTube and LIV fame, wasn’t as fortunate. BDC made triple bogey seven at the 36th hole, and missed the cut by two shots. Joining DeChambeau on the sidelines are US Open champion (and winner last week) J.J. Spaun, former Open champion Cameron Smith, Min Woo Lee, and Akshay Bhatia. None was a favorite entering the week, but each is a surprise casualty of the executioner’s sharpie.

Gear Bag

From Bryson DeChambeau’s homemade, 3-D printed 5 iron (now you see it, now you don’t) that saw action on Thursday, but not Friday, to Sergio Garcia’s Golfire Maker putter, there’s no shortage of odd cudgels on the tournament range at the Augusta National. DeChambeau failed to make the cut, while Garcia passed by two.