The top three players in the world were part of a five-way tie for the halfway lead at Augusta National as the first November Masters proved well worth the wait.
Spain’s Jon Rahm completed a second round of 66 on Saturday to join world number one Dustin Johnson and number three Justin Thomas on nine under par, with Australia’s Cameron Smith and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer also on the same score.
Former champion Patrick Reed, Sungae Im, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama and CT Pan were all on eight under, with the all-English trio of 2016 winner Danny Willett, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood another stroke back.
Defending champion Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were among those four shots off the lead on five under, with the 60 players who made the level-par cut separated by nine shots.
Meanwhile Shane Lowry’s challenge will continue into the weekend, after he recovered to sign for a second round of 69 on Saturday. Graeme McDowell is packing his bags however, with a 73 leaving him on one over par.
Amateur James Sugrue finished his week in style as he shot a one under par round of 71 to follow up his opening 77.
Rahm immediately moved into a share of the lead when play in the delayed second round resumed on Saturday morning by holing from short range for birdie on the 13th.
A good chance to take the outright lead on the 14th then went begging and Rahm looked set to bogey the par-five 15th after opting not to go for the green in two.
The 26-year-old fired his third shot over the green and left his pitch back two yards short of the putting surface, only to promptly chip in for an unlikely par.
“I’ve known for a while the guys that have been at nine under par,” Rahm told Sky Sports. “It’s going to be a good weekend.
“I feel like if you’re a golf fan you have some of the top players in the world there and many others playing great golf, so this weekend with good weather, faster greens, it should be fun to watch.”
Playing alongside Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau had missed his eagle attempt on the 13th when play resumed, but the resulting birdie was his second in succession and was followed by further gains on the 14th and 16th.
However, the US Open champion then bogeyed the last two holes to fall back to level par and faced an anxious wait before discovering he had made the cut on the mark.
DeChambeau said he had been feeling unwell and dizzy during Friday’s play and underwent a Covid-19 test, which came back negative.
“I was feeling something a little weird two nights ago and I came out yesterday and was fine for the most part,” he said. “As I kept going through the round I started getting a little dizzy. I don’t know what was going on, a little something weird.
“So I got checked for Covid last night, and I was fine, nothing. But I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that.
“I don’t know what it is or what happened, but these past couple days I’ve felt really, really odd and just not a hundred per cent. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure.”
Collated second round scores & totals in The Masters, Augusta National GC (USA unless stated, par 72):
135 Dustin Johnson 65 70, Justin Thomas 66 69, Abraham Ancer (Mex) 68 67, Cameron Smith (Aus) 67 68, Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 66
136 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 68 68, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 70 66, Patrick Cantlay 70 66, Sungjae Im (Kor) 66 70, Patrick Reed 68 68
137 Justin Rose (Eng) 67 70, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 71 66, Danny Willett (Eng) 71 66
138 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 70, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 70 68, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 65 73
139 Brooks Koepka 70 69, Phil Mickelson 69 70, Tiger Woods 68 71, Scottie Scheffler 71 68, Paul Casey (Eng) 65 74, Corey Conners (Can) 74 65
140 Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 69 71, Xander Schauffele 67 73, Billy Horschel 70 70, Rickie Fowler 70 70, Webb Simpson 67 73
141 Kevin Na 73 68, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 68 73, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 75 66, (a) John Augenstein 69 72, Victor Perez (Fra) 70 71, Charles Howell III 71 70, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 70 71
142 Matt Wallace (Eng) 69 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 70 72, Shugo Imahira (Jpn) 72 70, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 72, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 69 73, Brandt Snedeker 71 71, Cameron Champ 68 74, Lee Westwood (Eng) 68 74
143 Mike Weir (Can) 71 72, Shane Lowry (Irl) 74 69, Ian Poulter (Eng) 72 71, Bubba Watson 74 69, (a) Andy Ogletree 73 70, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 72, Chez Reavie 71 72
144 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 71, Zach Johnson 73 71, Sung Kang (Kor) 75 69, Tony Finau 69 75, Collin Morikawa 70 74, Jimmy Walker 71 73, Bryson DeChambeau 70 74, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 73 71, Nick Taylor (Can) 72 72, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 74 70, Jordan Spieth 74 70
The following players missed the cut:
145 Andrew Putnam 73 72, Max Homa 70 75, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 72 73, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 72 73, Gary Woodland 72 73, Matt Kuchar 70 75, Adam Hadwin (Can) 74 71, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 74
146 Justin Harding (Rsa) 75 71, Brendon Todd 73 73
147 Matthew Wolff 70 77, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 73 74, Lanto Griffin 74 73, Larry Mize 70 77, Kevin Kisner 71 76
148 Jason Day (Aus) 70 78, JT Poston 73 75, Jason Kokrak 71 77, (a) James Sugrue (Irl) 77 71, Tyler Duncan 77 71
150 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 72 78, (a) Lukas Michel (Aus) 76 74, Fred Couples 77 73
151 Lucas Glover 77 74, Nate Lashley 75 76, Sandy Lyle (Sco) 78 73
152 Yuxin Lin (a) (Chn) 79 73
158 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 78 80
160 Andrew Landry 78 82, (a) Abel Gallegos (Arg) 79 81
