Masters notebook: McGirt thus far succeeding without a key ingredient at Augusta National

William McGirt is trying to disprove the often-repeated notion that experience is a prerequisite to playing well at Augusta National Golf Club because of the nuances of the course.

He has plenty of experience, just not at Augusta.

McGirt, a resident of Boiling Springs and native of Fairmont, N.C., which is about 70 miles from Myrtle Beach, is a late bloomer.

He is making his Masters debut at the age of 37, and is in fifth at 2-under 142 following rounds of 69 and 73 in challenging windy conditions.

“I’m glad I don’t have to hit another shot that counts today,” McGirt said after finishing his early round Friday. “To be sitting on 2‑under par right now, knowing that I’m going into the weekend and I get to play the weekend in my first Masters is huge. The good news is I haven’t shot myself out of the tournament. To give myself a chance is all I can ask for.”

It has taken McGirt a while to qualify for the Masters, which has made his debut that much more special.

“This is a lifelong dream and it’s one of those things that when you’re going through that, you don’t know if this moment will ever happen,” McGirt said. “There have been years and years, even since I’ve been on tour, that I didn’t know if this moment would ever happen. I’m going to try to soak it all in and enjoy it and relish every moment here at Augusta National.”

McGirt graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg in 2001, turned pro in 2004 and persevered for a few years on mini-tours including the Grand Strand-based Hooters Tour, eGolf Tour and Gateway Tour before qualifying for the Web.com Tour through the 2009 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.

McGirt is in his seventh year on the PGA Tour and finally arrived in 2016, recording his first tour win in The Memorial hosted by Jack Nicklaus to earn a Masters invitation, a runner-up in the Sanderson Farms Championship early in the season, and an additional five top-10s. He qualified for the Tour Championship for the first time and finished 24th in 2015-16 FedExCup points.

He took solace in a pep talk on Tuesday from Nicklaus, the six-time Masters champion who said if he could win at Muirfield Village in Ohio he could contend at Augusta.

“He just told me to play smart and play within myself, and he said, ‘If you can win at my place, you can win here,’ because there’s a lot of similarities in the two golf courses,” McGirt said. “There’s a lot of holes where you don’t have to hit it directly at pins to get it close.”

McGirt’s off to a slower start this year with a pair of top-10s in 11 starts.

“It’s kind of one of those things where you forget about what you’re doing, and you kind of get caught up in being at Augusta and being at the Masters, and just roll with it. Hopefully this will kind of get me going again this year,” McGirt said.

Most are looking forward to the calmer and more favorable scoring conditions that are forecast for the weekend, but not McGirt. This being his first Masters, he’s not familiar with playing the course on a calm day.

“I know some guys have only been down here when it’s calm and they kind of don’t know what to expect, but this is what I played under in practice,” McGirt said. “I don’t know what to do when it’s calm out here. I have never played it calm.”

McGirt had been to the Masters as a patron multiple times, beginning in his youth, and made two visits to Augusta National in December and one in March before arriving for the tournament last Friday.

“It’s just something that I’ve dreamed my whole life about playing in this tournament, and I’m going to enjoy it, plain and simple,” McGirt said. “I wanted to make sure I enjoyed it, because, I mean, I don’t know if this is going to be a one-time thing or if I’m going to be back every year.”

Masters is defenseless

Englishman Danny Willett will not continue defending his 2016 Masters championship this weekend, as he is not among the 53 players who made the cut to the final two rounds.

Willett, who began his second round with a quadruple-bogey 8 on the first hole, missed the cut by a shot at 7-over 151.

Others who missed the cut by a single shot include Shane Lowry, Jim Furyk and 2007 champion Zach Johnson.

Others who did not qualify for the weekend include two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, reigning British Open champion Henrik Stenson and past U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, all at 152, and Patrick Reed, Vijay Singh and Bernhard Langer, all at 153.

Among those making the cut on the 6-over 150 number were amateur and reigning U.S. Amateur champion Curtis Luck and 58-year-old 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize.

In 2013 the Masters instituted a cut to the low 50 players in addition to anyone within 10 shots of the lead, up from the low 44 players. The 10-shot policy did not come into play Friday. Though at 6 over the cut was a high number, it was four shots off the record high cut of 154 in 1982.

DJ’s eventful life

Dustin Johnson’s withdrawal Thursday before his first round tee time was particularly disappointing to the world’s No. 1 player because of how well he was playing entering the Masters, with wins in three straight PGA Tour starts.

But unfortunately it’s consistent with the excitement and drama, sometimes in the form of bizarre occurrences, that continue to involve Johnson since he joined the PGA Tour in 2008.

Majors are often involved.

At the 2010 PGA Championship, he was penalized two strokes for grounding his club on the 72nd hole in what he thought was a waste area but in fact was a bunker. He missed out on a playoff by the two shots.

In 2015, he had a chance to win the U.S. Open but three-putted from about 12 feet on the last hole on unusually bumpy greens and lost by a shot to Jordan Spieth.

In the final round of his U.S. Open victory last year he was penalized because his ball moved on the fifth green, even though it was unclear if he caused it to move. He played most of the back nine not knowing if he would be assessed a penalty or not, leading his competitors to come to his defense and the USGA to acknowledge it regretted the way the penalty was handled.

Johnson missed the 2012 Masters early in a three-month break from the PGA Tour, saying he injured his back lifting a jet ski, then missed six months of the PGA Tour season in 2014-15, saying he needed to improve his lifestyle, which he apparently has.

A Golf.com report claimed the two breaks were tour suspensions related to failed drug tests. Johnson and his team denied the report.

Johnson’s personal life is just as eventful and notable. He is engaged to Paulina Gretzky, a model and Instagram legend whose father is perhaps the greatest hockey player ever, Wayne Gretzky.

Nary a dull moment for the Columbia native and Coastal Carolina alumnus.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Masters notebook: McGirt thus far succeeding without a key ingredient at Augusta National."