2026 Masters Tournament - Round 2 Recap, Round 3 Buys, Sells & Bets
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Sammy’s Clubhouse thoughts on Round 2
Through 2 rounds, it’s a runaway in Augusta. Clearly, Rory shook some Masters demons last year and is playing freely in his title defense, having shot a -7 on Friday after a -5 on Thursday. His Friday performance was spearheaded by nearly 5.5 Strokes Gained: Short Game, while he gained another 2.5 on approach. Per DataGolf, McIlroy is now around 69% (nice) to win the Masters in back-to-back years for the first time since Tiger 25 years ago, as he’s doubled up Reed and Burns, who are tied in 2nd.
Outside of Rory, Tyrell Hatton, Cameron Young and Patrick Cantlay had the best rounds of the day at -5 or better, while Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark and Kristoffer Reitan put together -4 rounds. Sammy’s each way on Patrick Reed is still alive after he shot another -3 on Friday, but he’s going to need a poor Rory round simultaneously with his own ceiling round in order to have a shot at the outright. Other notable rounds included Brooks Koepka and Chris Gotterup shooting -3, Jon Rahm and Ludvig Aberg both shooting -2, and Kurt Kitayama imploding for a +7 after a -3 on Thursday.
At this point, it’s Rory’s to lose — plain and simple. You don’t need advanced analytics to come to that conclusion, but the trends also bear that out, as all 7 of the recent Masters winners have been withing 3 strokes of the lead after Round 2. That said, crazier things have happened. There is still half a tournament to play, and Rory isn’t exactly immune to rounds of 72+. It’s happened 4 times this season, while he had 2 last year, 2 in 2024 (including a 77), and 2 in 2023 when he missed the cut with a 72-77. Look, there’s a very good chance Rory is going to win this week. All I’m saying is it’s not a forgone conclusion just yet. It’s golf after all (he says with a Reed ticket in his pocket — the ultimate copium).
Players like Justin Rose and Patrick Cantlay left some strokes on the course Friday. Both gained over 4.5 strokes on Approach but lost over a stroke on the greens, stunting a higher potential leap up the leaderboard. They weren’t the only ones, though. Here is a list of golfers that gained over 1.5 strokes with their irons and fell flat on their face putting.
Clubhouse members will get Round 3 Buys, Sells and Bets.
