There were a lot of nerves coming down the stretch because I obviously want to play the weekend here. First Masters ... to make the cut, I get to play two more rounds out here. – Daniel Summerhays
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Just playing in the Masters at the famed Augusta National Golf Club has been a dream come true for Daniel Summerhays and having some 30 family members along for the ride has made for a special week already.
Making the cut was a big goal for Summerhays, who accomplished that Friday and now he’ll be walking the fairways of Augusta for two more days with his gallery of parents, brothers, in-laws and friends following along.
Summerhays shot a 3-over-par 75 Friday on another windy day at Augusta and coupled with his opening-round 74 puts him at 149, a shot better than the cut, which was at 150.
The Fruit Heights resident hung in down the stretch after a bogey on one of the easiest holes on the course, the par-5 15th and he finished with three pars to safely make the cut.
“A lot of nerves coming down the stretch because I wanted to play the weekend here,” Summerhays said. “I was pretty nervous on that putt on 18, but I’ll be a little more relaxed for the next few hours. First Masters, first cut . . . I get two more rounds to be out here. I will have played seven or eight rounds in eight days here, so that’s a pretty good week.”
While Summerhays, who stands in a tie for 35th place, made the cut, the other Utahn in the tournament, 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, missed the cut for the sixth time in seven years. Weir shot a 79 Friday which gave him a two-day total of 155.
Both Summerhays and Weir started their rounds in late morning, two groups apart for the second straight day and faced the same swirling winds as the previous day, which caused sand to be blown from the bunkers at times.
Summerhays started with a bogey at No. 1, which has been the most difficult hole on the course over the first two rounds, and added a bogey at No. 7 to make the turn at 2-over 38. On the back nine he bogeyed No. 12, where he shot within inches of an ace the previous day, but responded with a birdie at the par-3 13th where he avoided disaster by inches.
Unlike the previous day when he laid up in front of the green, Summerhays went for the green in two from a couple of hundred yards out and his ball hit the right side on the slope just above Rae’s Creek. However, his ball stopped short of rolling down into the water.
“I thought it was in the water for sure,” Summerhays said. “That was a big break. It was nice to get a break there because I felt I’ve had several poor breaks. That was especially nice to not only have it stay up, but to make birdie.”
After making bogey at 15 when his third shot slid down the slope and he couldn’t get up and down, Summerhays finished with three straight pars. On No. 18, he thrilled the crowd with a chip shot from the side of the green that rolled up onto the fringe and back toward the hole, five feet away.
“I was just so glad it didn’t hang up in that second cut, because then I’m hosed. I thought it was going to stick up there for a second but it didn’t,” he said.
Now that he’s made the cut, Summerhays says he feels like he can play more aggressively on the weekend with a smaller than normal number of players making the cut and being only nine shots off the lead.
“It won’t be survival mode,” he said. “I’m kind of playing with house money, making the cut. It’s not like I’m going to improve my condition by playing conservative. I can only improve.”