Gordon Sargent finished, Justin Thomas still playing at 87th Masters

Justin Thomas and 38 other golfers will have to finish their second rounds on Saturday morning before undertaking the scheduled third round of the Masters later in the day.

The former Alabama All-American was halfway through the second round when the second weather delay on Friday stopped play for good at Augusta National Golf Club.

Faulkner State alumnus Bubba Watson, the winner of the Masters in 2012 and 2014, also has work left to do in the second round. He was through 12 holes when play stopped for the day.

Watson bogeyed three of the first five holes on Friday, birdied nine and 11, then bogeyed 12 to stand at 2 over for the round and 7 over for the tournament.

The top 50 scores and ties advance to play in the third and fourth rounds. When play stopped, the cut line was at 2-over par for the tournament.

The other two players with Alabama golf roots in this year’s field at the Masters completed the second round on Friday, and neither seems likely to qualify for the third round.

Jacksonville State alumnus Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion, carded a second straight 75 to stand at 6-over par through two rounds. Willett double-bogeyed the last hole to offset the eagle he’d had on No. 8.

Mountain Brook High School alumnus Gordon Sargent, playing in the Masters on a rare special invitation to an amateur from Augusta National Golf Club, shot a 4-over 76 in his second round in a major tournament. That left the Vanderbilt sophomore at 9 over for the event.

Sargent carded a 39 on the front nine for the second straight day, even though he had the same score on Friday that he had on Thursday on only two holes. On both days, Sargent birdied No. 7 and No. 8.

After starting the tournament with a birdie on Thursday, Sargent began the second round with a double-bogey on the first hole. He bogeyed No. 3 and No. 4 and double-bogeyed the sixth, a hole he parred on Thursday. Sargent also had a birdie on No. 2 in the second round.

As with the first round, Sargent’s game settled down on the back nine with six pars on the card. He bogeyed 10 and 11 and birdied 15.

After Thursday’s round, Sargent said he had no intention of turning pro even though he is the No. 1-ranked amateur golfer in the world.

“Playing with the pros, you kind of understand what you need to work on,” Sargent said. “I feel like college is the perfect time for that, so at the moment, still planning on staying four years and just kind of getting my game where it needs to be.”

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Thomas is closer to the cut line than he is to the lead at the moment, with Brooks Koepka on top of the leaderboard at 12 under. Koepka completed his second round on Friday.

Thomas walked off the course at 2 under, tied for 22nd in the tournament, after an even-par showing so far in the second round.

Thomas birdied the par-5 second hole for the second straight day. But he also bogeyed the fifth hole again after a bogey on No. 4 on Friday. Another birdie on No. 8, the second par-5 hole on the course, moved Thomas back to 2 under for the tournament.

On Thursday, Thomas played the back nine in 1-under par.

But the first-round playing conditions were much nicer than what Thomas and the other competitors will face on Saturday morning, with temperatures in the low 50s and a 60 percent chance of rain. By Saturday afternoon, the temperature in Augusta, Georgia, will be in the 40s and the possibility of rain will have grown to 80 percent.

The Masters ran into weather problems on Friday even though tee times were moved up 30 minutes.

The second round had two weather delays, with the second one occurring at 4:22 EDT after pine trees toppled onto the course at No. 17

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Playing in Thomas’ group, Jon Rahm has the lowest score among the players who didn’t complete their second rounds. He’s in second place at 9 under.

Two other players in the leaderboard’s top 10 did not complete their second rounds on Friday – Viktor Hovland at 6 under and Cameron Young at 5 under.

Golfers are scheduled to return to the course to complete their second rounds at 8 a.m. EDT Saturday. When all golfers have finished that round, the cut will be executed and third-round pairings set.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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