RUSSELL KNOX was left ruing two poor drives the two days of his maiden Masters when he paid a heavy price, missing the cut in his first appearance at Augusta.
Knox went into the second day after recording an opening seven over par 79 and the round was ruined when he took a triple bogey seven at the last.
The Scot courageously set about the task of clawing his way inside the top 50, and the assurance of teeing-up over the weekend, when he birdied the second.
Knox then pared the next seven holes before dropping a shot at the downhill 10th ahead of the second major mishap of his week in taking a triple bogey seven at the par four 11th hole.
“I just wanted to jump into the lake there around the green at 11, as that is the second of just two shots that I have really paid a big price this week,” he said.
However, while others would have folded, Knox tapped into those qualities that earned him last October’s WGC – HSBC Champions event with three birdies in succession from the 13th, and none better than at the par five 13th named ‘Azalea’.
His drive clipped a tree on the dog-leg falling short of crossing Rae’s Creek that runs mainly down the left side of the fairway from where Knox picked out a five-foot wide gap in the trees.
Knox was on target playing a 7-iron back onto the fairway from where he found the green and holed the seven-foot putt for birdie.
At the par four, 14th Knox sent a laser-like 9-iron second shot to three feet and holed the putt while at the par five 15th he two-putted from 30-feet for his third birdie in row.
He then ended with three straight pars in a round of 73 for an eight over par, and nearing day's end Knox was lying in the mid 60s and three shots of being inside the top-50.
“It was nice to make those three birdies in a row today but I wasn’t driving the ball the way I wanted to,” he said.
“But it was just good to get it going, and I don’t know what the cut is going to be and I still had a chance with a couple more birdies, so I was definitely grounding my butt off.
"And I said to Brad my caddy, that you take those bad drives, the one at 18 yesterday and the drive at 11 today, and it’s been a great week on the golf course.
“They are mistakes I don’t normally make and I shouldn’t make so there again it’s very disappointing.
“The thing is I played a lot of decent stuff over the two days.”
Knox is due next to tee-up in Thursday’s starting RBC Heritage at Hilton Head in South Carolina.
And given his current lofty FedEx Cup standing he should be assured of automatically qualifying later this year for a second Masters in a year’s time.
“I am going to have to start playing better but then I’m off to a great start in the FedEx Cup and I just have to find a way to keep going,” he said.
“So it’s off to Hilton Head and that’s s my favourite tournament of the year.
“But having first watched the Masters on TV and to be here now to experience the whole thing like the first couple of holes today, as the spectators were just lined-up down the fairways and that never happens in a regular tour event at 9.30.
“The whole experience has just been great and I’ve just loved every second of it.
“Except for two holes!”
And two holes on day two saw Sandy Lyle end his 35th Masters with a disappointing 81 in a 36-hole 13-over par.
Lyle went into the second round at four over par but slumped under the weight of four bogeys, a fourth hole double bogey and a ninth hole triple where his approach shot from 20 yards rolled twice back down the slope to near his feet.
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