Lyle, Lawrie make Masters cut as teen Guan is penalised for slow play

In his 32nd appearance, the 1988 champion made sure that his campaign wouldn’t come to a premature end with a steady level-par 72 for a 145 as he made the cut for the first time since 2009.

On that occasion, Lyle ploughed on to finish in a tie for 20th – his best result here since he won the green jacket – and the 55-year-old will be hoping it’s a case of onwards and upwards this weekend.

“Any time you make the cut at Augusta, you have to be very happy,” said the former Open champion. “That’s what I came out here to do.”

Last year, Lyle endured a torrid time of it and exited Magnolia Lane with rounds of 86 and 78. This latest display has kept the morale up.

“If you’re shooting 78s and 80s then you re-think what’s going on,” he added. “At the moment I feel good though, I still have two or three good years left. I’ll keep going for maybe four or five years max. This course is hard on the old body.”

There were encouraging signs too for Lyle’s fellow Scot, Paul Lawrie. It wasn’t greeted with the same punch of triumph that followed his memorable chip-in during last September’s Ryder Cup, but a dink from off the green at least gave Lawrie something to build on as he mounted a Masters salvage operation.

The 44-year-old, who holed a memorable effort against Brandt Snedeker to bolster the European singles surge at Medinah, was up to his old tricks at Augusta National yesterday as he got his second round up and running.

Hampered by his driving, Lawrie, making his seventh appearance in the first major on the golfing calendar, had slipped to an opening round of 76 which left the 1999 Open champion on the back foot. He needed something special if he was to haul himself up the standings and it quickly arrived on the very first hole of his second round when he found the cup with a chip of some 20 yards.

Lawrie, among the early starters on a day that started dull, breezy and featured a brief downpour before the sun burst through, went on to post a battling two-under 70 which lifted him inside the safety zone of the cut with a two-over 146.

“I thought I got the driver back on the range but it was still pretty poor today,” said Lawrie who was sharing eighth place after 36-holes of the 2012 tournament. “Overall, though, this round was a much better performance. In round one, I played gutsy and I stuck in there to be fair. It could have easily been more than four-over.”

Martin Laird, who claimed his third PGA Tour title last Sunday in Texas, was another member of the small tartan army that was out on the early patrol but a one-over 73 for a 149 was not what he was looking for and he missed the cut by a shot.

Giving the whirlwind nature of his build up – he only got into the field at the last minute following that weekend win – Laird was remaining upbeat.

“I'm obviously disappointed in how I played this week, but I'm definitely not going to let this week put any damper on last week,” he said. “I was in a bad mood the other night after round one. My wife and I looked at each other and kind of said ‘wait a minute, I won last week, that's not a reason to be in a bad mood.’ We still have to celebrate that.”

The only person not in a rush to crown him the future king of golf.is Guan Tianlang himself. Amid all the plaudits that have been piling up like a great wall for this Chinese 14-year-old, the youngest competitor in Masters history is certainly not the quickest player you’ll ever see.

Mind you, in a professional game that’s about as fast as long-term coastal erosion, he should fit in nicely when he makes the transition from the amateur ranks.

This week’s Masters has been a great lesson for this highly talented teenager but he learned a big one yesterday. Guan was handed a one stroke penalty for a violation of the tournament’s pace of play policy.

Guan’s group, which included Ben Crenshaw and Matteo Manassero, was deemed out of position on the tenth hole and Guan began to be timed on the 12th before receiving a warning on the 13th hole from the no nonsense English official, John Paramor. In keeping with the rules, he was penalised following his second shot on the 17th hole when he again exceeded the 40 second time limit.

This was not what the Masters top brass would have wanted. In tandem with the Royal & Ancient, they championed the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship, the event Guan won to secure his place in this week’s event.

“This isn't going to end up pretty, I don't think,” lamented Crenshaw, the veteran two-time Masters winner. “I'm sick, I'm sick for him. He's 14 years old.”

Paramor had little sympathy. The rules are the rules after all. “I feel like that in those situations any time they happen, that's my job, that is what I do, “ he said.

Manassero, who can fairly lick round a golf course and was, at 16, the youngest player to play in the Masters until Guan came along, hoped the palaver would at least leave a lasting impression.

“We all feel sorry, but this is the way professional golf goes,” he said. “By the time he comes here, he's going to be ready and he's going to have fixed that particular thing. This will end up being a great experience for him.”

In the end, it was alright on the night as Guan squeezed into the closing 36-holes with nothing to spare. It was nervy old affair, though. The newly adopted 10-shot rule for deciding the cut meant that he was biting his fingers right until the bitter end.

Jason Day, the Australian who tied second in the 2011 Masters, became the man who could create quite a stooshie having moved to the six-under mark through 16 holes. If the 25-year-old could have gained another stroke coming home he would have knocked all those on 148 out.

Day missed a birdie opportunity on 17, however, and thundered his tee-shot into the fairway bunker on 18 before settling for a par, a four-under 68 and the halfway lead on a six-under 138. A major worldwide incident had been avoided but the inquest will rumble on.

Slow play remains a huge problem for the game at all levels from the snail-like tendencies of the professionals at the top to the rank and file club golfer hacking away in the foothills.

The Royal & Ancient, the European Tour and the women’s LPGA Tour have all dished out punishments over the past year or so but officials of the PGA Tour continue to drag their heels. It’s been almost two decades since a player on the US circuit – Glen Day in the 1995 Honda Classic – has been hit with such a penalty.

The Guan chapter overshadowed what had been an eventful second day in Georgia in which tougher pin placements and less favourable conditions added a new layer of menace and intrigue to proceedings. Day may have seized the summit but it was one of the older swingers in town who thrilled the masses.

Fred Couples, who slipped into the green jacket back in 1992, reaffirmed his affinity for this tournament with a one-under 71 which hoisted him into an eventual share of second with another Aussie, Marc Leishman, on a five-under 139.

It’s now 21 year since Couples won the Masters but his casual demeanour and the trademark swing of the a man they call ‘Boom Boom’ has endeared him to the loyal band of followers on the other side of the ropes. It certainly helps matters when he can approach a round at Augusta with the kind of carefree abandon that you’d tend to adopt when enjoying a batter about with your pals at the local municipal.

This is Couples’ 29th appearance in the season’s opening major and, since he turned 50 three years ago he seems to have enjoyed a new lease of sporting life. Augusta has always been something of a happy hunting ground for the 15-time PGA Tour champion and, like the azaleas that light up this neck of the woods, Couples continues to bloom at this time of year. He was sixth in 2010, after a sparkling first round of 66, shared 15th the following year and tied for 12th in 2012. After a double bogey on his front nine, he finished with a flourish yesterday, draining a putt on the 18th green that whipped the Masters patrons into a frenzy as the roars rang round the amphitheatre.

Given his recent record in these parts – he led after 36 holes a year ago – most folk were probably not too surprised to see him at the sharp end of affairs again. Couples, himself, was though.

"I'm surprised at where I am on the leaderboard, but I'm not going to freak out over it," said the former Ryder Cup stalwart and Presidents Cup captain. "I said the other day before this that I’ve been playing really horribly. I shot 78 (in practice) and someone came up and said ‘you can win at Augusta’ and I said ‘no way. The last two days, I've driven the ball nicely. So it seems like the same old course to me.

"So, am I good enough to play four rounds in a row on a course like this? It didn't happen last year. But I'd like to have another run at a victory and hopefully tomorrow, I'll play well, and I'll have a shot at Sunday.”

Like Couples, Angel Cabrera, the big, ambling Argentinean, revels in this particular golfing arena and is a past master at emerging from the under the radar.

The 43-year-old from Cordoba, who warmed up for this week’s gathering with a solid share of 16th in the Houston Open a fortnight ago, beat Kenny Perry to the green jacket in 2009 and was runner-up to Charl Schwartzel in 2011. When he landed the famous old blazer he was No. 69 on the world rankings, the lowest ranked player to win, and could eclipse that feat given that he sits down in 269th these days. The man known as ‘El Pato’ – the duck – waddled back into the limelight with a stunning late surge which included four birdies over his final five holes in a 69 for 140

“For me, Augusta is never easy," Cabrera said in his broken English. "Never, ever easy. The big difference was that (during) the back nine, I was hitting it very well off the tee, leaving my second shots close, and I was able to make some birdies."

Tiger Woods, the world No 1 and four-time Masters champion, was motoring along at three-under through nine but the momentum was halted when his approach to the 15th clattered the flagstick and bounced back into the water. Woods took a bogey there and then three-putted the last to leak another shot in a 71 which left him in a share of seventh on 141.

Rory McIlroy moved his artillery into position for a weekend strike with a 70 for a 142 while former champion Bernhard Langer struck an another blow for the old guard with a 71 for his 142 tally.

Sergio Garcia, the joint overnight leader, slithered back with a damaging 76 for his four-under total while Bubba Watson survived the cut on the absolute limit after a 73. The defending champion was set to play with a marker as the first man off in round three this morning.