Cut chops many big names, but not streaking Couples

Even at 8-over 252, the third-highest in Masters history, the cut sliced a big slab of big stars right out of this 71st edition. Surviving for a record-tying 23rd straight time, however, was Augusta National's ultimate weekend warrior, Fred Couples.

By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Despite throbbing pain in his back and rust on his golf game, Fred Couples continues to show that he can find a way to perform at Augusta National Golf Club.

"I can almost play this golf course blindfolded," Couples said Friday after gutting out a 4-over-par 76 and making the cut for a record-tying 23rd consecutive attempt. Gary Player also made 23 straight cuts at Augusta. "I can get it around, and that's what I did yesterday and today."

The 1992 Masters champion and runner-up to Phil Mickelson a year ago, Couples posted an 8-over-par 152 aggregate total, which was tied for 46th place. The low 44 and ties make the cut as well as anyone within 10 shots of the lead, a rule that allowed 15 extra players to qualify for the weekend. Among those included 2007 TOUR winners Charles Howell III and Adam Scott, 1979 Masters champion Fuzzy Zoeller, former U.S. Open champ Retief Goosen, and former PGA Championship winner Rich Beem, who followed a 71 with an 81 Friday to eke out a Saturday tee time.

Sixty of the 96 contestants return for two more rounds on a Masters layout that is exacting a heavy toll. The cut score of 152 was the third-highest in Masters history and the highest since 1982, when 154 earned another 36 holes of play.

Couples, 47, who has played on two rounds of golf this year (at the FBR Open) because of leg and back injuries, said he wouldn't have attempted to play this week were it not the Masters, his favorite tournament. He knew he risked having the cut streak broken, and after he started the back nine with two bogeys and a double bogey at the 12th, his hopes looked dismal, especially with his back aching.

But he birdied the 13th and made pars on each of the last five holes to stay alive. At the last he got up and down from behind the green from 15 feet.

"The cut ... I'd have rather missed it five years ago and won last year," he said. "But to make it is great because I certainly had no vision of making it. I've played two rounds of golf this year and I'm not very competitive."

Couples wasn't the only one who battled down the stretch. Defending champion Phil Mickelson slipped to 7 over par for the tournament until a late rally that included birdies at 13 and 15, ignited a back-nine 35 and 73. He stood seven shots back at 5-over 149.

Aaron Baddeley, who was tabbed as one of the favorites at the outset of the week, birdied the last two holes to shoot even-par 72 and come in at 7 over par. Two-time Masters champion Tom Watson careened in the other direction, bogeying 17 and then taking five strokes around the 18th green, including three putts, for a triple bogey and 78 that dropped him to 9 over par, one off the mark.

Colin Montgomerie, who tied for second in last year's U.S. Open, bogeyed 18 and also fell a stroke shy of weekend, while Chad Campbell, who was third in last year's Masters, double-bogeyed the home hole for a 77-154, two off the line. Former British Open champ Todd Hamilton did likewise in an 80 that also put him at 154.

Other notable players sent packing included Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els and Chris DiMarco. All five amateurs in the field also missed the cut. U.S. Amateur runner-up posted the lowest 36-hole total among them with 77-154.

Ernie Els (78-76) missed the cut by two shots and saw his current PGA TOUR consecutive-cut streak come to an end. The two-time U.S. Open champion had made 46 straight cuts, dating back to the 2004 Bay Hill Invitational. Jim Furyk is now the current cut streak leader with 20 in a row (including this week).

Els also ended a streak of 27 consecutive cuts made in major championships. The last time he missed a cut in a major was at the 1999 PGA Championship.

Experience is usually listed as an asset at Augusta, and that may have contributed to the likes of Champions Tour players Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw, both 55 years old, making the cut.

Despite bogeys on four of the last five holes, Crenshaw, a two-time Masters winner, made the cut for the second straight year following early exits the previous eight. He posted 74-150.

Meanwhile, Craig Stadler, 53, the 1984 winner, added a 73 to his first-round 74 and was tied for 15th place at 147 with four-time champion Tiger Woods, among others.

Zoeller's 78 left him at 152, and he thought he was on the outside looking in for the ninth year in a row. Instead, after waiting around all day, it proved just good enough.

Asked about the prospect of playing two more rounds at Augusta, Zoeller offered a short reply.

"Scary," he said.