Masters shock: DeChambeau out

Bryson DeChambeau stood on the 18th tee Friday at 3 over par, needing only a bogey to survive into the weekend at Augusta National, and he walked off with a triple bogey that dropped him to 6 over and out of the Masters by two shots. The Masters sends only the top 50 players and ties to Saturday and Sunday, and this year that line settled at 4 over par after two rounds. DeChambeau finished at 150 strokes through 36 holes, while the last players to advance were at 148. The collapse was brutal because DeChambeau had just played himself back into position. Yahoo’s round recap said a late birdie on the 17th moved him to the safe side of the line before everything unraveled one hole later. His first tee shot on 18 went under the magnolia tree to the right of the fairway, which turned a simple closing hole into a scramble for survival. CBS Sports noted that the triple on 18 was his second triple bogey of the week after another one Thursday at the 11th. That is the part that makes this feel so different from a normal missed cut: DeChambeau was not drifting around the edge all week. He won his final two LIV Golf events before Augusta and arrived as one of the players people were watching near the top of the board. A year ago, he was in the final pairing on Sunday with Rory McIlroy, which means he started the last round one group away from the green jacket. Yahoo and ESPN both place last year’s Masters run at a tie for fifth, so this week’s exit is a sharp swing from contender to spectator in 12 months. The leaderboard makes the contrast even harsher because McIlroy is the 36-hole leader at 12 under, while DeChambeau is already gone. On the same course, in the same tournament, one player is six shots clear of par in the wrong direction and the other is twelve shots clear in the right one. DeChambeau has now missed his first Masters cut since 2023, according to Yahoo’s tournament coverage. At Augusta, where one swing can erase two days of work, his week ended on the final hole with the smallest margin possible between “playing on” and “packing up.”